Anselm’s argument for the existence of God is not based on empirical evidence. At the beginning of Anselm's ar?
Anselm’s argument for the existence of God is not based on empirical evidence. At the beginning of Anselm's argument what two ideas does He claim to be irrefutable?
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In the first stage of his argument, Anselm addresses the difference between the two forms of existence: mind and reality. If the most perfect conceivable being existed only in the mind, a clear contradiction would be established since it is obviously possible to conceive of a still more perfect being--essentially, this would be the same being which was originally understood as existing only in the mind, but now it is understood as also existing in reality. This argument is found in chapter two of Anselm's Proslogion:
....if that than which a greater cannot be thought is in the understanding alone, this same thing than which a greater cannot be thought is that than which a greater can be thought. But obviously this is impossible. Without doubt, therefore, there exists, both in the understanding and in reality, something than which a greater cannot be thought (SM-Anselm: p. 74; emphases added).
In the third chapter, Anslem states his argument again; however, here he is not interested in merely the existence of God, but in the sheer necessity of God's existence. This necessity is rooted in the self-existence of God, which leads Anselm to the notion that a lack of existence is impossible for God. Since God is a being of such perfection that none more perfect can be conceived, God can never be understood as having come into existence, nor can God be thought of as ceasing to exist. To entertain such thoughts would make God contingent upon something beyond the divinity, and this is ruled out by God's nature as a being of self-existence--or, more literally, as a being dependent on none other than itself for existence. It, therefore, follows that:
.....something can be thought of as existing, which cannot be thought of as not existing, and this is greater than that which can be thought of as not existing. Thus, if that than which a greater cannot be thought can be thought of as not existing, this very thing which a greater cannot be thought is not that than which a greater cannot be thought. But this is contradictory. So, then, there is truly a being than which a greater cannot be thought--so truly that it cannot even be thought of as not existing (SM-Anselm: p. 74).