The Argument from Necessary Existence

St Anselm of Canterbury

Proslogion

The Argument from Necessary Existence, card face

DemonstrativeConcludes that something exists.

Argument form

Modus tollens (if non-existence could be thought, a greater could be thought; P1 forbids this)

Concludes to

God as such (that than which nothing greater can be thought, which cannot fail to exist)

Premise ground

Conceptual (a being whose non-existence cannot be thought is greater than one whose can)

Modal strength

Necessary (cannot fail to exist)

What it licenses

maximal perfection (nothing greater thinkable)
necessary

Period

Medieval (1077–78)

Tradition

Augustinian (Anselmian)

Further reading

Source text, public domain
Proslogionpatrologiaecurs55unkngoog.pdf
A scholarly account
Read an exposition of the argument
A principal objection
Read the objection in full
Further reading
Norman Malcolm, 'Anselm's Ontological Arguments' (1960), revived the genre by finding a second argument in Proslogion III. The card is composed from Anselm, not from Malcolm's modal reconstruction.

This formulation is ours, composed from the primary source and compressed to fit the card; the argument admits of other statements. Objections have been made to every argument in the deck; where one is linked above, it is chosen by us, not written by us.

ergocards.com/necessary-existence

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