This article is concerned with how we can know about the existence of God. In attempting to do this, the article will single out two medieval thinkers, Anselm and Aquinas, and will examine their stances on the subject. The former holds, as exemplified in his ontological proof, that human beings can rationally know the existence of God, whilst the latter objects to the former's claim by proffering that human beings can know God's existence through effects of God's creation. Over the years these positions have appealed to people who defend either strand of the argument. Such a followership makes worthwhile my efforts to contribute to the ongoing debate. It is my intention to show the argument of each of these positions and indicate which is more plausible to human beings. It is vital to note that Anselm and Aquinas both accept the existence of God; therefore, the existence of God is not in question for them. The article will only concentrate on where the two thinkers differ in terms of how human beings can know God's existence.
In the first section, the article will set the scene by putting Pseudo-Dionysius and his conception of the negative way as one of the attempts to offer the conception of God that is proper to human nature. The second section will engage with Anselm's ontological proof of the existence of God. It should be noted in this section the assumption that human beings can know and prove God's existence from the concept – God, is upheld. The third section will present Aquinas in contrast to Anselm. Aquinas's realism is pronounced in asserting that human beings cannot know God's existence unaided by sensible realities. This article acknowledges that there are diverse epistemological positions that contrast to Aquinas's position; however, they are beyond the scope of this article. The crux of the article is that human knowing about God's existence proceeds from experience of realities to the idea, and not vice versa (Stumpf
Ever since the ancient and medieval epochs of philosophy there have been debates amongst philosophers and theologians concerning the existence of, and attributes that should be ascribed to, God. This is particularly difficult as human knowledge emanates from experience,
Aquinas avers that God in self is supremely knowable. Though, what is supremely knowable in itself may not be knowable to a particular intellect such as human beings. For instance, God who is completely self-comprehensive is only partially comprehensible to human beings. It does not follow that God cannot be known at all, but that God exceeds every kind of knowledge, which means that God is not comprehended (S.T.1.Q.12. A.1). Human beings only know God partially because the knowledge of God's existence is beyond their grasp; thus, it is impossible that created human beings should comprehend God (S.T.Q.12. A.7.).
The difficulty was a concern for generations of neo-Platonists that nothing should be predicated of the supremely divine which might not, in any way, circumscribe the divine existence. This suggests that God is placed even beyond being, or at least ‘declaring that to say that God is, is not to say of God anything which tells us what God is’ (Evans
The concept
However, attention must be given to the inroads he made by postulating
No words can describe it, and it is of a kind that neither intelligence nor speech can lay hold of it, nor can it at all be contemplated since it surpasses everything and is wholly beyond our capacity to know it. (592d–593a)
For this reason, Pseudo-Dionysius (
Pseudo-Dionysius (
We should posit and ascribe to the Supreme Being all the affirmations we make in regard to beings, and, more appropriately, we should negate all these affirmations, since the Supreme Being surpasses all being. (1000b)
However, he warns that we should not mistake the negations simply as opposites of the affirmations because the cause is prior and beyond every denial and assertion (Pseudo-Dionysius
Pseudo-Dionysius is aware that human beings unavoidably develop anthropomorphic conceptions of God, and for this reason he undertakes to remove from God all that can be predicated of creatures. This seemingly ingrained character in human beings is called anthropomorphism.
There is no speaking of it, no name, no knowledge of it. We make assertions and denials of what is next to it, but never of it, for He is both beyond every assertion and denial. (p. 1048b)
Anselm (1033–1109) was born in Aosta in northern Italy. The archbishop of Canterbury is mainly remembered for his proof of God's existence in the
In this argument, Anselm (
We believe that ‘You’
Anselm (
Gaunilo was the first to identify the flaws in the
Could I not say that all kinds of unreal things, not existing in themselves in any way at all, are equally in the mind since, if anyone speaks about them, I understand whatever is said. (Anselm
When this object had been spoken of and heard, it could not be thought not to exist in the same way in which God cannot be thought not to exist. Gaunilo asks why Anselm puts forward this whole argument against anyone denying or doubting the existence of God if God's existence is undeniable (Anselm
Taking a cue from Augustine, Gaunilo suggests that the example of the painter having the picture he is about to make already in his mind does not support the
Gaunilo's parallel argument reads as follows: there is a perfect island in an ocean – it is a nonexisting reality which can be imagined in the mind. The perfect island has priceless pearls in abundance. Rumour has it that its richness surpasses the other lands which human beings inhabit. What is said of the perfect island is easily understood. But one cannot go on to say: you cannot doubt that this island, that is more excellent than all other lands, truly exists somewhere in reality than you can doubt that it is in your mind. This is because it is more excellent to exist not only as an idea alone but also in reality. Thus, this island exists in reality as well as in the mind if the
Anselm responds to Gaunilo's objections by contending that, if the reality in question can be thought of, it necessarily exists. For ‘that than which a greater cannot be thought’ cannot be thought save as being without a beginning. But whatever can be thought as existing and does not actually exist cannot be thought as not having a beginning of its existence. Consequently, ‘that than which a greater cannot be thought’ cannot be thought as existing and yet not actually exist (Anselm
There are other notable classical objections to ontological argument from Emmanuel Kant and David Hume. Kant (Mautner
The supporters of theological character of ontological argument hold that Anselm's argument has nothing whatsoever to do with a proof of God. They see the
Barth (
[…] proof for the existence of God is itself a rational knowledge which is not aware of its truth except within the understanding of the theologian and within the framework of a theology. (Bouillard
Therefore, the
However, philosophers such as Etienne Gilson and Pieper insist that the ontological argument has philosophical character and should be evaluated as philosophical attempt to prove the existence of God. This is partly informed by the observation that Anselm did not feel that he had been misunderstood when Gaunilo took the
Pieper identifies Anselm as one of the medieval philosophical and theological thinkers who remained untouched by Pseudo-Dionysius's negative way (Pieper
According to Aquinas, there are two kinds of intellect: angelic and human. The latter abstracts the intelligible form from the sensible objects it perceives. The faculty of understanding is proportioned to the reality known. The proper object of the human intellect is the natures of visible things by which it arrives at some knowledge of things invisible (ST.1.84. A.7).
However, considering that human intellect is rooted in corporeal matter – the body – it follows logically that it knows only what has a form in matter. Due to our corporeality, our natural knowledge begins from the senses. Thus our knowledge can proceed as far as it is led by sensible things. Meanwhile, the human intellect which is united to the body cannot be led by sense so far as to grasp God's existence. This is because the sensible effects of God do not equal the power of God as their cause. Hence, through the knowledge of sensible things, the power of God cannot be known; nor can his existence be comprehended. But because the sensible things are his effects that depend on their cause, we can be led from them so far as to know of God, whether he exists, and to know of him what must necessarily belong to him, as the first cause of all things. The human intellect cannot comprehend God so as to know ‘what it is’; however, it can investigate ‘whether it is’ (S.T.1.Q.12. A.12.).
Anselm asserts that the existence of God is self-evident not only to God but also to every human being. It can equally be deduced that he emulated St. Augustine's view that the knowledge of God is obviously innate in every human mind (Augustine Confession
Some thinkers consider the existence of God to be self-evident by holding that, since the desire of man naturally tends towards God as man's ultimate end, the existence of God must of necessity be known of itself. (p. 58)
This consists in showing that we possess a natural knowledge of it; self-evident means that something has no need of being proved; that it is undeniable (Gilson
Descartes’ proof of God's existence is also categorised as ontological argument because its starting point is the concept of God (Mautner
Augustine, in referring to the innate Idea of God in humans, says that God instilled in each soul something that propels the soul to continually seek for the fulfilment in God (Augustine Confession
In response to the idea of the innate Idea of God, Aquinas insists that human knowledge of reality proceeds from sensible objects to intellection of the sensible experiences. In other words, there is nothing in the intellect which is not first in the senses. He denies that we possess an innate knowledge of God's existence. For him what is innate in us is not this knowledge, but only the principle which will allow us to work back to God, as first cause, by reasoning from effects (Gilson
Aquinas holds that a reality can be said to be self-evident in either of two ways: on the one hand, self-evident in itself, though not to us humans; on the other hand, self-evident because the predicate is included in the existence of the subject as ‘bachelor is an unmarried man’. However, there is no reason to hold that God's existence is self-evident to us because we do not know the subject and predicate of the proposition, ‘God exists’, is beyond the human knowing faculty (S.T.1.Q.2. A.1.).
Aquinas claims that if, however, there are some to whom the existence of the predicate and subject is unknown, the proposition will be self-evident in itself, but not to those who do not know the meaning of the predicate and subject of the proposition. In addition, it is in Aquinas's mind that ‘no one can mentally think the opposite of what is self-evident’; however, the opposite of the proposition ‘God exists’ can be mentally thought (S.T.1.Q.2. A.1.). Therefore, the proposition, ‘God exists’, is of itself self-evident, for the predicate is the same as the subject; because God is his own existence. But, we do not know the existence of God, the proposition is not self-evident to us, but can only be demonstrated by things that are known to us. Then, if God's existence is not self-evident to human beings, how do we demonstrate God's existence?
It is worthy to note that Anselm and others who subscribe to notions of the self-evident existence of God do not necessarily see the need to demonstrate the existence of God
From every effect the existence of its proper cause can be demonstrated, so long as its effects are better known to us; because since every effect depends upon its cause, if the effect exists, the cause must pre-exist. (S.T.1 Q.2. A.2.)
Hence, the existence of God, in so far as it is not self-evident to us, can be demonstrated from the effects, creatures which are known to us; though from them we cannot perfectly know God's existence (S.T.1Q.2. A.2.).
This article has attempted to contribute to the never-ending debate on how we can know about God's existence. The first section explained
The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.
That all human knowledge arises from experience means that human knowing accrues from realities which one comes across in daily living.
A belief that things within a particular sphere are unknowable; for example, the view that we cannot know whether or not God exists (Mautner 1996:7).
The author notes that there are other ways of predicating the existence of God such as by affirmation, analogy and others, but focuses only on
Pseudo-Dionysian assertion on negation is against Aristotle's insistence (on Interpretation 17a 31–33) that negations are opposites of affirmations (Pseudo-Dionysius 1987:137).
Luibheid is the editor of
It means attributing to God or other beings outside the sphere of human qualities as if they are in the category of human beings.
‘You’ in this instance refers to God.