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St. Anselm desired to have one short demonstration,
presented in Proslogion, his famous proof of the existence of God. It is
referred to as the ontological argument—a term first applied by Kant to the
arguments of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century rationalists. Anselm
defined his belief in the existence of God using the phrase "that than which
nothing greater can be conceived". He reasoned that, if "that than which
nothing greater can be conceived" existed only in the intellect, it would
not be "that than which nothing greater can be conceived", since it can be
thought to exist in reality, which is greater. It follows, according to
Anselm, that "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" must exist
in reality. The bulk of the Proslogion is taken up with Anselm's attempt to
establish the identity of "that than which nothing greater can be conceived"
as God and thus to establish that God exists in reality.
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