Student Sayings: on St. Anselm...

I am so impressed with this year's essay's on St. Anselm's Proslogium (a.k.a. Faith Seeking Understanding).  Below are a few excerpts...

Sarah, Class of 2014
[This is in the middle of the essay]
     Anselm starts off with the simple idea that one can think of an all powerful being, that is most significant and nothing else can be conceived greater: "Therefore, if that, than which nothing greater can be conceived exists in the understanding alone, the very being, than which nothing greater can be conceived, is one, than which a great being can be conceived.  But obviously that is impossible."  This idea is easily recognizable as whoever has even read this sentence should conceive in his mind a single greatest being.  Whatever is thought of in the one dimensional reality of the mind is always greater in the present reality with its difference facets.  Therefore, a single greatest being thought of in the mind would have to exist in reality for it to be the greatest, as reality is greater than just the dimension of the mind. 
    Conversely, if this greatest being only existed in the mind, it could not be the greatest being because a greater being could be conceived.  If the being did not exist in reality, it would be failing to be a being of which nothing more significant can be thought of.   From this, it is concluded that a single most powerful being, God, must exist in reality, with no greater being able to be conceived above God.  Anselm embodies this by saying, "God cannot be conceived not to exist.  God is that, than which nothing greater can be conceived.  That which can be conceived not to exist is not God."  This quote demonstrates the converse of Anselm's conclusions reasonably; if a single greatest being is conceived not to exist, then it cannot be the greatest being.

Jack, Class of 2014
[This is in the middle of the essay]
      St. Anselm relies on the mind and thought to start his argument and then enters into creation.  He logically maneuvers the argument from the concept of "a being in which nothing greater can be conceived," from a concept into reality.  Since it can be conceived as a thought then in turn there needs to be a greatest being in reality.  Backtracking to the beginning, since there cannot be a thought greater than the greatest thought, essentially, there must be a greatest thought in which to cap all great thoughts.  Importantly, a great thought can only be greater if that which is thought is in reality.  Since there is a greatest being than which nothing greater can ever be conceived in thought, then there must be a greatest being in reality to truly be the greatest.  Between thinking a great thought and the thought being reality, there is a blurred and unclear connection if not read carefully.  Some think there is too much assuming between the lines of Chapter II and that nullifies the rest of the argument because if the reader cannot accept this beginning notion, then the rest of the text suffers.  The beginning of the Proslogium is critical for the rest of the dictation because if the reader can assume this notion of thought into reality then it leads the reader to other understandings of God.

Ned, Class of 2014
[This is in the middle of the essay]
      There are two distinct premises in Anselm's argument.  Firstly, it is a given that the definition of God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived.  "And, indeed, we believe that thou art a being than which nothing greater can be conceived."  The second premise is that it is self-evident that it is greater for a thing to exist in the mind and in reality than in the mind alone.  "For suppose it exists in the understanding alone: then it can be conceived to exist in reality; which is greater."  Anselm then prepares a hypothetical that God exists only in the mind but not in reality.  If this is true, then a greater being than God could be thought (namely, a being that has all the qualities our thought of God has plus real existence).  It is self-evident that the prior statement is absurd for God is that which nothing greater can be conceived.  According to Anselm, it then logically follows that God has to exist in both the mind and reality.
     I think that one of the problems in understanding this argument is that the conception of the second premise is incorrect.  I certainly misinterpreted the concept at first.  During class discussion of the topic, I thought of a hypothetical that seemed to debunk the premise.  I thought that surely imaginary diseases are "better" because they are not actually affecting someone.  However this reasoning actually ruled against me because it is true that which is actually affecting someone is in a sense better [or greater] because it exists.  Things that have being are greater than those that are imaginary.



There are many other essays to quote.  Let this suffice for now.  The students are thinking through tough texts very well and carefully and their writing has been up to the challenge as well.



Keep up the great work, students!

Chicago Trip 2014 Pictures

We had a great trip to Chicago!  See the images below on the Picassa web album.

The slide show below contains images from the Capstone Seminar Pilgrimage to Chicago (Feb., 2014).  Captions describing each image can be viewed by clicking on the text icon in the lower left corner of every image.

The purpose of this annual Pilgrimage to Chicago is to engage in an integrated, Catholic experience in the big city – an amalgamation of culture, faith, politics, art, food, architecture, history etc.!

The students’ experiences include:

• traversing the Windy City during rush-hour;
• participating in an orchestral High Mass at St. John Cantius (Saint Agnes' "sister" parish in Chicago);
• hearing a lecture from Dr. Joseph Mordente entitled "Life in the Real World" - a talk on the competing philosophies of reality and the epidemic of relativism;
• eating deep-dish pizza at Pizzeria Uno where it was invented;
• chanting Vespers with Benedictine monks downtown;
• viewing the city from atop the John Hancock skyscraper;
• meeting with a priest who is a Judge at the Tribunal for the Archdiocese of Chicago;
• attending a lecture by renowned Jesuit, Fr. Kilgallen;
• visiting the famous Art Institute of Chicago;
• enjoying authentic Greek food in Chicago's Greektown;
• Riding the "L" subway of the Chicago Transit Authority.

The images below are a window into the life of the group's four day pilgrimage to the Windy City.