St. Anselm's Proslogion

God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived, and from that single definition Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, set out to show that God must exist. Known since Kant as the ontological argument, it has never quite gone away: Descartes, Leibniz and Hegel each took it up in their own fashion, and philosophers still argue over where, if anywhere, it goes wrong.

The great pleasure of this edition is that the quarrel comes with it. Alongside the Proslogion sit Gaunilo's A Reply on Behalf of the Fool and Anselm's answer to him, all three in Latin with English on facing pages. Professor Charlesworth's introduction places the work within the theological tradition and Anselm's wider thought. For students of philosophy and theology, and anyone who enjoys watching a brilliant idea meet its first serious objection.