SOURCE: Bäck, Allan. “Existential Import in Anselm's Ontological Argument.” Franciscan Studies 41 (1981): 97-109.

In the following essay, Bäck analyzes Anselm's ontological argument in terms of traditional logic, suggesting that criticism of it can be resolved through a consideration of the Aristotelian nature of his syllogistic reasoning.

The ontological argument of Saint Anselm has attracted a great deal of attention. There has been considerable discussion of whether the argument begs the question, by assuming the existence of God in the premises of the argument. But, although the theological, Augustinian context of Anselm's argument has been dealt with, and although the argument has been extensively treated in modern logical terms, little attention has been paid to how the argument fares in terms of traditional logic. In this article I shall analyze the argument of Proslogion 2 in traditional terms. I shall then argue that to a great extent the debate...