Quotation
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“The fool has said in his heart there is no God, and yet he understands what he hears.”
Anselm of Canterbury · Scholasticism · Medieval · 1077–1078
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the fool as evidence that the formula is understood even by someone who denies that God exists, so the idea is in the understanding, which is the first step of the argument. Denial is not the same as failure to grasp the words. A rival reading thinks the Psalm's insult does all the work, a rhetorical smear rather than a premise, but he needs the fool's understanding, not the fool's vice. The step is inside chapter 2, before he claims that existing in reality is greater.
Did Anselm of Canterbury really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A close English of Proslogion chapter 2, where Anselm quotes the Psalm about the fool and insists the fool understands the phrase being denied. The Latin is secure. This wording is a translation of that step, not the whole paragraph.
Where it comes from
Proslogion 2
Approximate date: 1077–1078.
How to use it
Someone at a bus stop in Oxford can understand a description of a perfect island, Gaunilo's counterexample, without believing the island exists, which is exactly the separation Anselm starts from and Gaunilo uses against him. The bus stop does not settle the argument. It shows why understanding a phrase is cheap, and why the rest of chapter 2 has to do more than point at the fool if existence is to follow.
A mindset reading
Calling a critic a fool is a habit this sentence can encourage, and the Psalm gives the habit a sacred accent. Anselm's actual use of the figure is narrower. If the critic does not understand the formula, the argument has not started; If the critic understands and still denies, the argument has to show why that position is impossible, not why the critic is wicked; Wickedness is not a refutation.
Understand the philosophy
The key term at this step is in the understanding, the claim that what is understood is in the intellect even when it is denied to exist outside it. The fool of Psalm 14 is his witness for that claim. Only afterwards does he argue that a greatest conceivable being cannot exist only there. Gaunilo, a monk, replied that understanding a form of words is not a route to existence; The Latin of chapter 2 is secure.
- knowledge
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the fool as evidence that the formula is understood even by someone who denies that God exists, so the idea is in the understanding, which is the first step of the argument. Denial is not the same as failure to grasp the words. A rival reading thinks the Psalm's insult does all the work, a rhetorical smear rather than a premise, but he needs the fool's understanding, not the fool's vice. The step is inside chapter 2, before he claims that existing in reality is greater.
Did Anselm of Canterbury really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A close English of Proslogion chapter 2, where Anselm quotes the Psalm about the fool and insists the fool understands the phrase being denied. The Latin is secure. This wording is a translation of that step, not the whole paragraph.
Which work is it in?
Proslogion 2 Approximate date: 1077–1078.