Intellectual History, Weekly Assignment 12
Start date: 02/20/2007
Tuesday, 2/20
Discuss in class: Our history timeline, topics for the final thesis project, and Anselm’s Proslogion. (You should have received your Anselm books and read the first half of Proslogion.) Anselm’s “Ontological Proof” of the existence of God has puzzled philosophers ever since he discovered it.
Descartes uses a similar proof to start a new school of modern philosophy, but in a very different way, since Anselm starts with faith (“faith seeking understanding”) and Descartes uses a process called “radical doubt”. Anselm is therefore both a predecessor and an opponent to Descartes.
Your thesis topic must show a theme from the Great Conversation, comparing and contrasting what some of the great thinkers have said about that theme. Although your own opinion has some importance to help shape the paper, you must use quotations to clearly show the positions of several of our thinkers. Again, a good thesis will both compare and contrast multiple points of view. The thesis will be 10-15 pages double spaced, or about the amount that you can read out loud in 10 minutes. The rough draft will be due in the second half of April, 2007. We will expect you make corrections, and present your thesis to an audience at the end of the term.
Possible thesis topics include: The nature of the city (Plato, Benedict, Dante, etc.), human free will (e.g., Augustine, Boethius, Koran, Dante), what is evil or why does it exist (Plato, Athanasius, Boethius, Dante), the relation between faith and reason (Plato, Anselm, Aquinas, Dante), or anything else that comes up in class to catch your interest. You may also use secondary sources like Stark or Chesterton. As we will soon discuss, you will pre-approve your thesis topic with your teachers.
Wednesday, 2/21 (Ash Wednesday: Lent Begins)
Finish the whole Proslogion from pages 238-267 of Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm. Read with extreme care, because this writing is both spiritually powerful and intellectually subtle. After reading Anselm, give yourself a chance to think over his points. Go back and re-read, to make sure you read him right the first time. (Many of us don’t.).
Be ready to discuss all of it in class on Thursday, but be sure to re-read chapters 1-7 (which are the first 11 pages). Read and re-read slowly and carefully. It is a short assignment, but very deep. You will be asked in class to rephrase some of his arguments.
□ Writing Assignment: “Anselm’s Answers.” (Start today; must be complete online by the end of Saturday 2/24).
Choose four of the following quote ensembles from Anselm’s Proslogion. Summarize or paraphrase Anselm’s intention or argument at that point. Comment on the argument’s validity, or its applicability to people today.
Note: The parenthesized numbers in the text (like l. 140) are line numbers, and the roman numerals are chapter numbers. You can find an online copy of the Proslogion (in a rougher translation) here:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anselm-proslogium.html
a. “Let me seek you by desiring you, and desire you by seeking you (l. 140).... I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe so that I may understand (l. 155).” (i, p. 243-44)
b. “That than which nothing greater can be thought cannot exist only in the understanding (l. 177)... It is not possible to think of you as not existing (l. 198)... No one who truly understands that which God is, can think that God does not exist (l. 220).” (ii-iii, p. 245-46)
c. “Although you do not have a body, you perceive in the highest way (l. 252)... We experience the effect of your compassion, but you do not experience the emotion (l. 295).” (vi,viii, p. 247,249)
d. “You cannot do anything through powerlessness (l. 282).” (vii, p. 248)
e. “Better is he who is good to the wicked by both punishing and sparing them (l. 315)... It is just that you should spare the wicked and make good out of bad (l. 376).” (ix, p. 250,252)
f. “The only thing that is just, is what you will (l. 415)... Whatever you are, you are in your self... you are...the goodness by which you are good (l. 431)...” (xi-xii, p. 253-54)
g. “No parts therefore are in you, Lord (l. 592)... Life, wisdom and the rest ... are one and wholly what you are (l. 598)” (xviii, p. 259-60)
h. “Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, you simply are... You exist directly right outside time (l. 615)... You fill and enfold all things, you are before and beyond all things (l. 619).” (xix-xx, p. 260)
i. “In the word which you yourself utter, there can be nothing other than yourself (l. 661)... This love is nothing less than you and your Son (l. 667).” (xxiii, p. 262)
j. “If life that is created is good, how good must the life of the Creator be? (l. 684)... Love that one good in which are all goods, and it suffices (l. 697)... If it is friendship that delights you, they will love God more than themselves, and each other as themselves (l. 716)... If it is power you want, their wills will be all powerful just like God’s will (l. 723)... They will rejoice as much as they love, and they will love as much as they know (l. 784).” (xxiv-xxvi, p. 263-64,266)
You are likely to encounter all those proverbs (as well as others from Benedict and Boethius) as identification problems on a midterm about four weeks from now. Here are some other sayings from the Proslogion which you should also be able to recognize:
“That which I had despaired of finding came to me.” (Preface, p. 238)
“Come now, little man, turn aside for a while from your daily employment.” (i, p. 239)
“He has lost the blessedness for which he was made.” (i, p. 241)
“I was going towards God, and I was my own impediment.” (i, p. 242)
“If my soul has found you, why has it no experience of you?” (xiv, p. 255)
“Meanwhile, let my mind meditate on it... and my whole being desire it, until I enter in.” (p. 267)
Thursday, 2/22
Discuss Anselm’s Proslogion in class. Bring questions about the writing assignment.
A reading assignment will be handed out from Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity.
Please be sure you have ordered the following books; we will begin with the Aquinas reading in about a week:
http://amazon.com/gp/product/0898704383 Aquinas/Kreeft, Shorter Summa
http://amazon.com/gp/product/0812970063 Dante/Esolen, Inferno
http://amazon.com/gp/product/0812971256 Dante/Esolen, Purgatory
http://amazon.com/gp/product/0812977262 Dante/Esolen, Paradise
Friday & Monday, 2/23 – 2/26
Carefully re-read Anselm’s Proslogion, chapters 8-18 (249-260). The simplicity of God is a deep matter.
Read Anselm’s poems to Christ (pp. 93-99) and to Benedict (pp. 196-200). Remember that Anselm is a monk who owes much to Benedict’s pioneering Rule. How might you prove, just from the text, that the same man wrote both the prayers and the Proslogion? Who (of the other thinkers we have read) is most like Anselm in his tone and style of writing, and who is most unlike? Why?
□ Additional Reading Assignments:
• Anselm, editor’s preface, pages 17-20 (only these pages)
• Rodney Stark, selections from The Rise of Christianity
• book of Daniel, chapter 8
□ Writing Assignment: “An Outline of Consolation.” Write a very brief outline of the Consolation of Philosophy. Number each book I, II, III, IV, V, and give it a suitable tag or title, with a few words of explanation. Under each book, outline the argument of the book, using a few sub-points, A, B, C, etc. Again, give the sub-points suitable titles and a few words of explanation. You may break into finer points (A.1, etc.) but do not let the project grow beyond a half page or so.
This writing assignment is due before class begins on Tuesday. We will compare notes in class.