QUOMODO INSIPIENS DIXIT IN CORDE, QUOD COGITARI NON POTEST.
The Fool's Puzzle
Anselm probes the apparent contradiction of the fool who says in his heart what he cannot truly think, since saying in the heart and thinking seem to be the same.
But how did the one who said in the heart what it was unable to think, actually say it? Or how could it be unable to think what it said in the heart, since saying in the heart and thinking are the same thing? But if it's truly the case — or rather, because it's true that he both thought it, since he said it in his heart, and yet did not say it in his heart, because he couldn't think it through — then something is said or thought in the heart in more ways than one.
Two Ways of Thinking
A thing is thought differently when we think the word signifying it versus when we grasp the thing itself.
For a thing is thought of in one way when the word signifying it is thought, and in another way when the thing itself that is understood is grasped.
God Thought and God Understood
God can be thought not to exist in the verbal mode, but least of all in the mode of understanding the thing itself.
In that way, then, God can be thought not to be — but in this way, least of all.
The Unthinkable Non-Existence of God
No one who truly understands what God is — that than which nothing greater can be thought — can think that God does not exist, because such a being cannot even in thought be non-existent.
No one who understands what God is can think that God does not exist, even though he may say these words in his heart, either without any meaning or with some external meaning attached to them. For God is that than which nothing greater can be thought. Whoever understands well certainly understands that it is itself so, that it cannot, even in thought, be not. Therefore, whoever understands God in this way cannot think that God does not exist.
Thanksgiving for Illuminated Understanding
Anselm gives thanks that what he once believed by grace he now understands by divine illumination, so that he could not fail to understand God's existence even if he refused to believe.
Thanks be to you, good Lord—thanks be to you—because what I once believed by your gift, I now understand through your illumination: so much so that even if I were unwilling to believe you exist, I couldn't help but see it.
Read the original Latin
Verum quomodo dixit in corde quod cogitare non potuit; aut quomodo cogitare non potuit quod dixit in corde, cum idem sit dicere in corde et cogitare?
Quod si vere, immo quia vere et cogitavit quia dixit in corde, et non dixit in corde quia cogitare non potuit: non uno tantum modo dicitur aliquid in corde vel cogitatur.
Aliter enim cogitatur res cum vox eam significans cogitatur, aliter cum id ipsum quod res est intelligitur.
Illo itaque modo potest cogitari deus non esse, isto vero minime.
Nullus quippe intelligens id quod deus est, potest cogitare quia deus non est, licet haec verba dicat in corde, aut sine ulla aut cum aliqua extranea significatione. Deus enim est id quo maius cogitari non potest. Quod qui bene intelligit, utique intelligit id ipsum sic esse, ut nec cogitatione queat inon esse. Qui ergo intelligit sic esse deum, nequit eum non esse cogitare.
Gratias tibi, bone domine, gratias tibi, quia quod prius credidi te donante, iam sic intelligo te illuminante, ut si te esse nolim credere, non possim non intelligere.
Proslogion (Address / Discourse on the Existence of God) companion
One chapter of historic wisdom, every day
Chosen Portion delivers works like the Proslogion as short daily readings with a prayer — free on iOS.
Anselm designed the Proslogion to be read slowly as prayer, and the Chosen Portion app serves it exactly that way — one short portion per day.
- Finish the entire Proslogion in 14 days at about 10 minutes a day
- Modern-English rendering of all 27 chapters, no Latin required
- Each reading paired with Anselm's own prayers so study ends in worship