Symbolism, Setting, and Objects from St. Anselm: Basic Writings

Object Descriptions

This section provides a short description of all the major objects in the book. This can be printed out as a study guide for students, used as a "key" for leading a class discussion, or you can jump to the quiz/homework section to find worksheets that incorporate these descriptions into a variety of question formats.

Objects

The Forms - These are hard to describe and are the most pure representations of our concepts but are embodied in the world independently of human thought.

Conceivable Ideas - These are what humans are capable of imagining. They play a foundational role in Anselm's ontological argument and in his response to Gaunilo.

Substance - This is any entity that can exist of its own.

Accident - This is a contingent property of a substance: brownness, goodness, and pleasantness are all one of these.

Existence - This is both a place and an...
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