Abstract

My thesis is that if thought is to bring the thinker toward an understanding of what is, it must move beyond the analysis of arguments, beyond even asking questions, to address itself directly to what is. My method is an interpretation of Anselm's Proslogion. ;I begin with Anselm's general conception of thinking, that it is a "saying in the heart." I follow Anselm as he takes up the possibility that insight can be reached by one form of thinking: the analysis of a statement. Through the first half of the Proslogion, Anselm shows that the analysis of a particular way of stating what he believes enables him to show how that statement implies all his various beliefs about divine substance. He also discovers, however, that it does not enable him to see what he desires to see--namely, God as he experiences God. ;This discovery, however, also suggests to him another way to think, the way of "coniectatio," or celebration. Celebration is a thinking by which Anselm aims to look at God by casting his attention away from himself and all created things and toward the good that created them. ;When Anselm discovers that this thinking, too, falls short, he tries one more way: prayer. Prayer, too, is a "saying in the heart." Unlike analysis or celebration, it is directed towards its object. Insofar as it is directed speech, prayer begins oriented towards God. More than the other two forms of thinking, Anselm's prayer reflects and responds to the experience of God that moves the work. In it, God is present as the one to whom it is addressed, and Anselm understands that he is as close to that vision as he can be