Anselm’s Modal Conceptions

Abstract

Modal concepts play a central role in the works of Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109).1 The notions of necessity and possibility are particularly important in the arguments which dominate his earlier writings: the ontological proof of the existence of God and the defense of freedom of the will. Later, Anselm’s conception of necessity is a crucial component of the extensive and innovative project in rational theology in which he proposes ‘necessary reasons’ for the redemption of mankind through the Incarnation. Although many of his writings had involved modal concepts, near the end of his career Anselm acknowledged the need to provide a thorough account of his ideas about possibility and necessity, in conjunction with the concepts of capacity and freedom.2 Of course he accepted the equivalences articulated by Aristotle between ‘necessarily’ and ‘not possibly not’ and between ‘possibly’ and ‘not necessarily not’; but he was interested in investigating what further considerations determine the meaning of modal predicates.3 A late incomplete treatise, the Lambeth Fragments, represents at least a partial fulfilment of Anselm’s intention to elaborate and defend his understanding of modality.4 Scholarly studies based primarily on his other writings tend to portray Anselm’s treatment of modal concepts as unclear or inconsistent, since the evidence in these writings, though substantial, is so scattered and sketchy that a plausible guiding rationale is difficult to discern.5 This difficulty hampers attempts to understand and assess a variety of Anselm’s best-known contentions: Did he intend to argue in the Proslogion and the Reply for the necessary existence of God?6 Or did he indeed deny that God has any properties necessarily, since he asserts in the Proslogion and in Cur Deus Homo that necessity involves constraint, and thus is incompatible with divine omnipotence?7 Yet if he held that we should not impute necessity to God, what could he mean by proposing ‘necessary reasons’ for the Incarnation?