02221cam a2200289 a 4500 4559201 AU-EpEBC 20120419152250.0 080422s2008 nyuabf b 001 0 eng GBA866503 bnb 014614824 Uk 9780977743360 (hbk.) 0977743365 (hbk.) OCoLC eng OCoLC NEMB 212.1/WIT EW Witham, Larry, 1952- The proof of God : the debate that shaped modern belief / Larry Witham. New York : Atlas : Distributed to the trade by W.W. Norton, c2008. 217 p., [16] p. of plates ; illus. (some col.), map ; hbk ; 16 cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. [199]-209) and index. Anselm, Ockham, and Descartes: three thinkers locked in one of Western philosophy's greatest debates. In 1078, Anselm of Bec wrote the most famous proof in Western religious tradition--what we know now as the "ontological argument" for God's existence. Stating that the "idea" and "reality" of God were the same, Anselm provoked enormous controversy through a radical approach: rather than appealing to the Bible, church authority, or the physical senses, he employed the faculties of his mind, crafting a method of logic that paved the way for modern thought. Larry Witham traces our modern-day conceptions of faith and reason back to Anselm's formidable claim. In attempting to "prove God," Anselm unleashed a medieval debate that culminated in William of Ockham, whose notorious "razor" denied all such proofs, limiting knowledge to "things" only. Scrupulously managing fact and theory, Witham tells the story of this intellectual quest across the Middle Ages and how it inspired the West's "first modern philosopher," Rene Descartes. By turns history, biography, and philosophical inquiry, The Proof of God follows one of the seminal arguments of Western belief from its inception to the present. - Publisher Anselm, Saint, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1033-1109 Criticism and interpretation. God Proof History of doctrines. Religion Philosophy History. ddc 12437 12437 0 0 ddc 0 0 210 Philosophy of religion MAIN MAIN OS 2012-03-17 Koorong 3.96 0 212.1/WIT 09677 2014-11-21 00:00:00 1 50.00 2012-03-17 AM