Volume 19, Issue 37, April 2011
Leibniz
Alessandro Ghisalberti
Pages 271-281
Riflessioni Critiche Sulla Lezione di Maria Leonor Xavier - “A Questão do Argumento Anselmiano”
These critical reflections esteem the historical and philosophical work developed in Xavier’s lesson about the question of Anselm’s argument. However some objections may be found to the first and the third articles. Concerning the first article, Xavier’s interpretation of the relation between real existence and existence in thought is contestable. Besides, her view on the relation between essence and existence in Anselm may be approached to Alvin Plantinga’s thought about universals and abstract entities. The second article is not criticized. Contrariwise, the third article is the most contested one. The construction of an argument for the existence of an unsurmountable evil is not authorized by Anselm’s argument. Evil cannot be an unsurmountable major; it can be just an unsurpassable minor.