Customer Reviews

Anselm (Great Medieval Thinkers)

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Before finding this book, I had dismissed Anselm's version of the Ontological argument right along with Gaunilo. The clear presentation in this book made me see Anselm in a new (and more positive) light. Excellent work!

This new work by Visser and Williams on the famous medieval thinker Anselm of Bec is a well written and heavily detailed investigation of Anselm's primary philosophical positions. Part of Oxford's "Great Medieval Thinkers," the book is not designed to be a biography and life history of Anselm, but is rather more focused on the thinking, logic, and philosophy of Anselm as he developed his arguments for the great issues of his time. One of the real strengths of this book is that it does not just tell us what Anselm thought about a particular thing, but helps us step through the logical development and argumentation for such positions, often using math logic expressions to help operationalize the concepts. This is not a book for casual reading, that is, if you are attempting to put effort into conceptualizing the content: even for those with a background in these subjects will need time to wrestle with the content and to absorb the ideas being presented. But the book is surprisingly well written (as are most in this Oxford set), and the written clarity and textual lucidity greatly assist in working through the book. It is certainly an excellent work on which to build a primary understand of what Anselm thought about all these major issues.

The book is available in both hardback and softbound editions, and although I would normally opt for a paperback for cost reasons, I have found that for books in this Oxford set, there is real utility in having the hardback variants because of the amount of back-and-forth page turning that goes on, the need to gloss with marginal notes in pencil, and so on. And it is unfortunate that Oxford chose to release all these books is such a size-reduced package to save costs. The type is quite small, and I have found that reading glasses and excellent lighting must be used in order to clearly read the text. It's something I do not understand: these books are not inexpensive, and so why could they not have been printed in font sizes that would aid in the digestion of this complex content? But having said that, don't let that issue keep you away from the text: this is an excellent volume, and if you have an interest in the subject, this should be high on your list. An excellent set of notes and a full bibliography is also included. Five stars (except for the small-font, reduced size of the book).

Other books in the series ...
Bernard of Clairvaux (Great Medieval Thinkers)
Avicenna (Great Medieval Thinkers)
Boethius (Great Medieval Thinkers)
Peter Lombard (Great Medieval Thinkers)
Al-Kind=i (Great Medieval Thinkers)
Robert Grosseteste (Great Medieval Thinkers)
Hugh of Saint Victor (Great Medieval Thinkers)