Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/366

 presented the Proof in the following form. God is the most perfect of all existences, the substance of all reality; but if God is simply an idea, a subjective idea, then He is not the most perfect of beings, for we only regard as perfect something which we do not merely picture to ourselves by an idea, but which has in addition Being. This is perfectly correct, and it contains a presupposition which everybody has in his mind, namely, that what is merely represented in the form of a mental picture is imperfect, and that that alone is perfect which has reality as well, that that only is true which exists just as really as it is thought of. God is thus the most perfect of beings, and must therefore be as truly real and truly exist as He is conception or notion. But it is further implied in the idea, as thus understood, that the ordinary idea and the notion are different, and consequently we get the idea that what is merely pictured to the mind as an idea is imperfect, while God, again, is the most perfect of beings. Kant does not demonstrate the difference between notion or conception and Being; it is understood in a popular sense, its truth is granted, but the healthy human understanding forms pictorial ideas only in connection with imperfect things.

Anselm’s proof, as well as the form given to it in the Ontological Proof, contains the thought that God is the substance of all reality, and consequently contains Being as well. This is perfectly correct. Being is such a poor characteristic or quality that it directly attaches to the Notion. The other point is that Being and Notion are also different from each other. Being and Thought, ideality and reality, are different from and opposed to each other; the true difference is opposition as well, and this contrast is to be done away with, and the unity of the two characteristics is to be exhibited in such a way that it will be seen to be what results from the negation of the contrast. Being is contained in the Notion. This reality when it is unlimited gives us only empty words,