On Behalf of the Fool
Gaunilo of MarmoutierSoon after the Proslogion
A short reply to the argument of Anselm’s Proslogion, written by a monk in the name of the ‘fool’ who says there is no God. It contains the objection of the lost island.
The translation used here heads the reply as the work of Gaunilo, a monk of Marmoutier. He speaks for the fool of the psalm who denies God, attacks only the proof, and ends by praising the rest of Anselm’s book. Anselm of Canterbury answered him point by point, and his biographer Eadmer says that Anselm wanted the criticism and his answer copied at the end of the Proslogion from then on. Eadmer speaks only of “a certain person”.
Cited in
- about 1078 to 1098, estimated date