Truth and Morality in Saint Anselm of Aosta
Keywords:
Saint Anselm, Metaphysics, Ethics, Truth, RectitudoAbstract
This paper aims to recover the notion of truth in the thought of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, one of the foremost theologians and philosophers of the 11th century. Writing within a Neoplatonic-Christian framework, his philosophy intertwines metaphysics, anthropology, and morality in a coherent and organic whole, so that morality ultimately receives its foundations from the metaphysical conception of being. For Anselm, truth is not primarily a property of judgment but resides in being itself: God is the Summa Veritas, cause and measure of all ontological, logical, and moral truth. This conception has direct implications for philosophical anthropology: the human soul, naturally oriented toward the Supreme Good, is called to align its will with
divine truth, and this alignment constitutes the very definition of moral freedom. Far from being a merely negative capacity to choose between good and evil, freedom is understood as the power to preserve rectitude for its own sake. The study conducts a textual and philosophical analysis of Anselm's main works —especially De Veritate, the Monologion, and the Proslogion— in order to show the organic unity between ontology, anthropology, and ethics in his thought. It seeks to demonstrate that Anselm offers an integral understanding of truth that transcends mere epistemological concerns and remains highly relevant for contemporary reflection on the metaphysical foundations of morality, the objectivity of ethical norms, and the relationship between being and the good.
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