Gaunilo’s “On Behalf of the Fool”
E835268
Gaunilo’s “On Behalf of the Fool” is a medieval critique of Anselm’s ontological argument, using the example of a perfect island to challenge the claim that God’s existence can be proven purely by reason.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Gaunilo’s “On Behalf of the Fool” canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10024004 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
Target entity: Gaunilo’s “On Behalf of the Fool” Context triple: [Proslogion, relatedWork, Gaunilo’s “On Behalf of the Fool”]
-
A.
Anselm's Proslogion
Anselm's Proslogion is a 11th-century philosophical and theological work by Anselm of Canterbury that famously presents the original formulation of the ontological argument for the existence of God.
-
B.
The Abuse of Casuistry
The Abuse of Casuistry is a philosophical work by Stephen Toulmin (with Albert Jonsen) that defends and rehabilitates casuistry as a practical method of moral reasoning in ethics and applied decision-making.
-
C.
Breviloquium
Breviloquium is a concise theological handbook by the medieval Franciscan scholar Bonaventure that systematically summarizes key doctrines of Christian theology.
-
D.
A Dialogue Concerning Heresies
A Dialogue Concerning Heresies is a 1529 polemical work by Sir Thomas More defending Catholic doctrine and attacking the ideas of early Protestant reformers.
-
E.
The Theologian’s Tale
"The Theologian’s Tale" is a narrative poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, presented as one of the interlinked stories told by characters in his collection "Tales of a Wayside Inn."
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
Target entity: Gaunilo’s “On Behalf of the Fool” Target entity description: Gaunilo’s “On Behalf of the Fool” is a medieval critique of Anselm’s ontological argument, using the example of a perfect island to challenge the claim that God’s existence can be proven purely by reason.
-
A.
Anselm's Proslogion
Anselm's Proslogion is a 11th-century philosophical and theological work by Anselm of Canterbury that famously presents the original formulation of the ontological argument for the existence of God.
-
B.
The Abuse of Casuistry
The Abuse of Casuistry is a philosophical work by Stephen Toulmin (with Albert Jonsen) that defends and rehabilitates casuistry as a practical method of moral reasoning in ethics and applied decision-making.
-
C.
Breviloquium
Breviloquium is a concise theological handbook by the medieval Franciscan scholar Bonaventure that systematically summarizes key doctrines of Christian theology.
-
D.
A Dialogue Concerning Heresies
A Dialogue Concerning Heresies is a 1529 polemical work by Sir Thomas More defending Catholic doctrine and attacking the ideas of early Protestant reformers.
-
E.
The Theologian’s Tale
"The Theologian’s Tale" is a narrative poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, presented as one of the interlinked stories told by characters in his collection "Tales of a Wayside Inn."
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (42)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
medieval text
ⓘ
philosophical work ⓘ theological critique ⓘ |
| aimsToShow | Anselm’s proof form is too broad and leads to absurd conclusions ⓘ |
| approximateDate | late 11th century ⓘ |
| argumentativeStrategy | reductio ad absurdum ⓘ |
| author | Gaunilo of Marmoutiers NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| centralClaim |
Anselm’s reasoning could prove the existence of non-existent perfect objects
ⓘ
existence cannot be inferred from the concept of a greatest conceivable being alone ⓘ |
| circulation | manuscript tradition ⓘ |
| counteredBy | Anselm’s “Reply to Gaunilo” NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| critiquesArgument | ontological argument for the existence of God ⓘ |
| critiquesWork | Anselm’s Proslogion NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre |
philosophical-theological treatise
ⓘ
polemical text ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | Middle Ages NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| influenced |
later critiques of ontological arguments
ⓘ
modern discussions of parody objections in philosophy of religion ⓘ |
| intendedAudience | Christian intellectuals ⓘ |
| keyConcept |
conceptual existence vs. real existence
ⓘ
greatest conceivable being ⓘ parody argument ⓘ |
| language | Latin ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
Anselm’s ontological argument
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
existence of God ⓘ |
| method |
conceptual analysis
ⓘ
logical critique ⓘ |
| modernRelevance | frequently anthologized in philosophy of religion readers ⓘ |
| philosophicalDiscipline |
medieval philosophy
ⓘ
natural theology ⓘ philosophy of religion ⓘ |
| philosophicalStance | emphasizes limits of a priori reasoning about existence ⓘ |
| positionOnAnselm | rejects validity of Anselm’s ontological proof ⓘ |
| preservedWith | Anselm’s Proslogion NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| regionOfOrigin | medieval France ⓘ |
| religiousContext | Christianity ⓘ |
| respondsTo |
Proslogion II
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Proslogion III NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| statusInScholarship | standard early critique of ontological arguments ⓘ |
| theologicalContext | Benedictine monastic theology ⓘ |
| titleAlludesTo | “the fool” of Psalm 14:1 ⓘ |
| usesExample | perfect island ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Subject: Gaunilo’s “On Behalf of the Fool” Description of subject: Gaunilo’s “On Behalf of the Fool” is a medieval critique of Anselm’s ontological argument, using the example of a perfect island to challenge the claim that God’s existence can be proven purely by reason.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.