Wahrheit und Notwendigkeit

The focus of this work is the first definitional theory of truth in the history of philosophy presented by Anselm of Canterbury. It presents a detailed philosophical reconstruction of Anselm's theory in the context of his whole thinking and with a special consideration of his antique sources in Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine and Boethius.After an analysis of the different meanings of truth in Monologion and Proslogion, Anselm's dialogue "e;De veritate"e; and the continuity of its understanding of truth in Anselm's later works is investigated.Topics covered include the purpose and the topical method of "e;De veritate"e;and its source in the boethian topics, the coherence between Anselm's theory of truth, of modalities and his soteriology, and a comprehensive study of the preanselmian history of the ideas of conditional and simple necessity in Aristotle, Augustine and Boethius.