Abstract
The aim of this study is to explore the similarities and the differences between the ethical conceptions of Anselm of Canterbury and Immanuel Kant, focusing on the role that the concept of God plays in both of them. This should be achieved by comparing Anselm's and Kant's understanding of the will and its structure, including the differentiation between the volition of justice and the volition of happiness and the unity of both of these volitions in the concept of the highest good.
Whereas for Anselm the highest good is identical with God and God is thus the ultimate goal of all human striving and desire, for Kant the concept of highest good is external to the concept of God. Anselm's understanding of ethics is, therefore, radically theocentric, while in Kant's ethics based on the autonomous reason God serves merely as a transcendent guarantee of the harmony of morality and happiness.