Final answer:
Aquinas may criticize Anselm's ontological argument for circular reasoning. Instead, Aquinas provided his own arguments, like the (D) Argument from Motion and (C) the Argument from Contingency, which draw upon empirical observations rather than predefined concepts. He also used examples from nature to illustrate the transition from potential to actual through God's influence.
Step-by-step explanation:
The criticism that Aquinas had of Anselm's argument is not directly stated in the question, but most likely it would be related to the ontological argument proposed by Anselm, since Aquinas didn't agree with its logic. We can speculate that Aquinas might criticize it for potentially being a form of circular reasoning, where the conclusion is presupposed in one of the premises. Aquinas instead offered his own arguments, such as the Argument from Motion and the Argument from Contingency. He posited that everything in motion must have been put in motion by something else, ultimately leading to the necessity of an unmoved mover, which he identified as God. Further, the Argument from Contingency states that because not everything can be contingent (existing only if certain conditions are met), a necessary being must exist that is the cause of all contingent beings, which Aquinas associates with God as well.
Aquinas's Teleological Argument, also known as the Argument from Design, suggests that the order and purpose seen in the universe imply the existence of a designer, God. Contrasting with Anselm’s argument, which is based on the concept that God's existence is self-evident by definition, Aquinas's arguments are empirical, drawing from observations of the world.
When discussing the transition from potentiality to actuality within Aquinas's metaphysics, an example would be an acorn’s growth into an oak tree. This process is driven by the potentiality inherent within the acorn, actualized through growth. The purpose, or final cause, here is the fully-grown tree, which is the end towards which the acorn is directed. In Aquinas's view, God is the prime mover in this process, actualizing potentials within the world.