The Metaphysical System of Scotus Eriugena
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chapter 3 The Metaphysical System of Scotus Eriugena 3.1 Preliminary Remarks In this chapter I discuss certain ontological issues present in Peryphyseon. My approach is that of a historian of logic who, in dealing with universals, has be- come interested in the origins of realist solutions and the possible ontological options available to realists and their critics in 12th Century. Therefore, I will not deal with all of Scotus’ writings, nor seek to provide a general interpreta- tion of his philosophical position. A general warning must be added to these limitations: the Peryphyseon is a particularly complex work; to get an idea of Scotus’ sources, one has just to look at the Index Auctorum in the Jeauneau edition.1 At times Scotus presents his thoughts in a dogmatic way, at other as a Father of the Church in the style of Gregory of Nyssa or Augustine, and on still other occasions, he expresses himself poetically. In such a situation it is hard to apply models or to look for consistent usage of technical terms.2 I believe that the task of reconstructing Scotus’ position as if he were a dogmatic philosopher verges on the impossible, even when considering it as 1 Periphyseon (=Periphys.), ed. E.A. Jeauneau, Brepols, Turnhout 1996–2003 (5 voll.). 2 The sources can roughly be divided into three groups: Greek sources including Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Naziansus, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, and Origen; theological-philosophical Latin sources that include Augustine, Boethius (Theological Treatises), Victorinus, Martianus Capella, and Macrobius; logical and philosophical sources, including the Categoriae Decem and Boethius (in particular De Arithmetica Institutione); and early medieval compilations devoted to dialectics (e.g. by Alcuin). In fact, there is some discussion about what should be included in the three groups and the importance attached to the works contained in them as sources of Scotus. On this topic see I.P. Sheldon-Williams, ‘The Greek Platonist Tradition from the Cappadocian to Maximus and Eriugena’ in A. H. Armstrong (ed.), The Cambridge History of Late and Early Medieval Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1970, p. 425–501. S. Gersh, From Iamblichus to Eriugena, Brill, Leiden 1978. D. Moran, The Philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena. A Study of Idealism in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989 (I quote from the 1990 reprint), 103–122. On the historical and cultural background – with particular attention to the theological aspects – see B. McGinn and W. Otten, Eriugena: East and West (Papers of the Eighth International Colloquium of the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies, Chicago and Notre Dame 18–20 October 1991) University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame 1994. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004371156_005 56 chapter 3 a theoretical-historiographical exercise in the style of Heidegger’s Holzwege.3 Fortunately, my goal is a more modest one.4 In the search for material useful in formulating a realist thesis in the debate on universals, we will focus on the ontological catalogue which a reader in the eleventh or twelfth century might have compiled.5 Approaching Scotus’ work from this perspective, I am aware of the possible risk of underestimating textual material as well as overstating a single theoretical position at the expense of others. At the same time I believe that the polymorphic nature of the text justifies a variety of approaches and critical analyses. 3 Incidentally, even Heidegger has his place in the vast literature on Scotus: cf. P.W. Rosemann, ‘Causality as Concealing Revelation in Eriugena: a Heideggerian Interpretation,’ American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 79 (2005), 653–671. In regard to whether or not Eriugena is a systematic thinker, J. Marenbon notes that ‘the thought of the Periphyseon does form a system, but one which could be called ‘philosophical’ only in an unhelpfully broad sense of the word. It is a system which does not attempt to provide an explanation of reality by means of reason, but rather, to make an imaginative whole of ideas, arguments and dogma taken from a variety of sources, including Holy Scripture’: ‘John Scotus and the Categoriae decem’, in Eriugena: Studien zu seinen Quellen. Edited by Beierwaltes Werner. Heidelberg: Carl Winter 1980; 116–134 (repr. in: J. Marenbon, Aristotelian Logic, Platonism and the Context of Early Medieval Philosophy in the West, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2000); p. 133. 4 My intent is in some respect similar to C. Erismann’s in his doctoral thesis (La Genese réal- isme ontologique durant le haut du Moyen Age, Lausanne 2006) but more modest than the one by the same author in his article ‘Alain de Lille Metaphysique the érigénienne the pluralité et des formes’ (in J. Solère – A. Vasiliu – Galonnier A. (eds), Alain de Lille, le Docteur univer- sel. Philosophie, théologie et littérature au XIIe siècle. Actes du XIe Colloque international de la Société internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie médiévale, Paris, 23–25 octobre 2003, Brepols, Turnhout 2005. pp. 19–46). In this second work Erismann tries to connect Eriugena, Alain of Lille and Thierry of Chartres. The first link is textually documented, but the use Erismann makes of it is rather unnatural: according to him Scotus, as a realist, influences an apparently nominalist theory. The second link is more natural but with little documenta- tion (Scotus’ influence on the school of Chartres has, in fact, been challenged by E. Jeauneau in ‘Le renouveau érigénien du XIIe siècle,’ in W. Beierwaltes (ed.), Eriugena redivivus. Zur Wirkungsgeschichte seines Denkens in Mittelalter und im Übergang zur Neuzeit (Vorträge des V. Internationalen Eriugena-Colloquiums Werner-Reiners-Stiftung Bad Homburg 26–30. August 1985), Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg 1987, 26–46; see pp. 44–45. 5 There are numerous studies on the tradition of the Periphyseon which show that the text (or parts of it) was relatively widely circulated between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. See inter alia: J. Marenbon, From the Circle of Alcuin to the School of Auxerre, Cambridge UP, Cambridge 1981; D. Moran, The Philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena 267–277; E. Jeauneau, Le renoveau quot..