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Medieval Western Philosophy: the European Emergence
Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series I, Culture and Values, Volume 9 History of Western Philosophy by George F. McLean and Patrick J. Aspell Medieval Western Philosophy: The European Emergence By Patrick J. Aspell The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy 1 Copyright © 1999 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Aspell, Patrick, J. Medieval western philosophy: the European emergence / Patrick J. Aspell. p.cm. — (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series I. Culture and values ; vol. 9) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Philosophy, Medieval. I. Title. III. Series. B721.A87 1997 97-20069 320.9171’7’090495—dc21 CIP ISBN 1-56518-094-1 (pbk.) 2 Table of Contents Chronology of Events and Persons Significant in and beyond the History of Medieval Europe Preface xiii Part One: The Origins of Medieval Philosophy 1 Chapter I. Augustine: The Lover of Truth 5 Chapter II. Universals According to Boethius, Peter Abelard, and Other Dialecticians 57 Chapter III. Christian Neoplatoists: John Scotus Erigena and Anselm of Canterbury 73 Part Two: The Maturity of Medieval Philosophy Chronology 97 Chapter IV. Bonaventure: Philosopher of the Exemplar 101 Chapter V. Thomas Aquinas: Philosopher of the Existential Act 155 Part Three: Critical Reflection And Reconstruction 237 Chapter VI. John Duns Scotus: Metaphysician of Essence 243 Chapter -
Duns Scotus on the Common Nature and the Individual Differentia
c Peter King, Philosophical Topics 20 (1992), 50–76 DUNS SCOTUS ON THE COMMON NATURE* Introduction COTUS holds that in each individual there is a principle that accounts for its being the very thing it is and a formally S distinct principle that accounts for its being the kind of thing it is; the former is its individual differentia, the latter its common nature.1 These two principles are not on a par: the common nature is prior to the individual differentia, both independent of it and indifferent to it. When the individual differentia is combined with the common nature, the result is a concrete individual that really differs from all else and really agrees with others of the same kind. The individual differentia and the common nature thereby explain what Scotus takes to stand in need of explanation: the indi- viduality of Socrates on the one hand, the commonalities between Socrates * An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 26th International Congress on Medieval Studies, sponsored by the Medieval Institute, held at Western Michigan University 9–12 May 1991. All translations are my own. Scotus’s writings may be found in the following editions: (1) Vaticana: Iohannis Duns Scoti Doctoris Subtilis et Mariani opera omnia, ed. P. Carolus Bali¸cet alii, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanae 1950– Vols. I–VII, XVI–XVIII. (2) Wadding-Viv`es: Joannis Duns Scoti Doctoris Subtilis Ordinis Minorum opera omnia, ed. Luke Wadding, Lyon 1639; republished, with only slight alterations, by L. Viv`es,Paris 1891–1895. Vols. I–XXVI. References are to the Vatican edition wherever possible, to the Wadding-Viv`esedition otherwise. -
Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife Hyde Dawn Krista University of Missouri-St
University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Theses Graduate Works 4-16-2012 Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife Hyde Dawn Krista University of Missouri-St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Krista, Hyde Dawn, "Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife" (2012). Theses. 261. http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/261 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Works at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Thomas Aquinas: Soul-Body Connection and the Afterlife Krista Hyde M.L.A., Washington University in St. Louis, 2010 B.A., Philosophy, Southeast Missouri State University – Cape Girardeau, 2003 A Thesis Submitted to The Graduate School at the University of Missouri – St. Louis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Philosophy April 2012 Advisory Committee Gualtiero Piccinini, Ph.D. Chair Jon McGinnis, Ph.D. John Brunero, Ph.D. Copyright, Krista Hyde, 2012 Abstract Thomas Aquinas nearly succeeds in addressing the persistent problem of the mind-body relationship by redefining the human being as a body-soul (matter-form) composite. This redefinition makes the interaction problem of substance dualism inapplicable, because there is no soul “in” a body. However, he works around the mind- body problem only by sacrificing an immaterial afterlife, as well as the identity and separability of the soul after death. Additionally, Thomistic psychology has difficulty accounting for the transmission of universals, nor does it seem able to overcome the arguments for causal closure. -
Haecceities, Quiddities, and Structure∗
compiled on 18 December 2015 at 14:00 Haecceities, quiddities, and structure∗ Wolfgang Schwarz Draft, 18 December 2015 Abstract. Suppose all truths are made true by the distribution of funda- mental properties and relations over fundamental particulars. The world is then completely characterized by stating which fundamental properties and relations are instantiated by which fundamental particulars. But do we have to mention the fundamental particulars by name? Arguably not. Arguably, all truths – or at least all truths we can ever know – are made true by the pattern in which fundamental properties and relations are instantiated by fundamental particulars, irrespective of the identity (“haecceity”) of those particulars. Parallel arguments suggest that the identity (“quiddity”) of fundamental properties and relations can be omitted. It would follow that all truths (or all knowable truths) are made true by the abstract structure of the world, the pattern in which fundamental properties and relations are instantiated by fundamental particulars, irrespective of the identity of the properties, relations, and particulars. I argue that this is almost correct: while not all truths are made true by the abstract structure of the world, the remaining truths are (in a certain sense) not made true by the world at all. 1 Introduction Most truths can be explained by other, more fundamental truths. That salt dissolves in water, for example, can be explained by the chemical composition of salt and water together with the general laws of physics. Explanations of this kind plausibly come to an end. At some point we reach a bottom level of fundamental facts that are not explainable in terms of anything more basic. -
Medieval Philosophy
| 1 Course Syllabus Medieval Philosophy INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION Dr. Wm Mark Smillie, Professor, Philosophy Department 142 St Charles Hall Email: [email protected]; Ph: 447 - 5416 Office Hours Spring 2017 : MW, 3:30 - 4:30; Th, 2:30 - 4:30; Fri, 2:00 - 3:30; & by appointment. For issues about this course, students can contact me before/after class, at my office hours (posted above), by phone or email (either Carroll email or through moodle email). I will respond to email and phone inquiries within one busine ss day (Saturdays and Sundays are not business days). I will post notifications about the course in the Moodle News Forum. Students should also be aware of the Moodle Calendar that announces assignment deadlines. COURSE INFORMATION PHIL202, Medieval Phil osophy Meets: Tuesday and Thursdays, 9:30 - 10:45, 102 O’Connell; 3 credit hours Course Description This course is an introductory survey of medieval philosophical thought. We will consider some philosophical questions and issues that were central to medieval discussion, including the relationship between faith and reason, the problem of evil, our abili ty to know God’s nature and describe it in human language, the implications of believing in God as a creator, and the famous “problem of universals.” Significant medieval philosophers studied in this course include St. Augustine, Boethius, Peter Abelard, St. Anselm, Avicenna, St. Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure. An effort will be made to convey general medieval life and values and their connection to medieval philosophy, as well as to relate the thought of the middle Ages to the philosophy of other historic al periods. -
Edward C. Halper One and Many in Aristotle's Metaphysics: Books Alpha
Philosophy in Review XXX (2010), no. 3 Edward C. Halper One and Many in Aristotle’s Metaphysics: Books Alpha- Delta. Las Vegas: Parmenides Publishing 2009. 535 pages US$48.00 (cloth ISBN 978-1-930972-21-6) When the present book, the long-awaited follow-up to Halper’s 1989 volume on the central books of the Metaphysics, is joined by the concluding volume on books iota-nu that we may hope to appear as promised in 2011, the three volumes together will surely constitute the most important and welcome event in Aristotle scholarship since the publication of Joseph Owens’ The Doctrine of Being in the Aristotelian Metaphysics in 1978. Indeed, Halper’s opus may be seen as a manifestation of a certain coming of age in the modern study of ancient philosophy, in which neither historicism nor an uncritical embrace of the interpretive tradition any longer prevent engaging the ancients in philosophical inquiry that both honors the historical context of ancient thought and is responsive to contemporary philosophical concerns. Not that Halper imposes contemporary concerns upon his reading of Aristotle; on the contrary, he finds that efforts to use Aristotle’s thought to address contemporary issues have tended to obscure his reasoning, and it is with Aristotle’s reasoning—his systematic argumentation—that Halper is most concerned. Halper recounts how the early 20th century projected onto Aristotle a developmental path from idealism to empiricism, whereas in the postwar era he came to be seen as a linguistic philosopher. What these hermeneutical strategies have in common, Halper discerns, is not that they set out to make Aristotle speak to contemporary concerns, but rather simply that the absence of a systematic intentionality accorded to the text leads them to seek an animating dynamic outside the text, ‘and it is natural that the connections they think of are those that are most alive and interesting to them’ (36). -
The Catholic Intellectual Tradition Scholarship, Faith, and Higher Education
ISSN 1941-8450 Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series The Kripke Center Supplement 6 (2011) The Catholic Intellectual Tradition Scholarship, Faith, and Higher Education Edited by John J. O’Keefe, Gina Merys, and Bridget Keegan The Catholic Intellectual Tradition Medieval Lessons Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt, Loyola University Maryland Introduction [1] Whatever else a tradition is, it is something that connects us to a past, and not simply to a past fondly remembered, but one that continues to inform our present. So it seems not implausible that we might look to the past in order to gain insight into what it means to be engaged in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition today. And because Catholicism seems, for good or for ill, to have a particular connection to the Middle Ages – the “Age of Faith” – we might look to that particular past to see what lessons we can learn about what we mean when we speak of a Catholic Intellectual Tradition, about what challenges are posed to and posed by this tradition, and about how we foster and further this tradition. I will proceed by first making and exploring a distinction, and then proposing some points for consideration. 10 The Catholic Intellectual Tradition [2] Medieval scholastic thought proceeded largely by the making of distinctions, and thus it would warm the heart of our scholastic forbears if we begin with a distinction. I suggest we might distinguish between what we mean materially by the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, and what we mean formally. In other words, when we speak “materially” about the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, we mean those texts, works of art, figures, concepts, and so forth that are indispensable in preservation, transmission, and extension of that tradition. -
The Univocity of Substance and the Formal Distinction of Attributes: the Role of Duns Scotus in Deleuze's Reading of Spinoza Nathan Widder
parrhesia 33 · 2020 · 150-176 the univocity of substance and the formal distinction of attributes: the role of duns scotus in deleuze's reading of spinoza nathan widder This paper examines the role played by medieval theologian John Duns Scotus in Gilles Deleuze’s reading of Spinoza’s philosophy of expressive substance; more generally, it elaborates a crucial moment in the development of Deleuze’s philosophy of sense and difference. Deleuze contends that Spinoza adapts and extends Duns Scotus’s two most influential theses, the univocity of being and formal distinction, despite neither appearing explicitly in Spinoza’s writings. “It takes nothing away from Spinoza’s originality,” Deleuze declares, “to place him in a perspective that may already be found in Duns Scotus” (Deleuze, 1992, 49).1 Nevertheless, the historiographic evidence is clearly lacking, leaving Deleuze to admit that “it is hardly likely that” Spinoza had even read Duns Scotus (359n28). Indeed, the only support he musters for his speculation is Spinoza’s obvious in- terests in scholastic metaphysical and logical treatises, the “probable influence” of the Scotist-informed Franciscan priest Juan de Prado on his thought, and the fact that the problems Duns Scotus addresses need not be confined to Christian thought (359–360n28). The paucity of evidence supporting this “use and abuse” of history, however, does not necessarily defeat the thesis. Like other lineages Deleuze proposes, the one he traces from Duns Scotus to Spinoza, and subsequently to Nietzsche, turns not on establishing intentional references by one thinker to his predecessor, but instead on showing how the borrowings and adaptations asserted to create the connec- tion make sense of the way the second philosopher surmounts blockages he faces while responding to issues left unaddressed by the first. -
Separate Material Intellect in Averroes' Mature Philosophy Richard C
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by epublications@Marquette Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications Philosophy, Department of 1-1-2004 Separate Material Intellect in Averroes' Mature Philosophy Richard C. Taylor Marquette University, [email protected] Published version. "Separate Material Intellect in Averroes' Mature Philosophy," in Words, Texts and Concepts Cruising the Mediterranean Sea. Eds. Gerhard Endress, Rud̈ iger Arnzen and J Thielmann. Leuven; Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2004: 289-309. Permalink. © 2004 Peeters Publishers. Used with permission. ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA ANALECTA ---139--- 'WORDS, TEXTS AND CONCEPTS CRUISING THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA Studies on the sources, contents and influences of Islamic civilization and Arabic philosophy and science Dedicated to Gerhard Endress on his sixty-fifth birthday edited by R. ARNZEN and J. THIELMANN UITGEVERIJ PEETERS en DEPARTEMENT OOSTERSE STUDIES LEUVEN - PARIS - DUDLEY, MA 2004 SEPARATE MATERIAL INTELLECT IN A VERROES' MATURE PHILOSOPHY Richard C. T AYLOR Marquette University, Milwaukee The doctrine of the material intellect promulgated by Averroes (i126- 1198) in his latest works is surely the teaching for which he has been most maligned both in the medieval era and in modern times. In medi eval times Duns Scotus spoke of "That accursed Averroes" whose "fan tastic conception, intelligible neither to himself nor to others, assumes the intellective part of man to be a sort -
Fsofime 22.Indb
COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND MAGIC IN THE WORK OF ALBERTUS MAGNUS Compatibilidad entre Filosofía y Magia en la obra de Alberto Magno Rinotas Athanasios Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece) ABSTRACT Albertus Magnus (1193?-1280), also known as doctor universalis, delved into several fields of science and philosophy, a pursuit which resulted in a massive production of works. Within these works, however, one discerns a provocative paradox, in which a cleric is involved in a forbidden art: magic. In this paper I argue that a paradox of this kind can be justified and explained in terms of philosophy. To this end, I advance three case studies to shed light on the afore-mentioned problem. First, I scrutinize indirect and direct sources in order to clarify Albertus’s relation to magic, thus addressing whether it is possible to trace any supportive data that permits a connection between magic and philosophy. Next, I show that this connection is achievable, since some parts of Albertus’s philosophy, such as psychology, cosmology and the liberum arbitrium, seem to be associated with magia naturalis in terms of astrology. Finally, I argue that the German philosopher was not successful in legitimizing magic through philosophy, and thus failed to prove himself a unique pioneer of an innovative body of knowledge. Keywords: Albertus Magnus, Magic, Astrology, Science, Philosophy. RESUMEN Alberto Magno (1193?-1280), también conocido como doctor universalis, profundizó en distintos campos de la ciencia y la filosofía, una búsqueda que dió como resultado una producción masiva de obra. No obstante, en este conjunto de obras uno puede descubrir una provocativa paradoja, en la que un clérigo se relaciona con un arte prohibido como la magia. -
Blander Diss Commented Normore Blander Replies V3
UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Dependence, Separability, and Theories of Identity and Distinction in Late Medieval Philosophy: Case Studies from Scotus and Ockham Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6wh8q15d Author Blander, Joshua Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Dependence, Separability, and Theories of Identity and Distinction in Late Medieval Philosophy: Case Studies from Scotus and Ockham A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy by Joshua Blander 2014 © Copyright by Joshua Blander 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Dependence, Separability, and Theories of Identity and Distinction in Late Medieval Philosophy: Case Studies from Scotus and Ockham by Joshua Blander Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor Calvin Normore, Chair Theories of distinctions surface some of the most fundamental elements of metaphysical and logical inquiry. For many medieval philosophers, theories of distinctions provided some semblance of rational order and unity to metaphysical, logical and theological questions. The two philosophers on which I focus, John Duns Scotus and William Ockham, discuss distinctions and metaphysical adjuncts in a variety of philosophical and theological contexts. When discussing Scotus, I emphasize his development of a robust theory of identity and distinction. I give special attention to his accounts of what he calls qualified non-identity or qualified distinction, which he surprisingly says is compatible with real identity. When I turn my attention to Ockham, I focus on his use of the real distinction in the context of the common fourteenth century disputes about universals. -
Philosophy 305 a Early Medieval Philosophy (4Th to the 12Th Century CE)
1 Philosophy 305 A Early Medieval Philosophy (4th to the 12th Century CE) This course begins with a brief presentation of the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus insofar as these were influential on medieval philosophical thought. It then considers major thinkers in the Christian traditions from the 4th to the 12th century CE, and includes a brief introduction to major Islamic and Jewish philosophers within that time period insofar as their speculations were influential on medieval Christian philosophy. Instructor: E-H. W. Kluge Office: CLE B313 Phone: (250)721-7519 e-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: Mondays and Thursdays 10:00am - 11:20am Text: Arthur Hyman, James J. Walsh, & Thomas Williams, eds. Philosophy in the Middle Ages (3rd ed.) Cambridge, MA: Hackett. Formal Course Requirements and Grading Procedures Grades will be based on two mid-terms and a final examination. The mid-term examinations are fifty minutes long and the final examination is three hours in length. The mid-term examinations are each worth 20% of the course grade; the final examination is worth 60%. Students who have taken (and received a grade for) both mid-term examinations have the option of having the final examination count for 100% of their course grade. The mid-term examinations cover only the material that has not been tested before in the semester; the final examination is cumulative and covers all of the material dealt with in the course. Students are encouraged to discuss their mid- term examination with the instructor. Significant dates: - Mid-term examination #1: app. October 1 - Mid-term examination #2: app.