THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of AMERICA an Analysis of Intelligible
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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA An Analysis of Intelligible Species in the Doctrine of Knowledge in a Manuscript Attributed to Antonius Andreas A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Philosophy Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor in Philosophy © Copyright All Rights Reserved by Paul L. Dudzinski Washington, D.C. 2017 An Analysis of Intelligible Species in the Doctrine of Knowledge in a Manuscript Attributed to Antonius Andreas Paul L. Dudzinski, PhD Director: Timothy B. Noone, PhD Intelligible species were enshrined in the cognitive theories of medieval thinkers as part of the narrative which explained the genesis of an act of understanding. However these thinkers did not all regard intelligible species in the same way. While some, like St. Thomas Aquinas, stressed the need for these species to serve as the means to an act of understanding, others such as Henry of Ghent rejected the need for them on those grounds. This historical setting serves as the backdrop of the dissertation which is a commentary of Aristotle’s De Anima which is attributed to Antonius Andreas; the commentary, we are told, was copied in the early part of the fall semester in 1448 at the University of Prague by the scribe who copied it, Hilary of Lithonicum. Antonius Andreas was a Franciscan friar from the Kingdom of Aragon who studied at the University of Paris at the same time that Blessed John Duns Scotus was teaching there. The influence of the Doctor Subtilis on Antonius is manifest primarily in his own commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics in which he espouses Scotus’s signature teaching on common nature and haecceitas. Antonius Andreas discusses the role of intelligible species in cognition in this commentary and in his Scriptum Artem Veterem Aristotelis. The anonymous author also discusses the role of intelligible species in his commentary on the De Anima. The main focus of this dissertation is to examine whether the doctrine of intelligible species of the anonymous author is consistent with the doctrine Antonius Andreas. In the background of this discussion is how faithful both Antonius Andreas and this anonymous author are to the doctrine of Duns Scotus, and whether the appellation of Scotellus correctly belongs to Antonius Andreas as well as to this anonymous author. This dissertation by Paul L. Dudzinski fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in philosophy approved by Timothy B. Noone, Ph.D., as Director, and Kevin White, Ph.D., and Gregory Doolan, Ph.D., as Readers. ___________________________________ Timothy B. Noone, Ph. D., Director ___________________________________ Kevin White, Ph. D., Reader ___________________________________ Gregory Doolan, Ph. D., Reader ii In Memory of My Parents, Louis and Josephine iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter One: Antonius Andreas: The Man, His World, and His Work I. Antonius Andreas: The Man 4 II. Antonius Andreas: His World 9 III. Antonius Andreas: His Work 25 Chapter Two: A Historical Sketch of the Doctrine of Intelligible Species in Late Thirteenth Century Medieval Thinking I. Introduction 37 II. Origins of Species Doctrine 37 III. Development of Species Theory and Arab/Islamic Influence in Early Thirteenth Cognitional Doctrine 42 IV. The Place of Intelligible Species in Late Thirteenth Century Cognitional Theories A. St Thomas Aquinas 55 B. Henry of Ghent 81 C. Godfrey of Fontaines 95 D. Giles of Rome 109 E. John Duns Scotus 129 Chapter Three: A Comparison between the Cognitive Theories of Antonius Andreas and the Antonine Author of the Commentary on the De Anima Introduction 157 iv A. Antonius Andreas and the Antonine Author on Intuitive Cognition 158 B. Antonius Andreas and the Antonine Author on Abstractive Cognition 178 Chapter Four: The Teaching on Intelligible Species of Antonius Andreas and the Antonine Author Introduction 207 A. The Agent Intellect and Abstraction 207 B. The Doctrine of Intelligible Species of Antonius Andreas and the Antonine Author 220 C. Antonius Andreas and the Antonine Author as Scotellus 247 Conclusion 252 Bibliography 256 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am most grateful to my Bishop, Bishop Paul Loverde, for his graciousness and kindness towards me when he released me from active pastoral ministry in the Diocese in order to finish my doctoral work and teach philosophy as a full-time occupation. Also I wish to thank my Director, Dr. Timothy Noone, who first proposed this dissertation topic to me after my fruitless pursuits in my original thesis. I thank him for providing me with his transcription of the manuscript, along with providing me with some of the works of Scotus and other medieval authors for use in my research. I thank him also for his generosity for taking the time out of his busy schedule to meet with me at various points of my research to discuss philosophy. I greatly benefited from these meetings. I also thank the readers Drs. Kevin White and Gregory Doolan for taking time from their busy schedules to read the text of my dissertation. I also want to thank Rev. Matthew Zuberbueler, the pastor of St. Louis Catholic Church for his graciousness during my residency at the parish and making me feeling welcome as one of the priests in the rectory. I also want to thank the parish office staff for their assistance in using the office printer and scanner, and their advice on some technical matter regarding the Word program used in producing this text. I also want to thank Kevin Gunn at Mullen Library for his assistance in researching different authors. I also want to thank the Bayerriche Staatsbibliotek in Munich, Germany for granting me various downloads of the different manuscripts of the works of Antonius Andreas which I used in my research. I also want to thank the librarians at Bodleian Library and at Jagiellonian University for their kindness and assistance while researching at their libraries. vi INTRODUCTION This dissertation is a work in which I combined a historical approach with a doctrinal analysis of the medieval philosophical issue of intelligible species in knowledge, particularly with the main topic of this work on an analysis of intelligible species and the cognitional theory maintained in a commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima which is attributed to Antonius Andreas. The study is a fascinating study of late thirteenth and early fourteenth century cognitional theories, examining different theories and relating them to the theory of knowledge on intelligible species contained in the cognitional theory contained within the pages of this manuscript. What I hope will be clear in my analysis is the distinction between different theories of cognition in which authors take the extreme position of either vindicating the necessity for intelligible species or rejecting the need in viewing such species as superfluous to the mind’s ability to think. What I hope will also be clear is my analysis of the different nuanced views of intelligible species of those who adopted them in their epistemological narrative. Chapter One is about Antonius Andreas, specifically who he is as a man, his teaching and writing, and the environment that helped to shape and influence his thinking. We take a look at thirteenth and early fourteenth educational methodologies within the Franciscan order, the establishment of various studia in their local settings as well as those located near major universities such as Paris, and the type of candidates in the order who studied at either location of the center of study. I also provide a listing of the different editions and manuscripts that are either accurately identified or attributed to Antonius Andreas 1 2 Chapter Two is an analysis of the historical development of the teaching on intelligible species. In this chapter I focus on the cognitional doctrine of five main late Thirteenth Century authors: St. Thomas Aquinas, Giles of Rome, Godfrey of Fontaines, Henry of Ghent, and Blessed John Duns Scotus. I begin the chapter with a small introduction, beginning with a brief excursus through ancient Greece that includes brief looks at Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and the various traditions of their respective theories of species, as well as a an analysis of Arabic thought, especially of Avicenna and Averroes, that had a profound impact on late thirteenth century thought. Chapter Three is the opening of the examination on the text in this manuscript that is a commentary of Aristotle’s De Anima which is attributed to Antonius Andreas. I proceed by referring to this author as the Antonine author. In this chapter I compare the respective teachings on intuitive and abstractive cognition taught by Antonius Andreas and the Antonine author. Chapter Four is an examination of the teaching on intelligible species in the respective cognitional theories of Antonius Andreas and the Antonine author. I begin with an analysis of the role played by the agent intellect enunciated by both Antonius Andreas and the Antonine author, with the special role the phantasm and possible intellect have in the mechanics of the cognitive act. Lastly I focus on the specific role intelligible species play in their respective cognitional theories. In the Conclusion I answer the main question of this dissertation project; namely, whether the teaching of the Antonine author in his commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima is consistent 3 with the doctrine articulated and taught by Antonius Andreas. Then I briefly relate their cognitional theories with that of Blessed John Duns Scotus. Chapter 1: Antonius Andreas: The Man, His World, and His Work I. Antonius Andreas: The Man Antonius Andreas was a Franciscan friar in the Kingdom of Aragon who was born around the year 1280. There is very little information on his early life, but he was known as Scotellus, the “little Scotist”, or faithful disciple of Duns Scotus.1 He was born in Tauste, in the province of Zargoza.