Introduction
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
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 -
Life and Works of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux
J&t. itfetnatto. LIFE AND WORKS OF SAINT BERNARD, ABBOT OF CLA1RVAUX. EDITED BY DOM. JOHN MABILLON, Presbyter and Monk of the Benedictine Congregation of S. Maur. Translated and Edited with Additional Notes, BY SAMUEL J. EALES, M.A., D.C.L., Sometime Principal of S. Boniface College, Warminster. SECOND EDITION. VOL. I. LONDON: BURNS & OATES LIMITED. NEW YORK, CINCINNATI & CHICAGO: BENZIGER BROTHERS. EMMANUBi A $ t fo je s : SOUTH COUNTIES PRESS LIMITED. .NOV 20 1350 CONTENTS. I. PREFACE TO ENGLISH EDITION II. GENERAL PREFACE... ... i III. BERNARDINE CHRONOLOGY ... 76 IV. LIST WITH DATES OF S. BERNARD S LETTERS... gi V. LETTERS No. I. TO No. CXLV ... ... 107 PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. THERE are so many things to be said respecting the career and the writings of S. Bernard of Clairvaux, and so high are view of his the praises which must, on any just character, be considered his due, that an eloquence not less than his own would be needed to give adequate expression to them. and able labourer He was an untiring transcendently ; and that in many fields. In all his manifold activities are manifest an intellect vigorous and splendid, and a character which never magnetic attractiveness of personal failed to influence and win over others to his views. His entire disinterestedness, his remarkable industry, the soul- have been subduing eloquence which seems to equally effective in France and in Italy, over the sturdy burghers of and above of Liege and the turbulent population Milan, the all the wonderful piety and saintliness which formed these noblest and the most engaging of his gifts qualities, and the actions which came out of them, rendered him the ornament, as he was more than any other man, the have drawn him the leader, of his own time, and upon admiration of succeeding ages. -
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. -
Thomas Ricklin, « Filosofia Non È Altro Che Amistanza a Sapienza » Nadja
Thomas Ricklin, « Filosofia non è altro che amistanza a sapienza » Abstract: This is the opening speech of the SIEPM world Congress held in Freising in August 2012. It illustrates the general theme of the Congress – The Pleasure of Knowledge – by referring mainly to the Roman (Cicero, Seneca) and the medieval Latin and vernacular tradition (William of Conches, Robert Grosseteste, Albert the Great, Brunetto Latini), with a special emphasis on Dante’s Convivio. Nadja Germann, Logic as the Path to Happiness: Al-Fa-ra-bı- and the Divisions of the Sciences Abstract: Divisions of the sciences have been popular objects of study ever since antiquity. One reason for this esteem might be their potential to reveal in a succinct manner how scholars, schools or entire societies thought about the body of knowledge available at their time and its specific structure. However, what do classifications tell us about thepleasures of knowledge? Occasionally, quite a lot, par- ticularly in a setting where the acquisition of knowledge is considered to be the only path leading to the pleasures of ultimate happiness. This is the case for al-Fa-ra-b-ı (d. 950), who is at the center of this paper. He is particularly interesting for a study such as this because he actually does believe that humanity’s final goal consists in the attainment of happiness through the acquisition of knowledge; and he wrote several treatises, not only on the classification of the sciences as such, but also on the underlying epistemological reasons for this division. Thus he offers excellent insight into a 10th-century theory of what knowledge essentially is and how it may be acquired, a theory which underlies any further discussion on the topic throughout the classical period of Islamic thought. -
Theories and Images of Creation in Northern Europe in the Twelfth Century
Art History ISSN 0141-6790 Vol. 22 No. 1 March 1999 pp. 3-55 In the Beginning: Theories and images of creation in Northern Europe in the twelfth century Conrad Rudolph 'Logic has made me hated by the world!' So Peter Abelard thought and wrote to his former lover, the brilliant Heloise, in probably his last letter to her before his death in 1142, after having been virtually driven from Paris by Bernard of Clairvaux, the austere Cistercian mystic and perhaps the most powerful ecclesiastical politician of Western Europe.1 Characteristically for Abelard in matters of self-conception, he was exaggerating. Logic had made him hated not by the world but by only a portion of it. While this was certainly an influential portion and one that had almost succeeded in destroying him, it could never do so entirely. In fact, logic had made Abelard 'the Socrates of the Gauls, the great Plato of the West, our Aristotle ... the prince of scholars'2- and this, this great fame and the almost unprecedented influence that accompanied it, was as much the problem as logic was. In a word, Abelard had been caught up in the politics of theology. The time was one of great theological inquiry, challenging, as it did, the very authority of divine revelation on the most fundamental level, and at a moment when both interest in secular learning and the number of students were dramatically increasing - all factors that can hardly be over-emphasized. But for certain elements within the Church, more still was at stake. And this was nothing less than a perceived assault on one of the basic underpinnings of the complex relationship between religion, theology, society and political power. -
Carroll-March-MEMHS-Meeting-1
Dear members of MEMHS, I’ve attached a chapter of my dissertation for our discussion on March 23. I am considering either revising the chapter for a book manuscript or dividing it up into several articles. Given my current career trajectory at the Sheridan Center, I am unsure which of these publication formats makes the most sense for me professionally, so I invite feedback on the paper’s potential in either of these formats (along with any other feedback you may wish to provide). I look forward to discussing the paper, and the project as a whole, with you all next Tuesday. Sincerely, Charlie Carroll CHAPTER 4 TO KNOW THE ORDINANCES OF THE HEAVENS: PREACHING MANLINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS When Guillaume d’Auvergne, bishop of Paris, began his sermon on the Vigil of All Saints in 1230, his words likely echoed around an empty nave. Looking up from the pulpit, he would have glanced out at a much-depleted audience, an audience likely comprised largely of students and clergy.1 This was more than a year and a half since a drunken brawl between a band of students and an innkeeper over the price of wine led to an immediate strike of students and masters, thereby endangering both the establishment of the University and the economy of the city of Paris. The dispute, which had begun in the faubourg of Saint-Marcel on Shrove Tuesday in 1229, had quickly escalated from pulling hair and striking blows to, on the following day, an all-out street riot with students armed with wooden clubs.2 The bishop, along with the prior of Saint-Marcel and 1 The sermon is included in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS nouv. -
John of Salisbury's Entheticus Maior and Minor, Edited by Jan Van Laarhoven
Restoring Knowledge: John of Salisbury’s “Return to the Tree” by Gordon Gray M.F.A., University of California (Los Angeles), 1969 B.A., Stanford University, 1967 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Humanities Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Gordon Gray 2013 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2013 Approval Name: Gordon Gray Degree: Master of Arts (Humanities) Title of Thesis: Restoring Knowledge: John of Salisbury’s “Return to the Tree” Examining Committee: Chair: Anne-Marie Feenberg-Dibon Associate Professor and Graduate Chair Paul Edward Dutton Senior Supervisor Professor Christine Jones Supervisor Senior Lecturer Emily O’Brien External Examiner Assistant Professor Department of History Date Defended/Approved: April 24, 2013 ii Partial Copyright Licence iii Abstract In 1159 CE, the English diplomat and ecclesiastic John of Salisbury published two books, the Policraticus and the Metalogicon, the former a treatise on the nature of good governance, and the latter a defence of classical education. Believing that political leadership should be based on moral precepts, John observed that moral judgment seemed to have been largely replaced in both church and state by personal ambition for wealth and power. Believing further that the knowledge required for moral judgment should be gained through proper education, John reasoned that knowledge itself had become fractured, and that it was necessary to return to that point and rebuild knowledge anew. Concluding that the fracture occurred with Adam’s expulsion from paradise for eating from the tree of knowledge, John reasoned that mankind must “return to the tree.” This thesis analyzes John’s “return to the tree” within the intellectual context of the twelfth-century renaissance. -
DEMONSTRATION and Scientific KNOWLEDGE in WILLIAM OF
Longeway-000.FM 11/8/06 2:29 PM Page iii Demonstration and Scientific knowledge in william of ockham ATranslation of Summa Logicae III-II: De Syllogismo Demonstrativo, and Selections from the Prologue to the Ordinatio JO HN LEE LO NGEWAY University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana © 2007 University of Notre Dame Press Longeway-000.FM 11/8/06 2:29 PM Page iv Copyright © 2007 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Longeway, John. Demonstration and scientific knowledge in William of Ockham : a translation of Summa Logicae III-II : De Syllogismo Demonstrativo, and selections from the Prologue to the Ordinatio / John Lee Longeway. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-268-03378-1 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-268-03378-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Knowledge, Theory of. 2. Science —Methodology. 3. Logic. 4. Aristotle. Posterior analytics. 5. William, of Ockham, ca. 1285– ca. 1349. Summa logicae. 6.William, of Ockham, ca. 1285– ca. 1349. I. Title. bd161.l66 2006 160 —dc22 2006032380 ∞This book is printed on acid-free paper. © 2007 University of Notre Dame Press Longeway-01.Intro 11/8/06 2:28 PM Page 1 introduction The medievalist needs no convincing that William of Ockham (ca. 1285–1347) is worthy of study. At one time Ockham’s views might have been regarded as a clever but uninstructed sign of the decay of Scholastic discourse, but, with the work of such scholars as Philotheus Boehner, Ernest Moody, and Marilyn McCord Adams, those days are now receding into the past. -
A Reply to Peter Dronke Lodi Nauta William of Conches' Commentary On
© Lodi Nauta, in Studi Medievali, 45, 2004, 445-457 William of Conches and the “New Aristotle”: A Reply to Peter Dronke Lodi Nauta William of Conches’ commentary on Boethius’ Consolatio Philosophiae, which was his first work (ca. 1120), has come down to us in at least 17 manuscripts, containing the entire text of his Glosae super Boetium in its characteristic continuous-lemmatic form.1 The text, which is explicitly attributed to William in three manuscripts, has all the characteristic features of William’s method, style and philosophical outlook, and contains references to his projected commentaries on Macrobius, Martianus Capella and Plato. The work proved to be a successful one: there is a great number of Boethian manuscripts which testify to its wide dissemination throughout the Middle Ages.2 This rich material can be divided into several (not mutually exclusive) categories: glosses which (ultimately) go back to William’s work, and which are to be found in dozens of manuscripts; commentaries in the form of compilations in which parts of William’s work are mixed with other commentaries (e.g. that of Remigius of Auxerre from about 900 and his eleventh-century revisers); the marginal commentary that accompanies the Latin text of the Consolatio and Jean de Meun’s translation, Li Livres de Confort de Philosophie; and several other commentaries which derive material from William. Of special importance is a version, which, while keeping most of William’s text intact, is much longer and also in a different format. I have found at least eleven manuscripts of this version, but without doubt there are more to be found.3 The author adds substantially to the text, rewrites a large number of passages, and omits passages and quotations from William’s text. -
Colleague, Critic, and Sometime Counselor to Thomas Becket
JOHN OF SALISBURY: COLLEAGUE, CRITIC, AND SOMETIME COUNSELOR TO THOMAS BECKET By L. Susan Carter A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of History–Doctor of Philosophy 2021 ABSTRACT JOHN OF SALISBURY: COLLEAGUE, CRITIC, AND SOMETIME COUNSELOR TO THOMAS BECKET By L. Susan Carter John of Salisbury was one of the best educated men in the mid-twelfth century. The beneficiary of twelve years of study in Paris under the tutelage of Peter Abelard and other scholars, John flourished alongside Thomas Becket in the Canterbury curia of Archbishop Theobald. There, his skills as a writer were of great value. Having lived through the Anarchy of King Stephen, he was a fierce advocate for the liberty of the English Church. Not surprisingly, John became caught up in the controversy between King Henry II and Thomas Becket, Henry’s former chancellor and successor to Theobald as archbishop of Canterbury. Prior to their shared time in exile, from 1164-1170, John had written three treatises with concern for royal court follies, royal pressures on the Church, and the danger of tyrants at the core of the Entheticus de dogmate philosophorum , the Metalogicon , and the Policraticus. John dedicated these works to Becket. The question emerges: how effective was John through dedicated treatises and his letters to Becket in guiding Becket’s attitudes and behavior regarding Church liberty? By means of contemporary communication theory an examination of John’s writings and letters directed to Becket creates a new vista on the relationship between John and Becket—and the impact of John on this martyred archbishop. -
Gilbert of Poitiers
eophil_G 11/2/05 2:44 PM Page 88 GILBERT OF POITIERS gilbert of poitiers or Ideas in themselves are subsistences and do not come into contact with matter. Only copies (exempla) descend (c. 1076–1154) into matter. The human mind arrives at the knowledge of Gilbert of Poitiers (Gilbertus Porreta, Gilbert de la Por- the eternal Ideas by first “collecting” from concrete, indi- rée), the twelfth-century theologian and metaphysician, vidual things their substantial similarity, that is, their cre- was born at Poitiers about 1076 and received his first ated or “native” forms (formae nativae), to which Gilbert schooling there. Next he went to study under Bernard of attributed universality. By perceiving the similarity of Chartres, and later (but before 1117) he devoted himself forms within a group, the mind arrives at the concept of to theology under Anselm at Laon. He seems to have suc- species and then, by the same process, it arrives at the ceeded Bernard as chancellor at Chartres between 1126 concept of genus. Finally, transcending all created forms, and 1137 and, after a short period as a master in Paris, it attains the primary forms, which are in God. Thus, was elevated in 1142 to the bishopric of Poitiers. He died Gilbert inquired why concrete forms agree with one greatly esteemed in 1154, although in the 1140s he had another, and he focused his attention upon the intellectus been made to feel the hostility of other theologians, prin- of the universal which is abstracted from singulars. He cipally Bernard of Clairvaux, who brought him to trial to based his theory of knowledge upon the Platonic doctrine account for his opinions at Paris in 1147 and at Rheims in of Ideas but also employed the Boethian-Aristotelian 1148. -
John of Salisbury, the Policraticus, and Political Thought
John of Salisbury, the Policraticus, and Political Thought Quentin Taylor Rogers State University Introduction Given his reputation as the most learned and literate man of his time, it is remarkable that John of Salisbury (ca.1120-1180) is not better known to the Western world. Granting the general “ob- scurity” of the Middle Ages, it remains odd that the man uni- formly recognized as the “finest flower” of the twelfth-century re- naissance has not attracted greater attention.1 What makes this state of affairs doubly ironic is that John is among the most read- able of medieval authors. By common consent, he was a stylist of the first order, and as a humanist he speaks in a language intelli- gible to the modern reader. Indeed, it is difficult to identify an- other writer between Augustine and Chaucer with a greater ap- peal to modern sensibility than the Sage of Salisbury.2 Perhaps the root cause of the general neglect of John is the fail- ure of modern scholarship to make his principal work, the Policraticus, readily available to teachers, students, and the read- ing public. To this day there is no complete English translation of QUENTIN TAYLOR is Associate Professor of History and Political Science at Rogers State University. 1 David Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought (New York: Random House, 1962), 140. 2 As William Ebenstein has written, the Policraticus is “a thoroughly enjoy- able piece of literature, modern in its wit, urbanity, learning, balance, and per- spective.” Introduction to Political Philosophy (New York: Rhinehart, 1952), 65. John of Salisbury, the Policraticus, and Political Thought HUMANITAS • 133 the Latin original.3 This peculiarity is echoed in the relative dearth of studies devoted to John.