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History of the Problem of Universals in the Middle Ages P401/P515 Spade Fall 2009 History of the Problem of Universals in the Middle Ages Handouts I have collected here all the handouts, as near as I can, from my Fall 2009 course “History of the Problem of Universals in the Middle Ages.” I have adjusted a few things here and there — to hide telephone numbers and email addresses you shouldn’t see, for instance, or to remove something I am not authorized to distribute freely. So you will find an occasional line of “x’s” or a simple blank space. They should not be obtrusive. These handouts come from a number of sources. Most of them have been provided by my friend and former student Curtis Sommerlatte. Others, particularly texts, are public-domain items I have substituted for copyrighted texts we read in class. Several of these handouts are available separately elsewhere on IU Scholarworks. History of the Problem of Universals in the Middle Ages: Handouts, by Paul Vincent Spade is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Professor Spade, Sycamore Hall 122. Class meetings MW 2:30–3:45 p.m., Ballantine Hall 208. Office Hours MW 10:15–11:30 a.m. You can try to call my office at xxxxxxxx, but it won't do you a bit of good, since I have my telephone unhooked in self-defense. A better bet is to call the main departmental office at xxxxxxxx and one of the office staff can leave a note in my mailbox. But the absolutely best way to get in touch with me outside office hours is by e-mail: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. I check that several times a day. General policy on office hours: You don't need an appointment during the posted times; just come on by. If your schedule doesn't fit mine, I can generally arrange other times (within reason) on Mondays and Wednesdays, and sometimes on Fridays, and will be happy to do so, but they do need to be arranged. (Again, e-mail is the best way to set up such an arrangement, or just speak to me after lecture to set up a time.) Oncourse I will be making essential use of the University's Oncourse facilities for this course. Log in at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with your regular IU username and password. Depending on whether you are enrolled in this course as an undergraduate or as a graduate student, you will see (among your other Oncourse pages) two tabs at the top of the screen: Either FA09 BL PHIL P401 11962 (for undergraduates) or FA09 BL PHIL P515 29794 (for graduate students); and FA09 BL PHIL P401 C11662. This is a combined site I have set up for this course. Everything will take place here. If you go to the other site, you will be redirected to this one. Note: It is a little-known fact that you can customize the tabs you see at the top of the page on Oncourse. After logging in, click on the "My Workspace" tab, then on "Preferences" in the menubar on the left, and then on the "Customize Tabs" link across the top of the window. Follow the instructions. On the Oncourse site you will find: This Syllabus. Important announcements about this course, posted as we go along. An email archive, where you can view messages from me or your classmates relevant to this course. 1 of 10 You can send email to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and it will be automatically forwarded to all members of this class and deposited in the email archive for later viewing. (Porphyry is one of the first main figures we will be talking about in this class.) Note that this feature is to be used only for matters relevant to this class. If you abuse it and start sending random emails to everybody, I'll have to reconfigure the utility so that only I can send mail through it. An "Assignments" utility, where you will submit your examinations and papers for this course in digital format. A quiz-taking utility, for weekly quizzes as described below. (Click on the "Original Test and Survey" link in the menubar on the left of your screen.) A "Post'Em" grade-reporting utility, where you can see your running grades for this course: quiz grades, examination grades, paper grades, comments, etc. (Note: I have to upload these grades manually from my Excel spreadsheet gradebook. So there will be some lag-time between, say, taking a quiz and seeing the results posted here.) I am not using the Oncourse "Gradebook" utility, which I find too restrictive for my purposes. A "Resources" folder. Lots of important things will be deposited here. These will include information about books on reserve for us at the Wells Library, several articles and papers in PDF format, copies of all class handouts (including this Syllabus), and whatever other amazing and unpredictable things I come up with. You will be expected to keep up with what's happening on this Oncourse site. Required texts Paul Vincent Spade, trans., Five Texts on the Mediaeval problem of Universals: Porphyry, Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Ockham. (Hackett.) A set of translations. Thomas Aquinas , On Being and Essence , Armand Maurer, trans., 2nd ed. (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.) Paul Vincent Spade, History of the Problem of Universals in the Middle Ages: Notes and Texts. A "course pack" containing additional additional notes on the materials translated in Five Texts (above), plus several further translations. This will be available at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. The price is $29.90 + sales tax. Scope of the course This course will investigate in detail the history of the problem of universals in the Middle Ages, together with the issues that go along with that. Such other issues include: The problem of "individuation." Epistemological questions concerning the formation of general concepts. Authors to be treated include (more or less in chronological order): Porphyry, Boethius, Odo of Tournai, Fridugisus, William of Champeaux, 2 of 10 Gilbert of Poitiers, Peter Abelard, Clarenbald of Arras, Avicenna, Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, Walter Burley, Walter Chatton, William of Ockham. Other such household names will be treated in passing, and of course the ghosts of Plato and Aristotle will haunt the classroom all semester. The discussion will stress the historical facts and details about these people and their views (oh yes, lots and lots of facts and details!), as well as their philosophical merits and demerits. I hope to surprise you by showing that there are plenty of philosophical merits to views that may at first seem just wild and that you initially have no sympathy for at all. Presuppositions Although a knowledge of Latin would certainly be nice in this course (as in all other aspects of your life too—sigh!), particularly when it comes to broadening your range of possible paper topics, it is not in any way needed or expected. All required readings will be in English, as will the lectures, for that matter. Like all advanced courses in philosophy, this one will presuppose a fair background in philosophy generally. Nevertheless, I welcome students from the Medieval Studies Program who do not have any special expertise in philosophy. You may have to scramble in parts of the course, but you will have the enormous advantage of already being familiar with much of the medieval context that will pose an initial obstacle to non-medievalists. In short, I plan to be flexible and make the course beneficial to a wide range of advanced students with varying backgrounds. (On the other hand, undergraduates with no background at all in philosophy should not even think about registering for this course. If in doubt, please consult with me.) Auditors Subject to the availability of seats (the paying customers of course get priority), active auditors are also welcome. (An "active" auditor is defined as one who attends class faithfully, does the reading, and takes full part in the class in every way except for examinations and the paper.) Passive auditors (defined as "dead wood") are invited to go audit some other course in the department. I will be happy to help you select such a course in the privacy of my office. Benefits of the course This course will make you wise beyond your years, reduce your time in Purgatory (if any), and guarantee success in all the things that really matter. It will cure myopia, prevent balding, mend broken bones and even prevent their breaking in the first place! What other course can make such a claim? As an additional benefit, graduate students in Philosophy may count this as a course in “medieval philosophy” for the Department’s graduate distribution requirements. It has also been pre-approved by the Metaphysics & Epistemology committee as counting for distribution in that area. (But you can’t count it for 3 of 10 both at once.) Course requirements This course will focus on a number of unfamiliar authors, which means there are many things to keep straight. In order to satisfy myself that you have kept them straight, I will schedule a series of weekly 20-point quizzes over matters of terminology, points of theory and other such nuts and bolts. Having verified that you know what you're talking about, I will ask you actually to go ahead and talk about it on essay-type mid-term and final examinations and a term paper on some topic relevant to the people and theories we will be treating. Students taking this course under the graduate P515 number will be expected to write appropriately more ambitious term papers and examinations.
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