MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY ‘Dr Marenbon’s book is an authoritative, comprehensive, yet accessible survey of medieval philosophy, written by an expert at the height of his critical powers. Not only does the book guide the reader through the diverse issues of medieval philosophy, but provides sagacious instruction and illuminating commentary on the central topics of its chosen period of study.’ Martin Stone, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. ‘Marenbon has managed to write about an enormous array of topics in a lucid and accessible way. His prose is clear without being condescending, informative without being either patronizing or importunate. The beginner will find it approachable and unpretentious.’ Peter King, University of Toronto, Canada This new introduction replaces Marenbon’s best-selling editions Early Medieval Philosophy (1983) and Later Medieval Philosophy (1987) to present a single author- itative and comprehensive study of the period. An entirely new book, written in the light of the scholarship of the last twenty years, it will be the standard companion for all students of medieval philosophy. It gives a lucid and engaging account of the history of philosophy in the Middle Ages, discussing the main writers and ideas, the social and intellectual contexts, and the important concepts used in medieval philosophy. Medieval Philosophy gives a chronological account which: • treats all four main traditions of philosophy that stem from the Greek heritage of late antiquity: Greek Christian philosophy, Latin philosophy, Arabic philos- ophy and Jewish philosophy • provides a series of ‘study’ sections for close attention to arguments and shorter ‘interludes’ that point to the wider questions of the intellectual context • combines philosophical analysis with historical background • includes a helpful detailed guide to further reading and an extensive bibliography All students of medieval philosophy, medieval history, theology or religion will find this necessary reading. John Marenbon is a senior research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, UK. MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY An historical and philosophical introduction John Marenbon First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2007 John Marenbon All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 10: 0–415–28112–1 (hbk) ISBN 10: 0–415–28113–X (pbk) ISBN 10: 0–203–96876–X (ebk) ISBN 13: 978–0–415–28112–6 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978–0–415–28113–3 (pbk) ISBN 13: 978–0–203–96876–5 (ebk) iv CONTENTS Preface ix Methods of reference xi Abbreviations xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 The ancient traditions in medieval philosophy 6 1 What was ancient philosophy? 6 2 Some Aristotelian themes 7 3 Plato, and the Hellenistic Schools 13 4 Plotinus’s Neoplatonism 16 5 Porphyry and Aristotelian logic 20 6 Iamblichus and Proclus 22 7 Old and new religions 25 8 Translations, Latin philosophy and the Latin Fathers 28 9 Augustine 29 3 Old traditions and new beginnings 34 1 Boethius and the logical curriculum at the end of antiquity 35 Study A: The problem of prescience in Boethius’s ‘Consolation’ 42 2 Monks and encyclopaedists: the Latin West from 525–780 46 Interlude i: Philosophy and a manuscript culture 48 3 The last pagan philosophers, and their Christian pupils 50 Study B: Eternity and the universe: Augustine, Boethius and Philoponus 53 4 The East, from Justinian to the Umayyads 56 5 The varieties of philosophy under the ‘Abbâsids 62 6 Alcuin and philosophy at the court of Charlemagne 70 v CONTENTS 7 John Scottus Eriugena and the ninth century 73 Study C: Gottschalk, Eriugena and his contemporaries on predestination and salvation 78 8 Commentary traditions: Byzantium and the Latin West 82 Interlude ii: Priscianus ad regem Osdroe 83 4 Traditions apart 85 1 The beginnings of medieval Jewish philosophy 85 2 The kalâm tradition 88 Interlude iii: Arabic free-thinkers? 90 3 Fârâbî 91 4 Ismailis and Neoplatonists 100 5 Avicenna 103 6 Ancient philosophy, logic and metaphysics in the eleventh-century Latin West 114 7 Anselm 119 Study D: Anselm’s ‘ontological’ argument 124 8 Psellos, Italos, and the twelfth-century Byzantine Aristotelians 129 5 Latin philosophy in the twelfth century 131 1 Logic and grammar at the turn of the twelfth century 132 2 Peter Abelard 135 Study E: Abelard on universals 139 Interlude iv: Abelard, the Philosophus and the ancient philosophers 144 Study F: Abelard and early medieval ethics 145 3 The schools, Platonism and William of Conches 148 4 Gilbert of Poitiers 152 Study G: Abelard and Gilbert on possibility 156 5 The beginnings of Latin scholastic theology 160 6 The Platonisms of the later twelfth century 161 Interlude v: Platonism and poetry 163 7 The Parisian schools of the later twelfth century 164 8 Beyond Paris: the scientists and the translators 169 9 The variety and distinctiveness of twelfth-century Latin philosophy 171 6 Philosophy in twelfth-century Islam 172 1 Islamic theology and Avicenna 172 Interlude vi: Suhrawardî – theosophist or philosopher? 177 vi CONTENTS 2 Philosophy in al-Andalus 178 3 Averroes 182 Interlude vii: Marriage in the Republic 191 4 Maimonides and Jewish Aristotelianism 192 7 Philosophy in Paris and Oxford, 1200–77 205 1 Paris and Oxford universities: the translations, the curriculum and the forms of philosophical writing 206 Interlude viii: Pseudepigrapha and the medieval Aristotle 214 2 Grammar and logic 218 3 Arts Masters and theologians: 1200–50 224 4 Theology in Paris: Bonaventure and Albert the Great 230 5 Thomas Aquinas 236 Interlude ix: Aquinas and the historiography of medieval philosophy 245 Study H: The five ways 247 Study I: Aquinas on eternity and prescience 251 6 Latin Averroism: the Paris Arts Faculty in the 1260s and 1270s 254 Study J: The eternity of the world: Bonaventure, Aquinas and Boethius of Dacia 258 Study K: The potential intellect, Aquinas, Averroes and Siger of Brabant 262 7 The 1277 condemnations and their significance 266 8 Philosophy in the universities, 1280–1400 271 1 The Albertine tradition 272 2 Henry of Ghent, Godfrey of Fontaines and Peter John Olivi 275 3 Duns Scotus 280 Interlude x: Scotus, the King of France and the Jews 287 Study L: Scotus on possibility 290 4 Between Scotus and Ockham 293 5 William of Ockham 296 Study M: Ockham and the problem of prescience 305 6 The Paris Arts Faculty and fourteenth-century Averroism 308 7 Oxford and Paris theology after Ockham 311 Interlude xi: Holcot and the philosophers 314 8 Logica modernorum 319 9 John Buridan 322 10 The late fourteenth century 325 Interlude xii: How far can you go? Biagio Pelacani di Parma 327 vii CONTENTS 9 Philosophy outside the universities, 1200–1400 329 1 Outside the universities: philosophy, courts and the vernacular in the Latin West 330 2 Byzantine philosophy 335 3 Philosophy in Islam 338 4 Jewish philosophy 339 10 Not an epilogue: ‘medieval’ philosophy, 1400–1700 349 Guide to further reading and material 353 Bibliography 385 Index 437 viii PREFACE This book is not, despite its title, a revision of the Introductions to Early and Later Medieval Philosophy I wrote twenty years ago. But it owes its origin to a request for one. Would I, asked my publishers, like to up-date my two books so that they could be issued as a single volume? I quickly realized that there was so much I wanted to change, or rather, so little I was willing to retain, that it would be much better to offer an entirely new Introduction. Routledge bravely accepted my proposal, and here now is the book. In its conception of what constitutes medieval philosophy, it could hardly be more different from the two earlier Introductions. They focussed exclusively on the Latin tradition, with Islamic and Jewish material introduced only in so far as it affected the Christian thinkers in the universities. This new book aims to introduce all four main traditions of medieval philosophy that go back to the same roots in late antiquity: the Greek Christian tradition, the Latin tradition, the Arabic tradition and the Jewish tradition (written in Arabic and in Hebrew). Chronologically, the scope may seem at first to be not so different from that of my old books, since the stopping date is 1400, only about seventy-five years later than the improbably early point where Later Medieval Philosophy finished. But, as I argue in my Introduction and in the final, brief chapter, 1400 is a completely arbitrary deadline, and the best approach to the material considered here might be to envisage a period running from c. 200 to c. 1700 – a long Middle Ages so long that it hardly remains the Middle Ages – as a unit for teaching and study. Although, then, this book covers almost all the ground that would be expected of an introduction to medieval philosophy, to me its central point lies more in what it fails, in its present state, to do.