In the ancient world being a philosopher was a practical alternative to being a christian. Philosophical systems offered intellectual, practical and moral codes for .
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- Philosophy and Theology in the Long Middle Ages
- Medieval Philosophy and Theology
Biographical Note Kent Emery, Jr. He has published extensively on monastic, Scholastic and mystical theologies and philosophy of the later Middle Ages, and is Editor of the Bulletin de philosophie medievale. He has published Medieval Trinitarian Thought from Aquinas to Ockham Cambridge, and articles and book chapters dealing with later-medieval trinitarian theology and philosophical psychology, as well as genres of later-medieval philosophical and theological literature. Andreas Speer , Ph. His main publications are in the field of the history of Medieval philosophy an theology, on natural philosophy, epistemology and in Medieval aesthetics.
He is directing a couple of great research projects Averroes latinus, Durandus a S.
Aertsen The Division of the Waters Gen 1,6—7: Noone The Division of Metaphysical Discourses: Boethius, Thomas Aquinas and Meister Eckhart A More Considered Reply to Lovejoy Augustine on Memoria and Commemoratio De hebdomadibus in the Context of the Commentaries on Peri hermeneias The Second Question of His Quodlibet Thomas Aquinas on Theological Truth God and Reason in the Middle Ages. Edward Grant - - Cambridge University Press. The Light and the Dark: A Cultural History of Dualism. Petrus Franciscus Maria Fontaine - - J. From the Circle of Alcuin to the School of Auxerre: Reformed Thought and Scholasticism: John Platt - - E.
Philosophy and Theology in the Long Middle Ages: Certainly for Abelard the above generalization fails entirely. Nevertheless, a big change is about to occur. Prior to Abelard, philosophy in the Middle Ages had not been an exclusively academic affair. It had been addressed for the most part to any well educated reader interested in the topics being discussed. Soon, however, this all changes. Philosophy becomes an increasingly specialized discipline, pursued by and for those whose livelihood is found only in educational institutions.
Philosophy and theology become more clearly distinguished from one another; both become more systematic, rigorous and precise. These virtues are accompanied by an increasingly technical jargon, which makes so much late-medieval philosophy intimidating and formidable to non-specialist readers.
As with the previous generalization, this one should not be regarded as a philosophical fault of the later authors; it is simply a different way of doing philosophy. What we see in passing from the earlier to the later Middle Ages is a transition from one to the other. As part of the cultural revival described above, and from the late-eleventh century on, there was a new and increasing interest in having translations of previously unavailable texts, not all of them philosophical by any means. But, for whatever reason, new translations soon began to appear from:.
The Spanish translators worked from Arabic texts. After such a circuitous route, it is no less than amazing that the Latin Europeans were able to understand anything at all of these newly available Aristotelian works. Eventually the extensive and thorough commentaries by the Moorish Ibn Rushd in Latin, Averroes, —98 were translated from Arabic as well. These commentaries were extremely important in shaping the late medieval understanding of Aristotle, although some of the views contained in them became highly controversial.
By the mid-thirteenth century, they were widely known. After them, the Physics, Metaphysics and other Aristotelian writings gradually became known. This relatively sudden injection of so much new and unfamiliar material into Western Europe was a stunning shock, nothing less than revolutionary.
It was no longer possible for philosophers and theologians to regard their task as simply one of deepening and elaborating traditional views that had come mainly from the Church Fathers and other familiar and approved authorities. As part of the revival that began after the turn of the millennium, new forms of education began to emerge in Western Europe. In general, we may distinguish four main types of educational practices in the Middle Ages: These were schools that had been regularly associated with monasteries ever since the sixth century.
This was another one of these monastic schools. The masters of this school became quite well known in their own right in the later-twelfth century. The practice declined after c. These were schools associated with the official church of a bishop, and played a role similar to that of the monastic schools for monasteries: Important figures associated with the School of Chartres include Bernard of Chartres died c.
Frequently, universities grew out of cathedral schools. Thus, the cathedral school at Paris developed by the early-thirteenth century into the University of Paris.
An important cathedral school drew students from all over Europe. Such a school became known as a studium generale. The University of Paris was the premier university in Europe in the thirteenth century. The official founding of the University is usually put at this date, although it is clear that the statutes existed earlier. Oxford and Cambridge also date from the early-thirteenth century, although their period of greatest vigor in the Middle Ages came in the late-thirteenth and early-fourteenth century. Toulouse was founded in by papal charter.
Salamanca was founded by royal charter in There were also universities in Italy; indeed, Bologna was the first university in all of Europe, and had the peculiarity of being a student -run university. Most universities had arts faculties, in addition to one or more of the others. In effect, the arts faculty was the equivalent of the modern undergraduate program.
Others were best known for medicine.
Paris had all four faculties, but the faculty of theology was considered the highest of the four. In the medieval university, philosophy was cultivated first and foremost in the arts faculty. When the newly translated works of Aristotle first appeared at the University of Paris, for instance, it was in the faculty of arts. The works were clearly not law or medicine. Some of them might be stretched a bit to count as medicine, but these were not the ones that were influential first. Some of these consequences were thought to be dangerous for Christian doctrine, and they were.
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In , Pope Gregory IX ordered that the works prohibited in not be used until they could be examined by a theological commission to remove any errors. Despite these bans, study and discussion of Aristotle could not be stopped. Why were these prohibitions issued? In part it was out of a genuine concern for the purity of the faith.
Philosophy and Theology in the Long Middle Ages
Aristotelianism was thought, and rightly so, to be theologically suspect. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that some of the basis for the prohibitions was simply a resistance to new ideas. By their very nature, universities brought together masters and students from all over Europe and put them in close proximity. Already in the twelfth century, and certainly by the early-thirteenth, it is futile even to attempt anything like a sequential narrative of the history of medieval philosophy. Instead, the remainder of this article will mention only a few of the major figures and describe some of the main topics that were discussed throughout the medieval period.
For a more complete picture, readers should consult any of the general histories in the Bibliography below, and for details on individual authors and topics the Related Entries in this Encyclopedia, listed below. Although there is certainly ample justification for giving special emphasis to these authors, it would be misleading if one thought one could get even a fair overall picture from them alone. Nevertheless, the list is instructive and illustrates several things.
First of all, not one of these three or four authors was French. All but Ockham spent at least part of their careers at the University of Paris.
Medieval Philosophy and Theology
This illustrates both the preeminence of the University of Paris in the thirteenth century and the increasing internationalization of education in the later Middle Ages in general. But it also illustrates another odd fact: There are certainly notable exceptions to this perhaps contentious observation see for example the entries on Peter Auriol , John Buridan , Godfrey of Fontaines , Nicholas of Autrecourt , Peter John Olivi , Philip the Chancellor , and William of Auvergne , but with the arguable exception of Buridan, surely none of them is of the stature of the four mentioned above.
As a result, Aquinas enjoyed a far greater authority in the late-nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century than perhaps he ever did in the Middle Ages. To some extent, Bonaventure likewise came to be regarded as representing typically Franciscan views see the entry on Saint Bonaventure , and later on Scotus was highly respected and often favored among the Franciscans see the entry on John Duns Scotus. Ockham is a special case. He was a controversial figure, mainly because of political disputes with the Pope that embroiled his later life see the entry on William of Ockham.
Nevertheless, as one of their own, the Franciscans have always been interested in him and in his writings. The upshot of all this is that major late medieval philosophers, like Buridan, who did not belong to a religious order have often suffered from neglect in standard histories of medieval philosophy, at least until fairly recently.
Another neglected secular master was Henry of Ghent, a very important late-thirteenth century figure who has turned out to be crucial for understanding much of Duns Scotus, but whose views have only in the last few decades begun to be seriously studied see the entry on Henry of Ghent. For that matter, even many important and influential late medieval philosophers who did belong to religious orders are still virtually unknown or at least woefully understudied today, despite the labors of generations of scholars.
Their works have never been printed and exist only in handwritten manuscripts, written in a devilishly obscure system of abbreviation it takes special training to decode. It is probably safe to say that for no other period in the history of European philosophy does so much basic groundwork remain to be done. Medieval philosophy included all the main areas we think of as part of philosophy today.
Nevertheless, certain topics stand out as worthy of special mention. To begin with, it is only a slight exaggeration to say that medieval philosophy invented the philosophy of religion. To be sure, ancient pagan philosophers sometimes talked about the nature of the gods. But a whole host of traditional problems in the philosophy of religion first took on in the Middle Ages the forms in which we still often discuss them today:. As for logic, the great historian of logic I.
From the time of Abelard through at least the middle of the fourteenth century, if not later, the peculiarly medieval contributions to logic were developed and cultivated to a very high degree. For logical developments in the Middle Ages, see the articles insolubles , literary forms of medieval philosophy , medieval theories of categories , medieval semiotics , medieval theories of analogy , medieval theories of demonstration , medieval theories of modality , medieval theories of Obligationes , medieval theories: In metaphysics, the Middle Ages has a well deserved reputation for philosophical excellence.
The problem of universals, for example, was one of the topics that were discussed at this time with a level of precision and rigor it would be hard to find matched before or since. But it was by no means the only such question. For some of the main topics in metaphysics on which medieval philosophers sharpened their wits, see the articles binarium famosissimum , existence , medieval mereology , the medieval problem of universals , medieval theories of causality , medieval theories of haecceity , and medieval theories of relations.
In natural philosophy and philosophy of science, medieval philosophy was of course very strongly—but not exclusively—influenced by Aristotle. See, for example, the articles medieval theories of causality and Saint Thomas Aquinas. Particularly from the fourteenth century on, the increasing use of mathematical reasoning in natural philosophy would eventually pave the way for the rise of early modern science later on. Important figures in this development include William Heytesbury and William of Ockham. Medieval epistemology was not, with some noteworthy exceptions, particularly worried over the problem of skepticism, over whether we have genuine knowledge see the entry on medieval skepticism.
The tendency was to take it for granted that we do, and instead to ask about how this comes about: For some of the important topics discussed in the area of medieval epistemology, see the entries divine illumination , medieval theories of demonstration, and mental representation in medieval philosophy. For details on some important developments in medieval ethics, see the entries on medieval theories of conscience , medieval theories of practical reason , and the natural law tradition in ethics. The above lists of topics and important figures should be regarded as only representative; they are far from exhaustive.
This bibliography includes only items cited in the body of the article, plus general resources relevant to the study of medieval philosophy. More specialized bibliographies relevant to particular topics and individuals may be found in other articles in this Encyclopedia. See the list of Related Entries below. The changes made for the update published in March were contributed by Thomas Williams.
The Main Ingredients of Medieval Philosophy 3. The Availability of Greek Texts 4. The Twelfth Century and the Rise of Universities 5.