Scholasticism

If medieval philosophy had to be represented by a single name, that name would be Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274). Dominican friar, theologian, and philosopher, Aquinas undertook the most ambitious intellectual synthesis of the Middle Ages: harmonizing the philosophy of Aristotle — newly rediscovered in the Latin West through Arabic and Greek translations — with Christian theology. The result was two monumental Summae and dozens of commentaries, disputed questions, and opuscula that shaped Catholic theology, natural law theory, political ethics, and Western metaphysics for centuries. ...

In the heart of the twelfth century, amid Andalusian mosques, North African synagogues, and Egyptian Islamic courts, a rabbi, physician, and philosopher undertook one of the most daring intellectual syntheses of the Middle Ages: to show that philosophical reason and biblical revelation do not contradict each other but are, in fact, complementary. His name was Moses ben Maimon — in Hebrew, Rambam; to the Latin West, Maimonides. No other medieval Jewish thinker exerted so deep and lasting an influence — within Judaism and far beyond it, shaping Christian and Islamic thought in ways that still resonate today. ...

Few concepts traverse the history of Western philosophy with such persistence as nous (νοῦς). The Greek word designates, depending on context, mind, intellect, intelligence, or reason — but its philosophical reach exceeds any of these translations taken alone. From the moment Anaxagoras elevated it to a cosmic ordering principle, through Plato’s elaboration and Aristotle’s analysis of intellect in the De Anima, to the emanationist metaphysics of Plotinus and the intense medieval debates between Averroes and Thomas Aquinas, nous constitutes a guiding thread that links cosmology, psychology, and theology in a single conceptual arc. ...

No twelfth-century philosopher provoked as much turbulence — intellectual and personal — as Peter Abelard (c. 1079–1142). An unmatched master of dialectic, tragic lover of Héloïse, twice condemned by the Church, he reshaped the landscape of medieval thought by subordinating authority to reason, offering an original solution to the problem of universals, and founding an ethics centered on individual conscience. His life reads like a classical tragedy; his philosophy anticipates problems that would occupy the scholastics for centuries. ...

This is the first of five articles dedicated to Joseph Maréchal’s monumental work Le point de départ de la métaphysique (The Starting Point of Metaphysics), published in five notebooks (cahiers) between 1922 and 1947. Each article follows one cahier, tracing Maréchal’s ambitious project: to demonstrate, through a rigorous historical and critical method, that a genuine metaphysics of being is not only possible after Kant but is in fact demanded by the very structure of human knowledge. This first article covers Cahier I, which examines the classical tradition from ancient Greece through the end of medieval Scholasticism. ...

Abelardo (Peter Abelard) The most brilliant and controversial intellectual of the 12th century. Also famous for his tragic love affair with Heloise (castrated by order of her uncle). He proposed conceptualism in the dispute over universals and introduced dialectical reason into theology. “I understand in order to believe” — reason must examine before accepting by faith (an inversion of Anselm of Canterbury). Key Concepts Conceptualism (universalia post rem): universals are abstract concepts in the mind, neither real things separate from particulars (Plato) nor mere names (Roscellinus) Sic et Non: dialectical method — 158 theological questions answered with contradictory authorities; reason must resolve the contradiction Morality of intention: the act is neutral; good/evil resides in conscious intention Distinction: understanding (reason + faith) vs. comprehension (exclusive gift of God) Influenced by Anselm of Canterbury (criticizes exaggerated realism) Boethius — Aristotelian logic Influenced Thomas Aquinas — scholastic method of questions and solutions; ethics of intention Modern ethics of conscience and intention Works Sic et Non; Ethics or Know Thyself; Story of My Misfortunes (Historia Calamitatum). ...

Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great) Dominican friar, Bishop of Regensburg, and Doctor Universalis. He was the teacher of Thomas Aquinas and the principal figure responsible for the systematic introduction of Aristotle into the medieval Latin world. Unlike other scholastics, Albert had a genuine interest in the natural sciences — botany, zoology, mineralogy, alchemy — combining empirical observation with philosophical reflection. Canonized and declared Doctor of the Church in 1931, he is the patron saint of natural scientists. ...

Anselm of Canterbury Born in Aosta, in the Alps, in 1033, Anselm entered the famous Benedictine monastery of Bec, in Normandy, where he became an admired master, and later became Archbishop of Canterbury, amid harsh conflicts with the English kings over the authority of the Church. He is called “the father of Scholasticism” for having inaugurated the systematic effort to use reason to penetrate the contents of faith. His motto sums up the whole medieval program: “fides quaerens intellectum” — faith seeking understanding. In the Proslogion he radicalizes it: “I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand” — a formula that gathers up the “crede ut intelligas” of Saint Augustine. ...

Boethius “The last Roman and the first Scholastic.” He translated and commented on the Logic of Aristotle into Latin, transmitting it to the Middle Ages. The Isagoge of Porphyry — which Boethius translated and commented on — (introduction to the Categories) launched the debate of universals that will dominate Scholasticism. Imprisoned and condemned to death by Theodoric, he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy in prison — one of the most widely read works of the Middle Ages. ...

Bonaventure Giovanni di Fidanza, known as Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. Franciscan theologian and philosopher; cardinal and Minister-General of the Franciscan Order. Contemporary and cordial adversary of Thomas Aquinas. Called the Doctor Seraphicus. Key Concepts Itinerary of the Mind to God (Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, 1259): the soul ascends to God in six steps — from the external world (vestiges of God in creation) to the interior (soul as image of God) to the superior (contemplation of God in itself); divine illumination is necessary at each stage Divine illumination: human knowledge requires a special light infused by God — inheritance from Augustine against the pure Aristotelianism of Thomas Aquinas Exemplarism: creatures are vestiges (vestigia), images (imagines) or similitudes (similitudines) of God — the world is a book that speaks of God Theology as affective wisdom: theology is not theoretical science but sapientia — knowledge that moves toward love; contemplation surpasses speculation Creation in time: against Aristotle and Averroes, the world is not eternal — it was created from nothing (ex nihilo) Influenced by Augustine — illuminism, interiority and love Plato (via Augustine) — exemplarism and participation Anselm of Canterbury — ontological argument and faith seeking understanding Francis of Assisi — Franciscan spirituality Influenced Later Franciscan school (Duns Scotus, Ockham — though divergent) Western Christian mysticism Thomas Aquinas — debate on the eternity of the world Works Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard (1248–1255); Itinerary of the Mind to God (1259); Reduction of the Arts to Theology (1255); The Triple Way (c. 1259). ...

Duns Scotus Born around 1266 in Duns, Scotland, John Duns Scotus entered the Franciscan order and taught at Oxford, Paris, and Cologne, where he died prematurely in 1308. The subtlety and rigor of his distinctions earned him the title of “Subtle Doctor.” Alongside Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham, he is one of the great names of high Scholasticism — and the principal Franciscan counterpoint to Thomism. His most characteristic metaphysical thesis is the univocity of being. Against Thomas Aquinas, who held that “being” is attributed to God and creatures only by analogy, Scotus maintains that the concept of being has a univocal sense, the same for the Creator and the creature — without which, he argues, no knowledge of God from the world would be possible. It is the most universal and indeterminate concept of all. ...

Thomas Aquinas Born around 1225 in Roccasecca, near Aquino, in southern Italy, Thomas belonged to the high nobility, which firmly opposed his entry into the mendicant order of the Dominicans — even confining him for about a year. He studied under Albert the Great in Paris and Cologne and became a master of theology at the University of Paris. Despite the nickname “the dumb ox,” he proved to be the greatest genius of Scholasticism. After an intense experience in 1273, he ceased writing, saying that all he had produced seemed to him like “straw”; he died the following year, on his way to the Council of Lyon. Canonized in 1323, he is “the Angelic Doctor,” and Thomism remains the official reference of Catholic philosophy. ...

William of Ockham Born around 1287 in the English village of Ockham, in Surrey, William entered the Franciscan order and studied at Oxford. Accused of heresy, he was summoned to the papal court at Avignon; caught up in the dispute between the Franciscans and Pope John XXII over evangelical poverty, he ended up fleeing to the court of Emperor Louis of Bavaria, under whose protection he lived until his death, around 1347. His work marks the end of classical Scholasticism and opens the way to Modernity. ...