The Main Controversies of Medieval Thought in the 12th and 13th Centuries
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a time of great controversy for medieval scholars. New systems of thought were being developed and implemented that challenged the accepted teachings of the church. Some fought to preserve tradition, others fought to destroy it, while still others sought to find a common ground between the two. The greatest controversy of the times, it can be said, was that of faith and reason. Most philosophical debate revolved around these and to a lesser extent the opposition of realists and nominalists on the question of universals. The type of philosophy that was being taught in the Christian schools of the time has been given the name of scholasticism. Scholastics shared a common respect for the ideas of Aristotle, Plato, Boethius, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Avicenna. These were referred to by scholastics as the "authorities". The views of the time were mainly Augustinian and Platonic although certain developments brought radical new ideas into contact with a fixed Christian dogma that was bound to oppose them. Whether a synthesis between them was possible remained to be seen.
Possibly the single-most important event of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries for medieval thinkers was the introduction of new translations of Aristotle's works. The new translations were the products of work done by Arabic scholars. Up to that point Christendom knew only of Aristotle's Logic. It had been widely accepted and was widely respected which meant the new works held great weight. The new translations provided a coherent view of the world that now challenged traditional views. On top of the controversy aroused by the works themselves, the...
... middle of paper ...
...999 ed.
"Medieval philosophy: Jewish thought." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"Medieval Skepticism." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"Nominalism." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"Roots of Scholasticism." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"Roscelin." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"Scholasticism." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"Scholasticism: Nature and Significance." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"St. Thomas Aquinas." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"Stoicism in Medieval and Modern Philosophy." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"The System of Aristotle and its Impact on Medieval Thought." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"Thomas Aquinas." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"Thomas Aquinas and Thomism." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
"Thomist Philosophy." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
In the 16th Century, Europeans had their faith shattered and were forced to realize that there was doubt in what they believed in. From the countless wars being fought in the name of religion, to the once great and wealthy countries that needed to reaffirm their place in the world, ‘all that they had once taken for granted was suddenly cast into doubt’ (446). Europeans were desperately searching for new foundations to put their faith in ‘in the face of intellectual, religious, and political challenges’ (446). This period is an example of the expression “Age of Doubt, Age of Uncertainty”.
5).” “Finally, the Church influenced politics at that time” (Doc. 3).” “The Church unified Europeans and gave every person a sense of how the world worked (Doc.3).” “Ultimately, political leaders only had local power, the Church was the most powerful institution (Doc.3).” These are just some of the things that we’re going on in the politics of the Middle Ages.
By the end of eleventh century, Western Europe had experienced a powerful cultural revival. The flourish of New towns provided a place for exchange of commerce and flow of knowledge and ideas. Universities, which replaced monasteries as centers of learning, poured urbanized knowledge into society. New technological advances and economics transformations provided the means for building magnificent architectures. These developments were representative of the mental and behavioral transformations that the medieval world underwent and the new relationships that were brought about between men, women and society in the twelfth century. As in technology, science, and scholasticism, Literature was also reborn with a new theme.3
Religion in the Middle Ages takes on a character all of its own as it is lived out differently in the lives of medieval men and women spanning from ordinary laity to vehement devotees. Though it is difficult to identify what the average faith consists of in the Middle Ages, the life told of a radical devotee in The Book of Margery Kempe provides insight to the highly intense version of medieval paths of approaching Christ. Another medieval religious text, The Cloud of Unknowing, provides a record of approaching the same Christ. I will explore the consistencies and inconsistencies of both ways to approach Christ and religious fulfillment during the Middle Ages combined with the motivations to do so on the basis of both texts.
Kretzmann, N. et al (1989). The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy : From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of Scholasticism, 1100-1600. Paperback: New York.
After his death, Aristotle's words were perpetuated at the Perpatetic school by his loyal followers. Unfortunatley many of his ideas disappeared in Western philosophy between 500 and 1000 A.D., but were preserved by Arabic and Syrian scholars which reintroduced Aristotle to the Western world between. Since this time, his ideas have been extremely influential in Western rhetoric analysis.
Despite their differences, The New Education, Education of a Christian Prince, and The Prince provide insight to the political and social circumstances of the time and the importance of humanism in the Renaissance. The connecting strand throughout all three of the sources is the revival of the classical period. The citations of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers reveal the importance of classical values in the Renaissance period. Besides that great similarity, the sources also contain some major differences. The most important contrasts within the sources are political ideas, the role of religion, and philosophical perspective. Together the sources depict the movement away from Christianity and idealism towards secular ideas and realism. The Erasmus source is the most traditional, and the Machiavelli source is the most modern, while the Vergerius source is somewhere in between. The Renaissance was the tipping point between the middle ages and the modern era, and that is apparent within the similarities and difference of these sources. From The New Education, Education of a Christian Prince, and The Prince, it can be concluded that the humanist movement was extremely significant during the Renaissance, and humanists contributed to the development of new ideas through the revival of the past ideas of classical Greece and
In the Medieval times, the Roman Catholic Church played a great role in the development of England and had much more power than the Church of today does. In Medieval England, the Roman Catholic Church dominated everyday life and controlled everyone whether it is knights, peasants or kings. The Church was one of the most influential institutions in all of Medieval England and played a large role in education and religion. The Church's power was so great that they could order and control knights and sends them to battle whenever they wished to. The Church also had the power to influence the decision of Kings and could stop or pass laws which benefited them in the long run, adding to this, the Church had most of the wealth in Europe as the Church demanded a Tithe from all the common life which meant that they had to pay 10 percent of their income to the Church. The Church controlled all the of the beliefs and religion of the Church as they were the only ones who could read or write Latin and as such could decipher the Bible and scriptures which gave them all the power to be the mouth of God. The Legacy of the power and the influence of the Church can still be found, even today in modern times.
In the beginning of this semester, English 1302 seemed as though it would be the subject that would be the toughest for me to pass. The pace, the work load and everything in between seemed overwhelming for me. As time proceeded to pass, the course didn’t seem as overpowering. By taking the work one step at a time, it simply became another step to achieve the overall goal of this first half of the semester. I have made improvements as well as learned lessons from my mistakes made along the way.
The. The "Aristotle". Home Page English 112 VCCS Litonline. Web. The Web.
Armand Maurer. Being and Knowing: Studies in Thomas Aquinas and Later Medieval Philosophers, Papers in Mediæval Studies, no. 10. Pontifical Institute of Mediæval Studies, Toronto : 1990.
Ibn Rush was born on April 14, 1126 in Cordova, Spain to a well-known family of jurist. He was educated in the traditional way. He studied the Qur’an, hadith, fiqh, medicine, and jurisprudence. He held the family’s office as a chief judge under Almoravids’ dynasty. One day, he was asked by the Caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf, who had intensively studied Greek philosophy, to write commentaries on Aristotle’s philosophy interpreting them correctly. Ibn Rush spend three decades writing his commentaries on all of Aristotle’s works, except Politics, coverings the topics of aesthetics, logic, and ethics. Many of the commentaries had a short, and a paraphrased version. He focused on the original writings and their interpretations by other scholars. His different versions were to be easily read by people with different understanding levels. His main goal was to shed light on the Neoplatonic interpretations of Aristotle’s works, and compare them to what Aristotle originally meant. In these commentaries, he inserted his thoughts on religion and philosophy, existence of God, origin of the world, an...
There are many terms used to describe the period after the fall of Rome and before the Renaissance, three main terms being the Middle, Medieval, and Dark Ages. In general, these terms are used interchangeably, but are these fair substitutions? In recent years the term “Dark Ages” is becoming less and less acceptable as a phrase which describes the span of years it is meant to refer to. The use of the term “dark” implies a period of stagnation, which is becoming a questionable concept. In particular, the span of time referred to in this paper is 530-1452 BCE, with specific attention paid to the scientific discoveries and innovations rather than art or literature. These dates are significant because in 529 the Academy and Lyceum in Athens were shutdown by the Byzantine emperor, thus ending the Greek intellectual influence. The date of 1453 is chosen because many Greek texts arrived in Europe in 1453 after the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Turks, thereby reviving the struggling European scientific fields (Bunch 93). This essay will show that the medieval period was not a so-called “dark age” because of scientific innovation in the Islamic world, and is only referred to as such because of the popular bias in the West of focusing on Europe. In order to make this clear, firstly, two objections to this proposition will be analyzed and clearly refuted. Following these counter arguments, the main weight of historical facts and events in the identification and explanation of Islamic scientific innovation will be presented, showing the inaccuracy of referring to the medieval period as dark. Finally, I will show that the misleading perception of the medieval era as stagnant is due to the modern bias for the superiority of Western...
Philosophy is believed to have begun in the sixth century in ancient Greece. In fact, the word "philosophy" is the Greek term for "love of wisdom" (Pojman). After notable minds of the Ancient World such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, by modernist standards, original thinking ceased for many centuries. Throughout the following period, later known as the Middle Ages, the world was dominated by dogma of the Catholic Church. Scholasticism allied with severe punishment for heresy prevented rationalization outside of religion. Descartes was the first to bring philosophy to its "Renaissance" (Strathern 7-9). He questioned the reality of everything, including God. Though he was a devout Catholic, and later proved the existence of God mathematically, he founded and popularized the concept of questioning that which is taught.
The Middle Ages saw a period in time that was deeply rooted in Christianity. Almost every aspect of life was monitered and ruled by the Church. This period in time also saw the emergence of men beginning to question whether the existence of God can be proved by faith , reason, or as Thomas Aquinas insists, by both faith and reason. There were differing opinions of this matter in both scholarly and religious circles. Faith is what all believers must have within them, it is a crucial part of man’s relationship with God. On the other hand, reason is a part of science and some believed that matters of The Divine should not be subjected to reason; there should not be a justification for God.