Rencontres de Philosophie Médiévale

Codificata a partire da una sezione specifica del corpus aristotelico la logica rappresentava nel Medioevo latino quell’"arte delle arti" (ars artium) che studiava le regole del ragionamento corretto e le era riconosciuta una universalità di tipo strumentale. Come notato sin dai primi biografi e commentatori Dante dimostra in svariate occasioni una maestria e una padronanza della materia del tutto degne per dirla col Boccaccio di un «maraviglioso loïco». Giustamente celebri sono i versi di Inferno XXVII in cui «un d’i neri cherubini» con un raffinato ragionamento strappa l’anima di Guido da Montefeltro all’impotente San Francesco («forse / tu non pensavi ch’io loïco fossi!» v. 123); ma è soprattutto nel Convivio nella Monarchia e nella controversa Questio de aqua et terra che l’Alighieri sfoggia una competenza difficilmente riducibile alla consultazione occasionale di qualche ‘manuale’. Questo studio analizza sistematicamente i passaggi dell’opera dantesca riconducibili a questo specifico ambito disciplinare; e offre una panoramica sugli ambienti culturali in cui il Poeta avrebbe verosimilmente potuto formarsi (Firenze Bologna la Toscana occidentale la marca Trevigiana). Da un lato quindi si inserisce nel fortunato filone di studi che si è occupato di valutare la conoscenza che Dante poté avere delle dottrine di Aristotele e dei suoi interpreti. Dall’altro tenta di ricostruire i tempi i luoghi e i modi in cui «peregrino quasi mendicando» poté acquisire tale competenza specialistica. In tal modo non viene solo illuminato un lato inesplorato di questo eccezionale «amatore di sapienza» ma viene anche offerto uno scorcio privilegiato sullo stato delle conoscenze filosofiche in Italia fra XIII e XIV secolo.

The Philosopher the Master of Those Who Know was the dominant pagan authority in all four of the main traditions of medieval philosophy: Arabic Greek Hebrew and Latin. Yet we now know that a number of works attributed to Aristotle were in fact spurious authored by others who claimed to be or whom others claimed to be the Stagirite for example the Secretum secretorum the Liber de causis De mundo De proprietatibus elementorum De pomo and De plantis. These writings strongly impacted medieval thought in various and fascinating ways both in the original language be it Arabic Greek Hebrew or Latin and in translation. The mechanisms of their production dissemination and translation are themselves worthy of attention. Many of these works spawned commentary traditions of their own parallel to those involving the classic texts of Peripatetic philosophy. Apparent contradictions between ideas expressed in these treatises and those found in what we consider to be authentic works for instance ideas that appeared to derive more from the Academy than from the Lyceum provoked questions about authenticity and about the possible evolution of Aristotle’s thought. Finally these texts were employed in one way or another in many genres of philosophical literature in the Middle Ages including metaphysics natural and moral philosophy theology and even more exotic disciplines like chiromancy and alchemy. This volume aims to shed new light on various aspects of the history of Pseudo-Aristotelian texts in the Middle Ages.

The proceedings of the S.I.E.P.M. Colloquium at Maynooth published in this volume shed new light on the development of the perception of the other within the different philosophical religious and cultural traditions in the late Middle Ages as well as the early modern era in both Christian and Islamic thought. The contributions consider not only the theological background but also the philosophical presuppositions of the concepts which were used to develop various apologetic writings and theological treatises that dealt with questions of cultural and religious difference. The rich and diverse medieval and early modern tradition of engaging with the other and the arguments for or against toleration on topics that are equally diverse are discussed with reference to both the Western and Eastern Christian tradition to the contributions of Islamic Thinkers on the topic and to the flourishing tradition of a constructed interreligious dialogue such as that between Christians and Jews. Finally this book includes a number of important investigations exploring the relationship between toleration and rights not only within Europe but also in the lands of the so-called new world and its indigenous peoples where arguments of exclusion were grounded intheories such as grace-based dominium.

This volume is an homage to the great intellectual contribution made by Loris Sturlese to the field of history of medieval philosophy. Its point of departure lies in a methodological line which Sturlese has maintained throughout his whole academic career: the importance in the historical and conceptual reconstruction of medieval philosophical thought of focusing not only on the classical most famous centers of knowledge production and transmission but also on the often-neglected peripheries which during the Middle Ages were increasingly more relevant in propelling the circulation of texts and ideas. In this volume the notions of ‘center’ and ‘periphery’ are not understood in a merely geographical sense but also in conceptual linguistic historical and literary terms. The richness of this approach is demonstrated by the broad spectrum of the contributions which range from Islamic philosophy to Italian Renaissance including the reception of ancient philosophy and of Arabic scientific works in the Latin world and up to eighteenth-century French geography. Special attention is devoted to the philosophical thought developed in the German area. The volume does not lack in giving space to important medieval figures such as Dante as well as to more general philosophical notions such as the concept of rationality.

The volume explores connections ruptures relations and affinities through the analysis of paradigmatic figures places and topics within the micro- and macro-histories of philosophy.

The annual colloquium of the SIEPM in Freiburg Germany was groundbreaking in that it featured a more or less equal number of talks on all three medieval cultures that contributed to the formation of Western philosophical thought: the Islamic Jewish and Christian traditions. Indeed the subject of the colloquium ‘The Origin and Nature of Language and Logic in Medieval Islamic Jewish and Christian Thought’ lent itself to such a cross-cultural approach. In all these traditions partially inspired by ancient Greek philosophy partially by other sources language and thought semantics and logic occupied a central place. As a result the chapters of the present volume effortlessly traverse philosophical religious cultural and linguistic boundaries and thus in many respects open up new perspectives. It should not be surprising if readers delight in chapters of a philosophical tradition outside of their own as much as they do in those in their area of expertise.

Among the topics discussed are the significance of language for logic; the origin of language: inspiration or convention; imposition or coinage; the existence of an original language; the correctness of language; divine discourse; animal language; the meaningfulness of animal sounds; music as communication; the scope of dialectical disputation; the relation between rhetoric and demonstration; the place of logic and rhetoric in theology; the limits of human knowledge; the meaning of categories; the problem of metaphysical entailment; the need to disentangle the metaphysical implications of language; the quantification of predicates; and the significance of linguistic custom for judging logical propositions.

La legge naturale rappresenta un elemento centrale nello sviluppo della cultura del medioevo latino. Frutto della rilettura di un'antica tradizione stoica e del diritto romano alla luce di alcuni passi della Scrittura in particolare del capitolo secondo dell'Epistola ai Romani di Paolo questa idea diviene uno dei pilastri del discorso giuridico politico e teologico a partire dal XII secolo. Il volume ricostruisce le forme molteplici nelle quali la legge di natura viene affrontata da canonisti e civilisti esegeti e teologi in un contesto nel quale prende forma la grande cultura scolastica e inizia a muovere i primi passi l'istituzione universitaria. Lo studio mostra come questi molteplici orientamenti dialogano fra loro e al tempo stesso rispondono ad un quadro storico e religioso particolarmente vivace e magmatico segnato dalla costruzione della monarchia papale dal tentativo di definire una ideologia imperiale di portata universale e dall'emergere delle monarchie europee a partire da quella francese. Un panorama variegato nel quale gli scritti di Abelardo dei maestri di Laon dei Vittorini e dei maestri di Chartres assieme a quelli di Graziano e dei canonisti e successivamente di maestri parigini come Langton Giovanni de La Rochelle e Alberto Magno fissano i termini di un lessico il perimetro di una discussione destinata ad essere ripresa e ridefinita nei decenni successivi e declinata in forme molteplici non solo lungo i secoli del Medioevo ma anche lungo tutta l'età moderna.

What makes political power legitimate? Without legitimation subjects will not accept power and since religion permeated medieval society religion became foundational to philosophical legitimations of political power.

In 2013 the xix Annual Colloquium of the International Society for the Study of Medieval Philosophy took place in Alcalá de Henares one of the medieval centers of political debate within and between Jewish Christian and Muslim communities. The members of these communities all shared the common belief that God constitutes the remote or proximate cause of legitimation. Yet beyond this common belief they differed significantly in their points of departure and how their arguments evolved. For instance the debate among Western Christians in the conflict between secular power and Papal authority sowed the seeds for a secular basis of legitimacy.

The volume reflects the results of the colloquium. Many contributions focus on key Christian thinkers such as Marsilius of Padua Thomas Aquinas John Quidort of Paris Giles of Rome Dante and William of Ockham; other studies focus on major authors from the Jewish and Muslim traditions such as Maimonides and Alfarabi. Finally several papers focus on lesser-known but no less important figures for the history of political thought: Manegold of Lautenbach Ptolemy of Lucca Guido Terrena John of Viterbo Pierre de Ceffons John Wyclif and Pierre de Plaoul. The contributions rely on original texts giving the readers a fresh insight into these issues.

Most scholars know that the great universities were the institutional setting of Scholastic philosophical and theological activity in the later Middle Ages. Fewer realize however that perhaps far more Scholastic learning in the liberal arts and theology took place in the studia or study-houses of the religious orders which out-numbered the universities and were more widely distributed across Europe. Indeed most members of the mendicant orders received most or all of their learning in the liberal arts and theology in the studia of their order and the most famous members of the orders (e.g. Albert the Great Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus) spent more time teaching in the studia than they did serving as Regent Masters in the university proper. As a consequence the greater part of later medieval Scholastic literature was produced in the institutional context of the studia of the religious orders. Moreover there were other significant institutional loci for Scholastic learning and discourse in the later Middle Ages besides the universities and the study-houses namely the Papal Court—notably the Sacred Palace at Avignon—and several royal courts for example the courts of Robert the Wise in Naples and of the Emperor Lewis IV in Munich. It is not surprising therefore that many of the greatest Scholastic masters at different times taught in or were associated with all of these venues. This volume which originated at the XVth annual Colloquium of the Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale held at the University of Notre Dame (USA) in October 2008 contains essays concerning the study and teaching of philosophy and theology in the studia of the Dominicans Franciscans Augustinian Hermits Carmelites Benedictines and Cistercians as well as the intellectual activity at the Papal Court in Rome and Avignon and at various royal courts (London Naples Munich).Contributions by: Fabrizio Amerini Luca Bianchi Alain Boureau Stephen F. Brown Amos Corbini William O. Duba Russell L. Friedman Hester G. Gelber Joseph Goering Wouter Goris Guy Guldentops Jacqueline Hamesse Maarten J.F.M. Hoenen Roberto Lambertini Alfonso Maierù Michèle Mulchahey Patrick Nold Adriano Oliva OP Alessandro Palazzo Giorgio Pini Sylvain Piron François-Xavier Putallaz Christopher D. Schabel and Garrett R. Smith Neslihan ?enocak Thomas Sullivan OSB Christian Trottmann with an introduction by Kent Emery Jr. and an epilogue by William J. Courtenay.

Stretching from Basel to Cologne the Rhine formed the geographical axis of a broad cultural realm in the late Middle Ages lending vitality not only to its cities and universities but also to the two great Councils to which it played host. Already in the fourteenth century the lives of such famous German mystics as Meister Eckhart Heinrich Seuse and Johannes Tauler testify to the presence of an advanced intellectual culture in the cities of the upper and lower Rhine. In the fifteenth century the most famous Councils of the late Middle Ages took place along the Rhine namely the Councils of Constance and Basel which formed loci of intellectual exchange and which became seedbeds of philosophical ideas that engaged and influenced such participants as Heymericus de Campo and Nicholas of Cusa. With the establishment of the Universities of Cologne (1388) Freiburg (1457) Basel (1459) and Mainz (1476) the intellectual culture of this region took an institutional form that continues to exist to this day and symbolizes the stability of the intellectual culture of the Rhineland. The main purpose of this volume is to explore the intellectual richness and vitality of the Rhineland in its various facets and on its different levels.

Né aux alentours de 1120 surnommé le «Docteur universel» Alain de Lille doit ce titre à ses talents de philosophe de théologien de prédicateur et de poète ainsi qu’à l’étendue de ses connaissances. Celui dont l’épitaphe dit qu’«il a su tout ce que l’homme pouvait savoir» est à lui seul un résumé des intérêts multiples de son temps. Sa pensée est le point de rencontre des grands courants philosophico-théologiques du XIIe siècle; au fait des dernières avancées techniques dans les arts libéraux il demeure en même temps un parfait témoin de l’humanisme littéraire. A l’occasion du huitième centenaire de sa mort il était nécessaire de réexplorer la synthèse qu’a opérée Alain des savoirs de cette époque charnière et de rappeler les pistes et les problématiques qu’il a ouvertes peu avant le grand essor universitaire du XIIIe siècle.