History of Philosophy & Philosophical Traditions

In his magnum opus De Trinitate the twelfth-century canon Richard of St. Victor offers sustained reflection on core dogmatic claims from the Athanasian creed. At the heart of the treatise is Richard’s argument for exactly three divine persons. Starting with the necessity of a single maximally perfect divine substance Richard reasons along four steps: (i) God must have maximal charity or other-love; (ii) to be perfectly good delightful and glorious God’s other-love must be shared among at least two and (iii) among at least three divine persons; (iv) the metaphysics of divine processions and love each ensure the impossibility of four divine persons. For Richard Scripture and trustworthy church authorities already provide certainty in these truths of faith. Even so as an act of ardent love Richard contemplates the Trinity as reflected in creation. From this epistemic point of departure he supports his conclusions from common human experience alone.

Recently philosophers of religion have employed Richard’s trinitarian reflection as a springboard for constructive work in apologetics and ramified natural theology. His unique and meticulous approach to the Trinity has garnered attention from scholars of medieval and Victorine studies recognizing the novelty and rigour of his philosophical theology.

This volume presents the first focused exploration of Richard’s central thesis in De Trinitate combining historical context with philosophical scrutiny. It confronts the most challenging aspects of his argument presenting Richard’s insights as not merely intriguing but also profoundly compelling. His thesis if validated promises to significantly enrich modern dialogues on the philosophical and theological dimensions of the Trinity.

Il volume raccoglie alcune delle relazioni presentate durante il 4° Colloquio Internazionale della Societas Artistarum. Svoltosi presso l’Università degli studi di Milano il 7-9 novembre 2019 esso si proponeva di approfondire da prospettive diverse come si sia configurato nell’Italia medievale e rinascimentale il rapporto fra medicina e filosofia. Alcuni contributi si soffermano sul contesto storico-istituzionale dell’insegnamento e della pratica della medicina sull’uso di dottrine etiche e di strumenti logici e retorici da parte dei medici. Altri contributi avvalendosi anche di documenti e testi inediti analizzano invece temi interdisciplinari come le teorie della generazione e la natura delle acque fluviali oppure mettono a fuoco il pensiero e l’opera di medici-filosofi come Bartolomeo da Salerno Taddeo Alderotti Antonio da Parma e Ludovico Boccadiferro.

This book offers the first survey of philosophical pedagogy in Jewish culture during the Middle Ages with a focus on Northern France the Provence Italy and Spain. By examining not only the discourse of renowned philosophers such as Maimonides and Gersonides but also oft-neglected manuscript evidence of educational practices and students’ notes the book offers a nuanced understanding of the medieval Jewish intellectual landscape and shows how Jewish educators brought intricate debates on metaphysics ethics and epistemology into the classroom. The book also sheds light on the broader societal and cultural contexts that influenced these philosophical pursuits.

An essential read for anyone interested in the history of philosophy Jewish studies or medieval intellectual culture this book celebrates the enduring legacy of Jewish philosophical thought and its pivotal role in shaping the intellectual currents of the Middle Ages.

This volume concludes that there is such a thing as a unified Senequian theology which forms a system despite the necessary duality of its philosophical and literary approaches. This quest for a definition of the Stoic god is achieved through multiple literary forms which provide as many perspectives on the divine. Seneca's religious views offer the individual growing in wisdom to develop a knowledge of the god which is inductive rather than deductive experimental and not only theoretical sensitive and not purely rational – all within the context of a pagan and philosophical monotheism. Thus all the originality of Seneca’s theological undertaking lies paradoxically in a refocusing on Man who must be freed from his existential fears and led to the heroic acceptance of the divine plan. Indeed Seneca’s carefully thought out theodicy goes beyond the Stoic’s traditional optimism – which considers the rational god to be inherently provident – and positively confronts the question of the existence of Evil which culminates in tragedies. Ultimately the center of gravity of Seneca’s religion which is based on an exaltation of human interiority shifts from the god to the sage a true hero who has managed to overcome the vicissitudes of life and whose glorification constitutes the supreme degree of piety.

During the Renaissance the Arts curriculum in universities was based almost exclusively on the teaching of Aristotle. With the revival of Plato however professors of philosophy started to deviate from the official syllabus and teach Plato’s dialogues. This collection of essays offers the first comprehensive overview of Platonic teaching in Italian Renaissance universities from the establishment of a Platonic professorship at the university of Florence-Pisa in the late 15th century to the introduction of Platonic teaching in the schools and universities of Bologna Padua Venice Pavia and Milan in the 16th and 17th centuries. The essays draw from new evidence found in manuscripts and archival material to explore how university professors adapted the format of Plato’s dialogues to suit their audience and defended the idea that Plato could be accommodated to university teaching. They provide significant and fundamental insight into how Platonism spread during the 16th and 17th centuries and how a new interpretation of Plato emerged distinct from the Neoplatonic tradition revived by Marsilio Ficino.

Following the first volume entitled Analogical Identities: The Creation of the Christian Self of a trilogy dedicated to Christian anthropology in a modern re-assessment the present second volume deals with the specific content of this concept of “Analogical Identity” as a new hermeneutic retrieval of Christian anthropology in its relation with its historical roots and in the light of modern Philosophical and Psychological thought to which we thus introduce some new conceptual tools. At the same time a theological criticism of modern Philosophy and Psychology is initiated and some new anthropological concepts of theological provenance are proposed.

This book explores the intersection between the early development of medieval universities and the arrival of Aristotle's works in the Christian West especially De anima: one of his most famous and obscure writings straddling the fields of biology and psychology and devoted to the functions of living beings – including the human being.

The leading figures in this very special meeting of cultures also involving scientific writings from the Islamic world are the Masters of Faculties of Arts. From the first half of the 13th century they embarked on a theoretically very demanding enterprise namely to restore a complete understanding of De anima; and they accomplished this difficult task by establishing a close – and often polemical – relationship with their more famous colleagues: theologians such as Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.

By resorting to the research and teaching methods of their time the Masters of Arts addressed crucial topics such as the soul/body relationship sense perception intellectual knowledge and the special status of the human intellect mediating as far as possible between scientific requirements and those of the Christian faith.

Authors such as Adam of Buckfield Peter of Spain Siger of Brabant John of Jandun and John Buridan together with other less famous ones and a small crowd of completely anonymous – yet theoretically no less interesting – scholars gave rise to a choral narrative that disclosed new philosophical perspectives on man. It is in this intellectual context that the roots of Modern philosophical thought lie.

Also known as the «Portuguese Aristotle» Pedro da Fonseca S. J. (1527-1599) was a leading figure in modern scholasticism and particularly in the history of the Society of Jesus. He laid the groundwork for the publication of the famous Cursus Conimbricensis (1592- 1606) and was the author of an influential textbook of logic and dialectic the Institutionum Dialecticarum Libri Octo (1564) officially recommended by the Ratio Studiorum. He was also one of the most important and recognized commentators on Aristotle’s Metaphysics in the 16th century (with his unfinished Commentaria 1577-1612).

This volume is the first collection of essays in English devoted to Fonseca his intellectual endeavour and thought. The book brings together some of today’s leading specialists in early modern scholasticism Portuguese Aristotelianism and the history of the Society of Jesus in order to present a reliable portrait of Fonseca’s institutional role to reconstruct his thought on many important aspects of scholastic metaphysics and to discuss the reception of his work in the early modern age.

This book offers an investigation into the basic structures of St Maximus the Confessor’s thought in the context of ancient and late antique philosophy. The introduction explains what is meant by the term ‘metaphysics of Maximus’ and discusses possible senses of terms like ‘Christian philosophy’ and ‘Byzantine philosophy’. On the background of a definition of ‘Christian philosophy’ the author devotes two chapters to discuss Maximus’ ideas of knowledge of the created world and of God. The chapters that follow are devoted to the doctrine of creation the function of the so-called logoi (divine Ideas) in the procession and conversion of the totality of beings in relation to God and the relation between the logoi and the so-called divine activities. The logoi eternally comprised in God’s knowledge as the divine thoughts in accordance with which everything is created are then shown to function as principles of a rather complex order of being: the cosmos instituted as a whole-part system. This whole-part system secures the possible communion between all creatures and facilitates the conversion of everything to the divine source as a unity in plurality deified by God. The last chapter treats of the doctrines of Incarnation and deification in order to clarify the exact sense of deification for all beings. In the final part of the book the author applies Maximian metaphysics to a major ethical challenge in our days: the environmental crisis thus proving that late antique philosophy still has relevance today.

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.