Psychology
Themistius and Aristotle
Teaching Philosophy from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages
This is the first book length examining closely Themistius’ philosophical thought and his understanding of Aristotelian philosophy. Themistius well known as an eloquent orator and political personality of Constantinople during the fourth century ad is an influential commentator on works of Aristotle. By assessing both of these aspects of Themistius’ intellectual accomplishments the present work explores and contextualizes his thought in both his paraphrases of the works of Aristotle and in his orations. Themistius’ interpretation of Aristotelian thought deeply influential in both the Arab and Latin worlds and his strategy for teaching Aristotle even outside the professional schools of philosophy are major foci of this study.
In particular this work explicates Themistius’ understanding of the nature and causality of the First Principle of the cosmic order and of the human soul and intellect. It argues that Themistius’ approach reflects not only the systematization imparted by Alexander of Aphrodisias to the doctrines of Aristotle but also the increasing though oftentimes silent influence of Plotinus. This is evident in the consideration of the three philosophical issues of God cosmos and soul analysed in Themistius which reveal the preponderance of Plotinus’ philosophy reflected in the Themistian orations. Concomitantly it explores how Themistius’ teachings proved decisive in the medieval understanding of Aristotle both among Arabic and Hebrew readers as well as in the universities of Latin Europe. As such this study challenges our understanding of philosophy in fourth-century Constantinople.
Analogical Identities: The Creation of the Christian Self
Volume 2: Self-Catholicization, Meta-Narcissism, and Christian Theology
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.
‘Madness’ in the Ancient World: Innate or Acquired?
From Theoretical Concepts to Daily Life
This is the first book volume ever to study the ‘difficult’ subject of congenital intellectual disability in the ancient world. The contributions cover the Ancient Near East Egypt and the Graeco-Roman world up to the late ancient period China the rabbinic tradition Byzantium the Islamic world and the Middle Ages in the Latin West. The engaging and thought-provoking chapters combine careful textual analysis with attention to the material evidence and comparative perspectives not the least those offered by disability history for recent periods in history.
Between Body and Soul in Old Norse Literature
Emotions and the Mutability of Form
What did the body mean for inhabitants of the medieval Norse-speaking world? How was the physical body viewed? Where did the boundary lie between corporality and the psychological or spiritual aspects of humanity? And how did such an understanding tie in with popular literary motifs such as shape-shifting? This monograph seeks to engage with these questions by offering the first focused work to delineate a space for ideas about the body within the Old Norse world. The connections between emotions and bodily changes are examined through discussion of the physical manifestations of emotion (tiredness changes in facial colour swelling) while the author offers a detailed analysis of the Old Norse term hamr a word that could variously mean shape form and appearance but also character. Attention is also paid to changes of physical form linked to flight and battle ecstasy as well as to magical shapeshifting. Through this approach diametrically different ways of thinking about the connection between body and soul can be found and the argument made that within the Old Norse world concepts of change within the body rested along a spectrum that ranged from the purely physical through to the psychological. In doing so this volume offers a broader understanding of what physicality and spirituality might have meant in the Middle Ages.
Eight Logismoi in the Writings of Evagrius Ponticus
This book presents the teaching of Evagrius of Pontus (345-399) about eight passionate thoughts (logismoi) i.e. gluttony impurity avarice (greed) sadness anger (wrath) acedia vanity and pride. The study first reconstructs cosmology eschatology anthropology and spiritual teaching of the monk of Pontus in order to show the nature dynamics and ways of combating against the eight passionate thoughts as proposed by Evagrius. His teaching in this regard became the basis for later Christian teaching on the Seven Deadly Sins and an inspiration in the future for some currents of modern psychology.
Philosophical Psychology in Late-Medieval Commentaries on Peter Lombard’s Sentences
Acts of the XIVth Annual Colloquium of the Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale, Radboud Universiteit, 28-30 October 2009
The proceedings of the SIEPM Colloquium at Nijmegen published in this volume bring together new evidence for how the corpus of late-medieval commentaries on the Sentences especially from the second half of the fourteenth century contributed to the development of philosophical psychology within the discipline of theology. The relation among the faculties of the soul the limits of knowledge hylomorphism and the union of soul and body intuitive and abstractive cognition the immortality of the soul the experience of the beatific vision divine foreknowledge and the knowability of species are some of the topics involving psychological issues that are examined in this volume. The wealth of new information presented in this volume results from the interpretation of previously unexplored sources. The essays in this volume demonstrate that the various parts and Books of Peter Lombard’s Sentencesthe standard textbook of theology in the Middle Ages provided lecturers and commentators with a variety of loci for the discussion of philosophical topics from the principia (Denys of Montina) the Prologue (Alfonsus Vargas of Toledo Hugolino of Orvieto John Regis Francis Toti of Perugia) Book I (Gregory of Rimini John of Mirecourt Pierre Ceffons Hugolino of Orvieto Pierre d’Ailly Peter of Candia the Vienna Group John Capreolus Henry of Gorkum Denys the Carthusian) Book II (Pierre Ceffons Peter of Candia Guillaume de Vaurouillon Gabriel Biel Denys the Carthusian) and Book III (Heymericus de Campo). This diversity within large works on theology conceived broadly constitutes a tradition parallel to that found in commentaries on Aristotle’s De anima in the late Middle Ages.
Physiology of the Soul
Mind, Body and Matter in the Galenic Tradition of the Late Renaissance (1550-1630)
This study looks at the ways in which physicians and philosophers developed Galen's philosophical legacy at the end of the Renaissance and shows how their reading of classical medical texts moved beyond accepted patterns and conventions.
By challenging a traditional historiographical account that described Renaissance Galenism in terms of decline and fall this study argues for a new assessment of Galen's legacy also read through the lens of those who opposed or reacted critically to it and thus contributed to the shaping of important aspects of the early modern debate on anthropology ethics psychology and even quantified experimentation. Among these many innovations and transformations the notion of 'ingenuity' (ingenium) deserves particular attention. Hidden within this corporeal inherent and heritable inclination two major themes that side disquietingly with the development of modern subjectivity can be identified: the 'corporeality of the body' and the common destiny of humans and animals.
More generally this study offers a contribution to the ongoing debate on the role and value of medical history arguing in favour of the concept of 'historical translatability' in balancing the longue durée of traditions with the chaotic interactions of individual thinkers.
Analogical Identities: The Creation of the Christian Self
Beyond Spirituality and Mysticism in the Patristic Era
Is it possible for nihilism and an ontology of personhood as will to power to be incubated in the womb of Christian Mysticism? Is it possible that the modern ontology of power which constitutes the core of the Greek-Western metaphysics has a theological grounding? Has Nietszche reversed Plato or more likely Augustine and Origen re-fashioning in a secular framework the very essence of their ontology? Do we have any alternative Patristic anthropological sources of the Greek-Western Self beyond what has been traditionally called "Spirituality" or "Mysticism"? Patristic theology seems to ultimately provide us with a different understanding of selfhood beyond any Ancient or modern Platonic or not Transcendentalism. This book strives to decipher retrieve and re-embody the underlying mature Patristic concept of selfhood beyond the dichotomies of mind and body essence and existence transcendence and immanence inner and outer conscious and unconscious person and nature freedom and necessity: the Analogical Identityof this Self needs to be explored.
Dreams, Medicine, and Literary Practice
Exploring the Western Literary Tradition Through Chaucer
This groundbreaking volume explores the intersection of dreams medicine and literary practice in the poetry of Chaucer and influential literary works from antiquity through the late fourteenth century. An introductory exploration considers topics such as Asclepian dream healings of ancient Greece Old English poetry medieval mystics and foundational works by Hippocrates Aristotle Galen Avicenna Macrobius and others. Detailed analyses of a series of Chaucer’s poems follow. Frequently incorporating and commenting on antecedent works these late medieval poems span various genres including the dream-vision the romance-tragedy and the comic tale. Dreams and medicine are woven into the fabric of these texts the author contends revealing distinct and often surprising insights. One such insight is the ‘double potential’ of literary practice medicine and dreams - that is each is capable of facilitating healing and wholeness yet equally capable of causing harm and disease. Ultimately this book shows that the joining together of medicine and dreams constitutes a vital dimension of these key works in Western literature - one that reveals a profound connection between literature and the fundamentally human experiences of disease healing and dreaming.
Studies on Medieval Empathies
Empathy is a deep feeling or intuition for kinship transcending self-preoccupied individuality. This book is about empathy in the Middle Ages before it had a name.The authors begin by tracing the origins of empathy in pre-Christian Antiquity and early Christianity especially in mysteries of divine justice by which the good often suffered and the wicked prospered and as with surgical healing compassion was manifested by inflicting pain. The authors also explore many facets of empathy’s development in the Latin West criss-crossing the artificial borders of academic departments to reveal interlocking connections that give emotional power to images whether verbal pictorial or performative. In a powerful multi-disciplinary collaboration they identify conditions and limits of empathy and areas in which the dynamic between insiders and outsiders forced subversive explorations of what it meant to be human.
The doctrine of Christ as mediator of divine love dominated medieval thought about empathy as a human instinct. Taken together like magnetic poles two pictures in this book represent that mediation in action. The cover illustration a mid-ninth-century ivory plaque from Carolingian Gaul depicts Christ the Divine Word Love incarnate glorified enthroned and adored by angels as creator judge and teacher. The second Plate 1 from the same period and region represents the act that sealed the mediation of divine love to humanity: Christ the man tortured and dying for love.
The Depiction of Character in the Chronographia of Michael Psellos
Character is the single most important feature of the Chronographia written by Michael Psellos (1018-1081?). It is an historical account of the events at court from the time of Basil II (986-1025) to Michael VII Doukas (1071-1078) with the insight of someone whose career developed within the imperial court and his unsurpassed eye for details of personality was enlightened by his intellectual interests. During his lifetime Psellos was considered the forefront of philosophical studies in the capital and therefore was named consul of philosophers (ὕπατος τῶν φιλοσόφων) in 1047 and he credited himself with reintroducing Plato on the cultural scene of Constantinople. It was his attractive manner of speech which led him to remain in the emperor’s presence and his rhetorical ability also plays an important role in the Chronographia especially when he emphasizes or fabricates events to justify his understanding of a person’s mind. Many have employed Psellos’ Chronographia for its value in shedding light on historic events itself important though it often neglects the fact that Psellos’ historiography is not based on factual details to explain multiple causes for events but seeks to attribute blame or merit to the personality of the ruling emperor.
Frederick Lauritzen studied classics at New College Oxford and Columbia University. He has published articles on eleventh century literature as well as the reception of neoplatonism. He is a post-doctoral fellow at the Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Bologna.
Dynamiques de conversion: modèles et résistances
Approches interdisciplinaires
Cet ouvrage est issu des travaux sur la conversion menés au sein du Centre Interdisciplinaire d’Étude du Religieux (CIER) à la MSH de Montpellier. Certes on écrit beaucoup et on a beaucoup écrit sur cette thématique : le sujet présente en effet un intérêt majeur. Mais l’approche pluridisciplinaire a été l’occasion de soulever des questions et d’obtenir des résultats qui méritent d’être publiés. La combinaison des différentes approches disciplinaires qui se retrouvent au sein du Centre a permis de mieux appréhender le processus complexe que constitue la conversion dans ses expressions ses enjeux ses finalités et ses conséquences de manière synchronique et diachronique. Si le point de départ des réflexions s’appuie toujours sur les définitions courantes de la conversion - retour à l’origine (ou retour à soi) ou changement de pensée mutation ou renaissance - la présente publication cherche à mettre l’accent sur l’analyse des dynamiques qu’induit aux différents moments de l’histoire la conversion retenue comme modèle. Il s’agit de considérer ces dynamiques non seulement dans le champ du religieux mais aussi en tant que la figure religieuse de la conversion a pu être ou devenir figure de pensée ou d’expression posture sociologique ou éthique dans d’autres domaines que le religieux : mythologique laïc politique littéraire artistique… En conséquence la conversion a fourni un espace conceptuel à la théologie mais aussi à d’autres disciplines comme le politique l’histoire la littérature ou la psychanalyse… Enfin lorsque les modèles de la conversion contaminés par ces autres champs opèrent un retour sur le fait religieux s’ouvre alors un questionnement particulier et peu étudié jusqu’à présent. En effet les dynamiques de constitution d’adhésion et de résistance à ces modèles touchent pratiquement à tous les aspects du domaine culturel et peut-être à l’assise même de la culture puisqu’elles interrogent les processus d’individuation et de communautarisation - processus opérant autant dans leur capacité transférentielle que dans leur rapport à une éventuelle transcendance. Les contributions si elles s’inscrivent nécessairement dans un domaine et un champ méthodologique disciplinaires réussissent à maintenir une ouverture interdisciplinaire qui permet d’appréhender le phénomène étudié dans toute sa complexité.
Béatrice BAKHOUCHE est professeur de langue et littérature latines à l’Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III.
Isabelle FABRE est maître de conférence de langue et littérature françaises médiévales à l’Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III.
Vincente FORTIER est directeur de recherche du CNRS (UMR 5815 « Dynamiques du droit »).
Corps outragés, corps ravagés de l’Antiquité au Moyen Âge
Les ravages corporels et leurs représentations signes d’outrage aux corps forment un trait d’union trop souvent négligé entre l’Antiquité et le Moyen Âge. À avoir opposé des civilisations anciennes marquées par un certain « culte de corps » à des sociétés médiévales méprisant la chair on en aurait presque oublié que le corps y voyage à travers les savoirs de l'histoire à la littérature de la science au droit de la biologie à la théologie et la philosophie. Aussi les sources nous invitent-elles à regarder au-delà des frontières historiques et culturelles qui séparent l'Antiquité et le Moyen Âge. De la plus haute Antiquité au Moyen Âge tardif chaque outrage au corps physique est lourd de sens: faisant écho dans le corps social il renvoie aux normes et aux assises de l’ordre politique affirmant une morale des valeurs et des croyances qui cimentent les corps constitués dont l’individu n’est qu’une partie. La signification des outrages aux corps diverge suivant la personnalité ou la fonction de celui qui brutalise comme de celui qui est maltraité. Elle est aussi tributaire du système de représentation du temps et du lieu du contexte et de l'univers culturel dans lesquels ils s'inscrivent. L’objet de cet ouvrage collectif est de comprendre comment les sociétés antiques et médiévales représentent le modelage du corps humain à la fois au plan social mental politique et religieux dans l'intention de façonner des individus adaptés à des environnements propres. Il s'agit de saisir comment les outrages et les ravages infligés aux corps physiques et symboliques offrent des clés de compréhension générale de la société qui voit le corps vivre et mourir.
Jalousie des dieux, jalousie des hommes
Actes du colloque international organisé à Paris les 28-29 novembre 2008
Le phénomène de la jalousie a fait l’objet d’études de moralistes de psychologues et de psychanalystes. Il a également été abordé par les théologiens sous l’angle de « la jalousie divine » telle qu’elle apparaît dans la Bible hébraïque. Le projet du présent ouvrage délibérément original consiste à mettre en regard et en échos les multiples manifestations de ce mécanisme universel dans le temps et dans l’espace. Il en résulte un faisceau d’approches scientifiques sorte d’arc-en-ciel déployant la riche palette des divers aspects de la jalousie humaine et de ses reflets dans les mythes et les légendes depuis l’Égypte pharaonique et la Mésopotamie ancienne jusqu’à l’opéra italien aux romans de Dostoïevski et au théâtre de Claudel en passant bien sûr par les moments essentiels que constituent la Grèce antique avec ses philosophes et ses mythes les études bibliques qoumraniennes et rabbiniques la patristique grecque latine et syriaque face à leurs reflets négatifs les hérésies et l’islam sous ses formes normative (le Coran) et mystiques.
Le regard apporté par la psychologie des profondeurs (psychanalytique et pédopsychiatrique) vient conforter les éclairages multiples présentés par l’histoire l’exégèse et la philosophie. C’est finalement la philologie qui a le dernier mot puisque nos termes modernes « jalousie » « gelosia » en italien proviennent du grec zèlos via le latin zelus. De cette approche kaléidoscopique se dégage la double face de la jalousie aux connotations tantôt négatives voire mortifères tantôt fertiles et constructives.
Ce volume fruit des travaux de chercheurs et d’universitaires émane du colloque éponyme organisé sous l’égide du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études de l’Université Paris-Est et de la Région Île-de-France.
Poetics of Wonder
Testimonies of the New Christian Miracles in the Late Antique Latin World
The unexpected return of contemporary public Christian miracles in the late antique Latin west after a centuries-long assumption that these had ceased after apostolic times helped to create a religious mentality there that would continue to characterize the western European Middle Ages. While the social and political functions of the new miracles have been gaining greater scholarly attention this study is the first in-depth treatment of their experiential dimension. It examines this dimension in the first reactions to the new phenomenon - enthusiasm puzzlement deep suspicion and outright rejection - as they are reflected and especially imagined in the earliest contemporary narrative and poetic sources that describe them. And it traces how the new imaginative representations transformed for many the up to then precept-centered way of thinking about religion into one that immersed itself in the supralogical dynamics of symbolic images. The tendency of these image-clusters to precipitate transformations not only in perception but also in physical condition is examined for the period from 386 when a first public miracle caught everyone’s attention in the ostensibly flourishing Christian Roman Empire to c. 460 when this empire was crumbling under the onslaught of Germanic tribes.
Dante in Purgatory
States of Affect
This volume provides an advanced survey of Dante studies and offers a new detailed and accessible reading of his Purgatorio making this very rich text freshly available to an English-speaking readership. Through analysis of a variety of emotional states across Dante’s three major works - the Purgatorio Inferno and Paradiso and in his minor works such as the Rime and the Convivio - Dante in Purgatory: States of Affect contends that emotions are historically constructed at different moments. The book also demonstrates that while Dante presents some emotions as defined and distinct he depicts others as blends of several states of feeling as emotions which are in process or metamorphosis. In particular the author examines the seven cardinal vices (‘seven deadly sins’) amid a wider discussion of states of affect. He argues that the emotional states associated with these vices are different from contemporary conceptions of affective states. He compels us to acknowledge that there is a history of both the emotional states themselves and the methods with which we describe them. Above all his study shows that there is a history of emotions which is part of the history of a European acquisition of a subjective sense of the self. To historicize emotion thus requires that the ‘human’ becomes increasingly defined as the subject is ascribed further interior qualities which must be named. Dante in Purgatory is thus relevant not only to readers of Dante but also to any reader interested in thinking about emotion and affectual states and how these can be described and how they can be conceptualized.
La fabrique du visage. De la physiognomonie antique à la première greffe
Avec un inédit de Duchenne de Boulogne
La diversité des études ici rassemblées s’ordonne autour de deux moments forts pour la réflexion : la publication d’un manuscrit inédit de Duchenne de Boulogne Considérations sur la mécanique de la physionomie (1857) et la première greffe de la face effectuée par Bernard Devauchelle et son équipe en novembre 2005 à Amiens. Ces événements soulèvent de nombreuses questions tant en histoire des sciences biologiques et médicales qu’en histoire de la civilisation. Questions que suscite le vivant humain comme sujet d’intervention mais aussi questions sur l’apparence comme dimension essentielle de l’existence humaine. Le défi à relever : prendre ensemble l’invention du visage et de l’expressivité comme sujets d’étude.
Les auteurs: Simon Byl Sophie Cremades François Dagognet François Delaporte Sophie Delaporte Bernard Devauchelle Arlette Farge Emmanuel Fournier Alain-Charles Masquelet Julie Mazaleigue Stéphane Ragot Pierre Rousseau Bertrand Taithe Sylvie Testelin.
Behaving like Fools
Voice, Gesture, and Laughter in Texts, Manuscripts, and Early Books
The period from 1200 to 1600 was the golden age of fools. From representations of irreverent acts to full-blown insanity fools appeared on the misericords of gothic churches and in the plots of Arthurian narratives before achieving a wider prominence in literature and iconography in the decades around 1500. But how are we to read these figures appropriately? Is it possible to reconstruct the fascination that fools exerted on the medieval and early modern mind? While modern theories give us the analytical tools to explore this subject we are faced with the paradox that by striving to understand fools and foolishness we no longer accept their ways but impose rational categories on them. Together these essays propose one way out of this dilemma. Instead of attempting to define the fool or trying to find the common denominator behind his many masks this volume focuses on the qualities acts and gestures that signify foolishness. By investigating different manifestations of foolery rather than the figure of the fool himself we can begin to understand the proliferation of fools and foolish behaviour in the texts and illustrations of manuscripts and early books.
Laments for the Lost in Medieval Literature
This is a collection of essays on the subject of lament in the medieval period with a particular emphasis on parental grief. The analysis of texts about pain and grief is an increasingly important area in medieval studies offering as it does a means of exploring the ways in which cultural meanings arise from loss and processes of mourning. The international scholars who come together to produce this volume discuss subjects as diverse as lament psalms in Old and Middle English medieval Latin laments mourning in Anglo-Saxon literature mourning through objects medieval art and archaeology Old French poetic elegy skaldic poetry medieval women’s writing Old Polish drama English massacre plays and Middle English nativity lyrics.
Immaginario e immaginazione nel Medioevo
Atti del convegno della Società Italiana per lo Studio del Pensiero Medievale (S.I.S.P.M.), Milano, 25-27 settembre 2008
Il nostro immaginario non è di grande aiuto quando cerchiamo di comprendere quello altrui e insieme studiare i meccanismi dell’immaginazione che lo hanno elaborato. Se poi si tratta dell’Età di mezzo lo sforzo per sgombrare la mente da pregiudizi e immagini storicamente false ma molto di moda dovrà essere ingente. Anche per questo nel 2008 la Società Italiana per lo Studio del Pensiero Medievale (Sispm) ha deciso di dedicare il suo convegno annuale al tema Immaginario e immaginazione nel Medioevo. Un titolo impegnativo e anche a una prima lettura palesemente ambiguo: immaginario infatti può essere inteso come un aggettivo ovvero il prodotto dell’immaginazione e in senso lato è detto di qualcosa di fittizio apparente illusorio. Immaginario è però anche un sostantivo che indica l’insieme delle rappresentazioni del mondo e delle fantasie di un individuo o di un gruppo o di un’intera collettività. Il convegno ha preso l’avvio proprio da questa concezione di immmaginario per proseguire sulla scia di altre possibili declinazioni: dalle immagini dell’impero ai casi dei monstra fino al ruolo della fisiognomica. Indubbiamente la deriva neoplatonica ha molto pesato sulla diffidenza almeno teoricamente espressa dagli autori medievali nei confronti dei prodotti della facoltà dell’immaginazione. Ma accanto al sospetto verso tutto ciò che proviene dalla sensibilità o ad essa riporta si deve segnalare una forte attenzione per tutto ciò che attraverso i sensi possa aiutare l’intelletto anche nei percorsi più arditamente teologici e insieme un’apertura verso la realtà materiale - da un Dio buono creata e da lui così voluta - che porta a non poter accettare in maniera totalizzante il rifiuto per una natura che si porge allo sguardo avvolta da misteriosa bellezza e che come tale viene ricostruita dalla phantasia o da una facoltà immaginativa e poi dalle penne e dalle mani degli artisti.
Interventi di F. Amerini M. Bettetini G. Briguglia F. Caldera L. Cappelletti M. Cristiani G. d’Onofrio G. Fioravanti M. Gallarino G. Gambale R. Gatti C. Motta S. Nagel A. Palazzo F. Paparella V. Perone Compagni A. Robiglio A. Rodolfi J.-C. Schmitt C. Selogna P. Spallino G. Zuccolin.