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Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Western philosophy, c 500 to c 1600 > General
Ranging from his early treatises, the Monologion (a work written to
show his monks how to meditate on the divine essence) and the
Proslogion (best known for its advancement of the so-called
ontological argument for the existence of God), to his three
philosophical dialogues on metaphysical topics such as the
relationship between freedom and sin, and late treatises on the
Incarnation and salvation, this collection of Anselm's essential
writings will be a boon to students of the history of philosophy
and theology as well as to anyone interested in examining what
Anselm calls "the reason of faith."
Leading figures at the dawn of the sixteenth-century Reformation
commonly faced the charge of "judaizing": 72 In His Name concerns
the changing views of four such men starting with their kabbalistic
treatment of the 72 divine names of angels. Johann Reuchlin, the
first of the four men featured in this book, survived the charge;
Martin Luther's increasingly anti-semitic stance is contrasted with
the opposite movement of the French Franciscan Jean Thenaud whose
kabbalistic manuscripts were devoted to Francis I; Philipp Wolff,
the fourth, had been born into a Jewish family but his recorded
views were decidedly anti-semitic. 72 In His Name also includes
evidence that kabbalistic beliefs and practices, such as the
service for exorcism recorded by Thenaud, were unwittingly recorded
by Christians. Although the book concerns early modern Europe, the
religious interactions, the shifting spiritual attitudes, and the
shadows cast linger on.
Robert Grosseteste was one of the most eminent and universal
scholars of his time. At his death, in 1253, as Bishop of Lincoln,
he left behind him a literary heritage, which contemporary
scholarship is still trying to come fully to terms with. This
volume offers a series of studies concerning aspects of
Grosseteste's thought on religious and metaphysical themes. Paying
particular attention to questions of chronology and sources, the
author aims to elicit his deeper presuppositions and to isolate
certain of his intuitions that seem quite original. The articles
include two unedited writings by Grosseteste, on the sun and on
human nature, and place the accent not on the possible unity of his
intellectual initiatives, but on their variety - concerning
language and thought, the nature of light, the Ten Commandments and
the Christian conscience, mystical union and the reasons for the
incarnation.
Too often the study of philosophical texts is carried out in ways
that do not pay significant attention to how the ideas contained
within them are presented, articulated, and developed. This was not
always the case. The contributors to this collected work consider
Jewish philosophy in the medieval period, when new genres and forms
of written expression were flourishing in the wake of renewed
interest in ancient philosophy. Many medieval Jewish philosophers
were highly accomplished poets, for example, and made conscious
efforts to write in a poetic style. This volume turns attention to
the connections that medieval Jewish thinkers made between the
literary, the exegetical, the philosophical, and the mystical to
shed light on the creativity and diversity of medieval thought. As
they broaden the scope of what counts as medieval Jewish
philosophy, the essays collected here consider questions about how
an argument is formed, how text is put into the service of
philosophy, and the social and intellectual environment in which
philosophical texts were produced.
The third volume of The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts will allow access, for the first time in English, to major texts that form the debate over mind and knowledge at the center of medieval philosophy. Beginning with 13th-century attempts to classify the soul's powers and to explain the mind's place within the soul, the volume proceeds systematically to consider human knowledge, divine illumination, intentionality and mental representation. This volume will be an important resource for scholars and students of medieval philosophy, history, theology and literature.
In our daily lives, we are surrounded by all sorts of things - such
as trees, cars, persons, or madeleines - and perception allows us
access to them. But what does 'to perceive' actually mean? What is
it that we perceive? How do we perceive? Do we perceive the same
way animals do? Does reason play a role in perception? Such
questions occur naturally today. But was it the same in the past,
centuries ago? The collected volume tackles this issue by turning
to the Latin philosophy of the 13th and 14th centuries. Did
medieval thinkers raise the same, or similar, questions as we do
with respect to perception? What answers did they provide? What
arguments did they make for raising the questions they did, and for
the answers they gave to them? The philosophers taken into
consideration are, among others, Albert the Great, Roger Bacon,
William of Auvergne, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, John Pecham,
Richard Rufus, Peter Olivi, Robert Kilwardby, John Buridan, and
Jean of Jandun. Contributors are Elena Baltuta, Daniel De Haan,
Martin Klein, Andrew LaZella, Lukas Licka, Mattia Mantovani, Andre
Martin, Dominik Perler, Paolo Rubini, Jose Filipe Silva, Juhana
Toivanen, and Rega Wood.
This book describes how and why the early modern period witnessed
the marginalisation of astrology in Western natural philosophy, and
the re-adoption of the cosmological view of the existence of a
plurality of worlds in the universe, allowing the possibility of
extraterrestrial life. Founded in the mid-1990s, the discipline of
astrobiology combines the search for extraterrestrial life with the
study of terrestrial biology - especially its origins, its
evolution and its presence in extreme environments. This book
offers a history of astrobiology's attempts to understand the
nature of life in a larger cosmological context. Specifically, it
describes the shift of early modern cosmology from a paradigm of
celestial influence to one of celestial inhabitation. Although
these trends are regarded as consequences of Copernican cosmology,
and hallmarks of a modern world view, they are usually addressed
separately in the historical literature. Unlike others, this book
takes a broad approach that examines the relationship of the two.
From Influence to Inhabitation will benefit both historians of
astrology and historians of the extraterrestrial life debate, an
audience which includes researchers and advanced students studying
the history and philosophy of astrobiology. It will also appeal to
historians of natural philosophy, science, astronomy and theology
in the early modern period.
"Utopia," by Sir Thomas More, is part of the "Barnes & Noble
Classics"" "series, which offers quality editions at affordable
prices to the student and the general reader, including new
scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted
extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of "Barnes &
Noble Classics": New introductions commissioned from today's top
writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of
contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations,
parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and
films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study
questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when
appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to
superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical
interest. "Barnes & Noble Classics "pulls together a
constellation of influences-biographical, historical, and
literary-to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring
works.
One of the most influential books in the Western philosophical and
literary tradition, Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" appeared in 1516.
The formidable Henry VIII had recently assumed the throne in
England, and conflicting ideas about religion were fueling the
Reformation throughout Europe. A scathing satire, "Utopia" was
hugely successful and vaulted More to the forefront of the growing
humanist movement.
The story of "Utopia" is told by a mysterious sailor named Raphael
Hythloday, who travels to the New World with the Italian explorer
Vespucci and remains at a fort builtat the farthest point reached.
From there, he discovers a strange island kingdom named Utopia, a
pagan and communist city-state in which language, social customs,
dress, architecture, and education are identical throughout the
country's fifty-four cities. The Utopians have eliminated wealth,
the nobility, and currency. Labor and goods are distributed equally
and property is held in common. And there are no monasteries,
alehouses, or academies to tempt a person to withdraw from society.
Given More's satiric leanings and eventual execution, is "Utopia"
simply an attack on Europe's wickedness? Or is it a philosophical
tract extolling the ideal way to live? Ultimately," Utopia"
navigates a course between the desire to create perfection and the
pragmatic understanding that perfection, given the fallibility of
mankind, is impossible.
Wayne A. Rebhorn is Celanese Centennial Professor of English at the
University of Texas at Austin. He has written extensively on
Renaissance literature in English, Italian, French, Spanish, and
Latin, on authors from Boccaccio through More and Shakespeare down
to Milton.
When Maimonides' Mishneh Torah (Code of Jewish Law) reached Lunel,
France, a group of scholars composed twenty-four objections to his
positions. Surprisingly, Maimonides' rejoinder opened with an
unusual rhymed prose epistle with effusive praise for his
correspondents and artistic and complex language. In this book,
Charles Sheer offers the first annotated translation of the entire
epistle: he uncovers the biblical and midrashic passages modified
by Maimonides that became the language of his Iggeret, and
explicates its ideas in the context of Maimonides' other works and
compositions of the late Middle Ages. He illustrates how
Maimonides, in a most personal fashion, shared with these scholars
his ideological struggle between his love for Torah study and
""hokhmah"" (philosophy, wisdom). This Grand Epistle reveals much
about this towering figure and provides a moving portrait of him
during his last decade.
One of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the
history of Western thought, St Thomas Aquinas established the
foundations for much of modern philosophy of religion, and is
famous for his arguments for the existence of God. In this cogent
and multifaceted introduction to the great Saint's work, Edward
Feser argues that you cannot fully understand Aquinas's philosophy
without his theology and vice-versa. Covering his thoughts on the
soul, natural law, metaphysics, and the interaction of faith and
reason, this will prove a indispensible resource for students,
experts or the general reader.
The first volume ever in the Welsh language to concentrate solely
on the history of Western philosophy. It discusses the ideas of
great philosophers, from Thales in the sixth century Before Christ,
to Karl Popper, who died in 1994.
Publication of this volume brings to conclusion the Yale Edition of
the Complete Works of St. Thomas More, a thirty-year publishing
project of landmark importance in the study of humanism in Western
history. The volume contains More's earliest works, probably
written between 1492 and 1522, including English poems, a
translation and devotional adaptation of Giovanni Francesco Pico's
life of his famous uncle Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and a
devotional prose work. These texts together trace More's earliest
career as a humanist through his transition to maturity as a
defender of the faith. The English poems (c. 1492-1494) are lively
and experimental works, written at a time when English poetry was
in its doldrums. This collection includes verses for a series of
painted hangings in More's father's house, a lament for Queen
Elizabeth, wife of Henry VII, traditional and sober Fortune verses,
and a lively medieval comic poem, "A Merry Gest of a Sergeant and a
Friar." "The Life of Pico" (c. 1510) is very likely More's earliest
prose work and is his only extended translation of another writer's
Latin into English. The translation is remarkable for its time,
when sophisticated Latin was difficult to translate into more
primitive English. "The Last Things" (c. 1522) is an incomplete
prose work that re-creates the tradition of writing on death,
judgment, hell, and heaven as objects of meditation. With the
publication of "St. Thomas More: Selected Poems," edited by
Elizabeth F. Rogers (1961), the Yale University Press rated two new
editions of the works of St. Thomas More. One is a complete
scholarly edition in fourteen volumes; the other a modernized
version of selected works in seven volumes. "St.Thomas More:
Selected Letters "is the first volume in the Selected Works; "The
History of King Richard III" is Volume 2 in the Complete Works.
These editions, to be published over a period of ten years, are
designed to serve as standard reference works for many decades to
come. Sponsored by the Yale University Department of English and
the Yale University Library, these editions mark a new era in the
study of Renaissance literature, history, and religion.
The Metaphysical Foundations of Love: Aquinas on Participation,
Unity, and Union offers a systematic treatment of St. Thomas
Aquinas's account of the metaphysical relations of unity-to-union
and unity-to-participation in God as the key structuring elements
to the nature of love and friendship. In general, Aquinas
identifies love as the source and summit of the life of each human
being. Everything in the created realm issues forth from God's
creative love, and the ultimate end of all human persons is the
greatest possible union with God. Aquinas contends that the love of
friendship allows for the greatest union between two persons; thus,
the greatest union with God takes the form of friendship with him.
In addition to the grand metaphysical bookends of human existence,
love also serves as the structuring notion of Aquinas's
anthropology and practical philosophy. He characterizes much of
human life in terms of three basic love relations: love of God,
love of self, and love of neighbor. Love of self derives from
personal substantial unity. It is logically prior to love of
neighbor and serves as a template for the latter. If a person loves
himself rightly, he will love others rightly. On the other hand, if
he relates to himself through a disordered love, he neither can
relate to others rightly nor enter into a deep union with them.
Moreover, due to a person's metaphysical participation in God, a
person loves himself properly only when he loves God more than
himself. Thus, failing to love God appropriately entails an
inability to relate to others with a fully developed love.
Conversely, the love of God positions a person to relate to others
with an authentic love and enter into the union of friendship with
them. The volume concludes with a look at personal subjectivity in
light of the previous analyses.
With "The Lucretian Renaissance," Gerard Passannante offers a
radical rethinking of a familiar narrative: the rise of materialism
in early modern Europe. Passannante begins by taking up the ancient
philosophical notion that the world is composed of two fundamental
opposites: atoms, as the philosopher Epicurus theorized,
intrinsically unchangeable and moving about the void; and the void
itself, or nothingness. Passannante considers the fact that this
strain of ancient Greek philosophy survived and was transmitted to
the Renaissance primarily by means of a poem that had seemingly
been lost--a poem insisting that the letters of the alphabet are
like the atoms that make up the universe. By tracing this elemental
analogy through the fortunes of Lucretius's "On the Nature of
Things," Passannante argues that, long before it took on its
familiar shape during the Scientific Revolution, the philosophy of
atoms and the void reemerged in the Renaissance as a story about
reading and letters--a story that materialized in texts, in their
physical recomposition, and in their scattering. From the works of
Virgil and Macrobius to those of Petrarch, Poliziano, Lambin,
Montaigne, Bacon, Spenser, Gassendi, Henry More, and Newton, "The
Lucretian Renaissance" recovers a forgotten history of materialism
in humanist thought and scholarly practice and asks us to
reconsider one of the most enduring questions of the period: what
does it mean for a text, a poem, and philosophy to be "reborn"?
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