Nicolas of Cusa s notion of God as not-other is one of the most spectacular ideas in the history of metaphysics the negative self-reference of the Absolute. In this study, Max Rohstock examines this concept historically and systematically. For the first time, he shows Johannes Scotus Eriugena was the true progenitor of the concept."

Die MISCELLANEA MEDIAEVALIA prasentieren seit ihrer Grundung durch Paul Wilpert im Jahre 1962 Arbeiten des Thomas-Instituts der Universitat zu Koeln. Das Kernstuck der Publikationsreihe bilden die Akten der im zweijahrigen Rhythmus stattfindenden Koelner Mediaevistentagungen, die vor uber 50 Jahren von Josef Koch, dem Grundungsdirektor des Instituts, ins Leben gerufen wurden. Der interdisziplinare Charakter dieser Kongresse pragt auch die Tagungsakten: Die MISCELLANEA MEDIAEVALIA versammeln Beitrage aus allen mediavistischen Disziplinen - die mittelalterliche Geschichte, die Philosophie, die Theologie sowie die Kunst- und Literaturwissenschaften sind Teile einer Gesamtbetrachtung des Mittelalters.

Moses Maimonides, rabbinist, philosopher, and physician, had a greater impact on Jewish history than any other medieval figure. Born in Cordova, Spain, in 1137 or 1138, he spent a few years in Morocco, visited Palestine, and settled in Egypt by 1167. He died there in 1204. Maimonides was a man of superlatives. He wrote the first commentary to cover the entire Mishna corpus; composed what quickly became the dominant work on the 613 commandments believed to have been given by God to Moses; produced the most comprehensive and most intensely studied code of rabbinic law to emerge from the Middle Ages; and his Guide for the Perplexed has had a greater influence on Jewish thought than any other Jewish philosophic work. During the last decades of his life, he conducted an active medical practice, which extended into the royal court-the Sultan Saladin is reported to have been his patient-and composed some ten or eleven works on medicine. This book offers a fresh look at every aspect of Maimonides' life and works: the course of his life, his education, his personality, and his rabbinic, philosophical, and medical writings. At a number of junctures, Davidson points out that information about Maimonides which has been accepted for decades or centuries as common knowledge is in actuality supported by no credible evidence and often, more disconcertingly, is patently incorrect. Maimonides' diverse writings are frequently viewed as expressions of several distinct personas, uncomfortably and awkwardly bundled into a single human frame; the present book treats his writings as expressions of a single, integrated, albeit complex, mind.

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) is one of the great figures of early modern Europe, and one of the least understood. Ingrid D. Rowland's biography establishes him once and for all as a peer of Erasmus, Shakespeare, and Galileo--a thinker whose vision of the world prefigures ours.
Writing with great verve and erudition, Rowland traces Bruno's wanderings through a sixteenth-century Europe where every certainty of religion and philosophy has been called into question, and reveals how he valiantly defended his ideas to the very end, when he was burned at the stake as a heretic on Rome's Campo de' Fiori.

"A loving and thoughtful account of Bruno's] life and thought, satires and sonnets, dialogues and lesson plans, vagabond days and star-spangled nights. . . . Ingrid D. Rowland has her reasons for preferring Bruno to Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, even Galileo and Leonardo, and they're good ones."--John Leonard, "Harper's
""Whatever else Bruno was, he was wild-minded and extreme, and Rowland communicates this, together with a sense of the excitement that his ideas gave him. . . . It's that feeling for the explosiveness of the period, and Rowland's] admiration of Bruno for participating in it--indeed, dying for it--that is the central and most cherishable quality of the biography."--Joan Acocella, "New Yorker
""Rowland tells this great story in moving, vivid prose, concentrating as much on Bruno's thought as on his life. . . . His restless mind, as she makes clear, not only explored but transformed the heavens."--Anthony Grafton, "New York Review of Books
"" Bruno] seems to have been an unclassifiable mixture of foul-mouthed Neapolitan mountebank, loquacious poet, religious reformer, scholastic philosopher, and slightly wacky astronomer."--Anthony Gottlieb, "New York Times Book Review
""A marvelous feat of scholarship. . . . This is intellectual biography at its best."--Peter N. Miller, "New Republic
""An excellent starting point for anyone who wants to rediscover the historical figure concealed beneath the cowl on Campo de' Fiori."--Paula Findlen, "Nation"

Michael Clanchy introduces the reader to medieval life through the experience of Peter Abelard, the master of the Paris schools whose career included seducing Heloise (his student), being castrated, accused of treason, condemned as a heretic (twice) as well as writing his memoirs - his "story of calamities."

Because Abelard touched so many aspects of life, this book is structured naturally around the roles he played. The author describes in vivid and concrete terms what it meant in the twelfth century to be a famous scientist (the master of Latin, logic and philosophy), then a dedicated monk and pioneer of the discipline of theology - and yet one who was at various times a wandering scholar, courtier and jester. The author's many new findings include the discovery that it was Heloise who inspired many of Abelard's most profound ideas. "She" educated "him: " up to now historians have assumed it to be the other way round.

This, the first biography of Abelard for over 30 years, combines the most recent international research with a re-reading of the sources line by line.

This volume is the first complete English translation of Hasdai Crescas's Light of the Lord. Light of the Lord is widely acknowledged as a seminal work of medieval Jewish philosophy and second in importance only to Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed. Crescas takes on not only Maimonides but, through him, Aristotle, and challenges views of physics and metaphysics that had become entrenched in medieval thought. Once the Aristotelian underpinnings of medieval thought are dislodged, Crescas introduces alternative physical views and reinstates the classical Jewish God as a God of love and benefaction rather than a self-intellecting intellect. The end for humankind then is to become attached in love to the God of love through devoted service.

"Johnson After Three Centuries: New Light on Texts and Contexts" examines several aspects of Johnson's career through fresh perspectives and original interpretations by some of the best-known and widely-repsected scholars of our time. Included are essays by James Basker, James Engell, Nicholas Hudson, Jack Lynch, and Allen Reddick.

Bonaventure of Bagnoregio's 'The Soul's Journey into God' is a masterpiece of thirteenth-century Scholasticism. In his thoughtful and illuminating commentary, Peter Dillard engages with the text to introduce some of the perennial issues and characteristic methods of Scholasticism to a contemporary audience. Dillard addresses the sophisticated speculative system underlying Bonaventure's writing, bringing the reader to a number of fundamental questions in epistemology, metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, dogmatic theology, and contemplative mysticism. A richness of conceptual resources and perspective that spans Platonic, Neoplatonic, and Aristotelian thought, and the thought of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, are also revealed. Dillard offers his own highly engaging speculations on the treatise, developing the "Seraphic Doctor's" insights into lines of thought for further consideration by the reader. 'A Way into Scholasticism' combines academic rigour with accessible clarity. Peter S. Dillard is the author of 'Heidegger and Philosophical Atheology: A Neo-Scholastic Critique' (2008) and 'The Truth about Mary: A Theological and Philosophical Evaluation of the Proposed Fifth Marian Dogma' (2009). 'This commentary will be of great importance to anyone interested in understanding the way in which Scholastic philosophical theology illuminates Christian belief and intellectual tradition.This is a powerful reading and appreciation of Bonaventure's most famous work, "The Soul's Journey into God...". In a spare, precise, and occasionally elegant prose, Dillard brings a contemporary mentality to bear on Bonaventure's project and every step involved in the progress through six stages of spiritual growth leading to the possibility of mystical contemplation or ecstasy.' Patrick Padigan, Heythrop Journal.

This Element provides an account of Thomas Aquinas's moral philosophy that emphasizes the intrinsic connection between happiness and the human good, human virtue, and the precepts of practical reason. Human beings by nature have an end to which they are directed and concerning which they do not deliberate, namely happiness. Humans achieve this end by performing good human acts, which are produced by the intellect and the will, and perfected by the relevant virtues. These virtuous acts require that the agent grasps the relevant moral principles and uses them in particular cases.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the key themes in Greek and Roman science, medicine, mathematics and technology. A distinguished team of specialists engage with topics including the role of observation and experiment, Presocratic natural philosophy, ancient creationism, and the special style of ancient Greek mathematical texts, while several chapters confront key questions in the philosophy of science such as the relationship between evidence and explanation. The volume will spark renewed discussion about the character of 'ancient' versus 'modern' science, and will broaden readers' understanding of the rich traditions of ancient Greco-Roman natural philosophy, science, medicine and mathematics.

Since its publication in 1677, Spinoza s Ethics has fascinated philosophers, novelists, and scientists alike. It is undoubtedly one of the most exciting and contested works of Western philosophy. Written in an austere, geometrical fashion, the work teaches us how we should live, ending with an ethics in which the only thing good in itself is understanding. Spinoza argues that only that which hinders us from understanding is bad and shows that those endowed with a human mind should devote themselves, as much as they can, to a contemplative life. This Companion volume provides a detailed, accessible exposition of the Ethics. Written by an internationally known team of scholars, it is the first anthology to treat the whole of the Ethics and is written in an accessible style.

In this book, Christopher Celenza provides an intellectual history of the Italian Renaissance during the long fifteenth century, from c.1350-1525. His book fills a bibliographic gap between Petrarch and Machiavelli and offers clear case studies of contemporary luminaries, including Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, Lorenzo Valla, Marsilio Ficino, Angelo Poliziano, and Pietro Bembo. Integrating sources in Italian and Latin, Celenza focuses on the linked issues of language and philosophy. He also examines the conditions in which Renaissance intellectuals operated in an era before the invention of printing, analyzing reading strategies and showing how texts were consulted, and how new ideas were generated as a result of conversations, both oral and epistolary. The result is a volume that offers a new view on both the history of philosophy and Italian Renaissance intellectual life. It will serve as a key resource for students and scholars of early modern Italian humanism and culture.

Why does a wine glass break when you drop it, whereas a steel goblet does not? The answer may seem obvious: glass, unlike steel, is fragile. This is an explanation in terms of a power or disposition: the glass breaks because it possesses a particular power, namely fragility. Seemingly simple, such intrinsic dispositions or powers have fascinated philosophers for centuries. A power's central task is explaining why a thing changes in the ways that it does, rather than in other ways: powers should explain why an acorn turns into an oak tree, not a sunflower, or why fire burns wood, and wood can catch fire. This volume examines the twists and turns of the fascinating history of a difficult philosophical concept, focusing on the metaphysical sense of "powers"-that is, the powers that are invoked in the explanation of natural changes and activities. Scholars probe the views of thinkers from antiquity to the present day: Anaxagoras, Plato, the Stoics, Abelard, Anselm, Henry of Ghent, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Margaret Cavendish, Mary Shepherd, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and numerous others. In addition, the volume contains four short reflection essays that examine the concept of powers from the perspective of disciplines other than philosophy, namely history of music, West African religions, history of chemistry, and history of art. The history of philosophy brims with controversies surrounding the concept of power, and these controversies have not diminished-particularly as potentialities or powers see a revival in contemporary analytic metaphysics. Hence, telling the history of philosophical theories of powers means exploring the trajectory of a concept whose importance to the past and present of philosophy can hardly be overstated.

Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy showcases the best scholarly research in this flourishing field. The series covers all aspects of medieval philosophy, including the Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew traditions, and runs from the end of antiquity into the Renaissance. It publishes new work by leading scholars in the field, and combines historical scholarship with philosophical acuteness. The papers will address a wide range of topics, from political philosophy to ethics, and logic to metaphysics. OSMP is an essential resource for anyone working in the area.

Navigating the seemingly competing claims of human reason and divine revelation to truth is without a doubt one of the central problems of medieval philosophy. Medieval thinkers argued a whole gamut of positions on the proper relation of religious faith to human reason. Thinking Through Revelation attempts to ask deeper questions: what possibilities for philosophical thought did divine revelation open up for medieval thinkers? How did the contents of the sacred scriptures of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam put into question established philosophical assumptions? But most fundamentally, how did not merely the content of the sacred books but the very mode in which revelation itself is understood to come to us - as a book ""sent down"" from on high, as a covenant between God and his people, or as incarnate person - create or foreclose possibilities for the resolution of the philosophical problems that the Abrahamic revelations themselves raised? Robert Dobie explores these questions by looking in detail at the thought of three of the most important philosopher-theologians of the Middle Ages: Averroes, Moses Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas, each working within the Islamic, Jewish, and Christian traditions respectively. Of particular interest are two questions central to medieval thought: in what sense is the world ""created"" and what is the proper nature and ontological status of the human intellect? These two problems took on such importance in this period, this book argues, because they forced medieval philosophers and theologians to confront the degree to which the revelation they considered authoritative made possible their resolution. Thus, these medieval thinkers show thinkers today what possibilities are available for navigating the age-old question of the proper relation between faith and reason in a world where questions of the rationality of religious faith - especially from an inter-faith perspective - are not diminishing but increasing in importance.

Hegel's Encyclopaedia Logic constitutes the foundation of the system of philosophy presented in his Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences. Together with his Science of Logic, it contains the most explicit formulation of his enduringly influential dialectical method and of the categorical system underlying his thought. It offers a more compact presentation of his dialectical method than is found elsewhere, and also incorporates changes that he would have made to the second edition of the Science of Logic if he had lived to do so. This volume presents it in a new translation with a helpful introduction and notes. It will be a valuable reference work for scholars and students of Hegel and German idealism, as well as for those who are interested in the post-Hegelian character of contemporary philosophy.

In this classic work, Frederick C. Copleston, S.J., outlines the development of philosophical reflection in Christian, Islamic, and Jewish thought from the ancient world to the late medieval period. A History of Medieval Philosophy is an invaluable general introduction that also includes longer treatments of such leading thinkers as Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham.

In this lecture course, Reiner Schurmann develops the idea that, in between the spiritual Carolingian Renaissance and the secular humanist Renaissance, there was a distinctive medieval Renaissance connected with the rediscovery of Aristotle. Focusing on Thomas Aquinas's ontology and epistemology, William of Ockham's conceptualism, and Meister Eckhart's speculative mysticism, Schurmann shows how thought began to break free from religion and the hierarchies of the feudal, neo-Platonic order and devote its attention to otherness and singularity. A crucial supplement to Schurmann's magnum opus Broken Hegemonies, Neo-Aristotelianism and the Medieval Renaissance will be essential reading for anyone interested in the rise and fall of Western principles, and thus in how to think and act today.