Das Eine, das Gute, das Wahre und das Schoene - unum, bonum, verum, pulchrum - werden in der hochmittelalterlichen Philosophie als allgemeine Bestimmungen eines ungegenstandlichen Seins, dessen erkennbare Spur sich in allem gegenstandlich Seienden findet, verstanden. Weil diese Bestimmungen alle besonderen Seinsweisen ubersteigen, werden sie 'Transzendentalien' oder 'Communissima' genannt: das, was allen Dingen gemeinsam ist. Der Sinn dieser Logik erschliesst sich, wenn wir die Erkenntnis des jeweils Seienden, der Einzeldinge, in deren Anteilsbeziehung zum schlechthinnigen Sein - in dem sich das Eine, Gute, Wahre und Schoene verbinden - begreifen. Eben dazu will uns diese Denkform, die unter anderem auf Aristoteles zuruckgeht und um die unter den Philosophen des Mittelalters gerungen wurde, anleiten; sie blieb bis in die Neuzeit massgeblich als das Herz der europaischen Metaphysik. Heute ist uns dieses Denken fremd geworden. Man muss es sich aber vor Augen fuhren, um die mittelalterliche Philosophie, zu der die Neuzeit trotz aller Diskontinuitaten in weit engerer Verbindung steht, als uns allermeist bewusst ist, verstehen zu koennen. Zudem war die Logik der Transzendentalien nicht nur philosophiehistorisch wirksam, sondern eine Erkenntnislehre, die ihre fortwirkende Bedeutung bis heute behalten hat und deshalb eine Vergegenwartigung verdient.

The Routledge Guidebook to Aquinas' Summa Theologiae introduces readers to a work which represents the pinnacle of medieval Western scholarship and which has inspired numerous commentaries, imitators, and opposing views. Outlining the main arguments Aquinas utilizes to support his conclusions on various philosophical and theological questions, this clear and comprehensive guide explores: the historical context in which Aquinas wrote a critical discussion of the topics outlined in the text including theology, metaphysics, epistemology, psychology, ethics, and political theory the ongoing influence of the Summa Theologiae in modern philosophy and theology. Offering a close reading of the original work, this guidebook highlights the central themes of Aquinas' masterwork and is an essential read for anyone seeking an understanding of this highly influential work in the history of philosophy.

This book provides a fresh reading of Aquinas' metaphysics in the light of insights from the works of Frege. In particular, Ventimiglia argues that Aquinas' doctrine of being can be better understood through Frege's distinction between the 'there is' sense and the 'present actuality' sense of being, as interpreted by Peter Geach and Anthony Kenny. Aquinas' notion of essence becomes clearer in the light of Frege's distinction between objects and concepts and his account of concepts as functions. Aquinas' doctrine of trancendentals is clarified with the help of Frege's accounts of assertion and negation. Aquinas after Frege provides us with a new Aquinas, which pays attention to his texts and their historical context. Ventimiglia's development of 'British Thomism' furnishes us with a lucid and exciting re-reading of Aquinas' metaphysics.

The old humanistic model, aiming at universalism, ecumenism, and the globalization of various Western systems of values and beliefs, is no longer adequate - even if it pleads for an ever-wider inclusion of other cultural perspectives and for intercultural dialogue. In contrast, it would be wise to retain a number of its assumptions and practices - which it incidentally shares with humanistic models outside the Western world. We must now reconsider and remap it in terms of a larger, global reference frame. This anthology does just that, thus contributing to a new field of study and practice that could be called intercultural humanism.

This monograph proposes a new (dialogical) way of studying the different forms of correlational inference, known in the Islamic jurisprudence as qiyas. According to the authors' view, qiyas represents an innovative and sophisticated form of dialectical reasoning that not only provides new epistemological insights into legal argumentation in general (including legal reasoning in Common and Civil Law) but also furnishes a fine-grained pattern for parallel reasoning which can be deployed in a wide range of problem-solving contexts and does not seem to reduce to the standard forms of analogical reasoning studied in contemporary philosophy of science and argumentation theory. After an overview of the emergence of qiyas and of the work of al-Shirazi penned by Soufi Youcef, the authors discuss al-Shirazi's classification of correlational inferences of the occasioning factor (qiyas al-'illa). The second part of the volume deliberates on the system of correlational inferences by indication and resemblance (qiyas al-dalala, qiyas al-shabah). The third part develops the main theoretical background of the authors' work, namely, the dialogical approach to Martin-Loef's Constructive Type Theory. The authors present this in a general form and independently of adaptations deployed in parts I and II. Part III also includes an appendix on the relevant notions of Constructive Type Theory, which has been extracted from an overview written by Ansten Klev. The book concludes with some brief remarks on contemporary approaches to analogy in Common and Civil Law and also to parallel reasoning in general.

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone," Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654. But then there's Walt Whitman, in 1856: "Whoever you are, come forth! Or man or woman come forth! / You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house." It is truly an ancient debate: Is it better to be active or contemplative? To do or to think? To make an impact, or to understand the world more deeply? Aristotle argued for contemplation as the highest state of human flourishing. But it was through action that his student Alexander the Great conquered the known world. Which should we aim at? Centuries later, this argument underlies a surprising number of the questions we face in contemporary life. Should students study the humanities, or train for a job? Should adults work for money or for meaning? And in tumultuous times, should any of us sit on the sidelines, pondering great books, or throw ourselves into protests and petition drives? With Action versus Contemplation, Jennifer Summit and Blakey Vermeule address the question in a refreshingly unexpected way: by refusing to take sides. Rather, they argue for a rethinking of the very opposition. The active and the contemplative can-and should-be vibrantly alive in each of us, fused rather than sundered. Writing in a personable, accessible style, Summit and Vermeule guide readers through the long history of this debate from Plato to Pixar, drawing compelling connections to the questions and problems of today. Rather than playing one against the other, they argue, we can discover how the two can nourish, invigorate, and give meaning to each other, as they have for the many writers, artists, and thinkers, past and present, whose examples give the book its rich, lively texture of interplay and reference. This is not a self-help book. It won't give you instructions on how to live your life. Instead, it will do something better: it will remind you of the richness of a life that embraces action and contemplation, company and solitude, living in the moment and planning for the future. Which is better? Readers of this book will discover the answer: both.

This book addresses an emblematic case of a potential faith-reason, or faith-science, conflict that never arose, even though the biblical passage in question runs counter to simple common sense. Within the context of Western culture, when one speaks of a faith-science conflict one is referring to cases in which a "new" scientific theory or the results of empirical research call into question what the Bible states on the same subject. Well-known examples include the Copernican theory of planetary motion and the Darwinian theory of evolution. The passage considered in this book, concerning the "waters above the firmament" in the description of the creation in the first book of Genesis, represents a uniquely enlightening case. The author traces the interpretations of this passage from the early centuries of the Christian era to the late Renaissance, and discusses them within their historical context. In the process, he also clarifies the underlying cosmogonic model. Throughout this period, only exegetes belonging to various religious orders discussed the passage's meaning. The fact that it was never debated within the lay culture explains its non-emergence as a faith-reason conflict. A fascinating and highly accessible work, this book will appeal to a broad readership.

This book charts the evolution of Islamic dialectical theory (jadal) over a four-hundred year period. It includes an extensive study of the development of methods of disputation in Islamic theology (kalam) and jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) from the tenth through the fourteenth centuries. The author uses the theoretical writings of Islamic theologians, jurists, and philosophers to describe the concept Overall, this investigation looks at the extent to which the development of Islamic modes of disputation is rooted in Aristotle and the classical tradition. The author reconstructs the contents of the earliest systematic treatment of the subject by b. al-Riwandi. He then contrasts the theological understanding of dialectic with the teachings of the Arab Aristotelians-al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes. Next, the monograph shows how jurists took over the theological method of dialectic and applied it to problems peculiar to jurisprudence. Although the earliest writings on dialectic are fairly free of direct Aristotelian influence, there are coincidences of themes and treatment. But after jurisprudence had assimilated the techniques of theological dialectic, its own theory became increasingly influenced by logical terminology and techniques. At the end of the thirteenth century there arose a new discipline, the adab al-bahth. While the theoretical underpinnings of the new system are Aristotelian, the terminology and order of debate place it firmly in the Islamic tradition of disputation.

Born near Einsiedeln in 1493, Philip Theophrastus von Hohenheim, who later called himself Paracelsus, was the son of a physician. His thirst for knowledge led him to study arts in Vienna, then medicine in Italy, but the instruction left him disillusioned. He had learned to see nature with his own eyes, undiluted by the teachings of books. He was a rebellious spirit, hard-headed and stubborn, who travelled all over Europe and the British Isles to practice medicine, study local diseases, and learn from any source he could, humble as it might be. In these years of wanderings, Paracelsus developed his own system of medicine and a philosophy of theology all his own. Though he wrote a great many books that covered a wide range of subjects, only a few of his works were ever published in his lifetime. When he died in Salzburg in 1541, one of the most forceful personalities of the Renaissance died with him.

Here are collected four treatises which illustrate four different aspects of Paracelsus' work. The first gives a passionate justification of his character, activities, and views, and gives a picture of the man and his basic ideas. The second treatise is a study of the diseases of miners, with whom Paracelsus had spent a great deal of time. Then follows a treatise on the psychology and psychiatry of Paracelsus. Written at a time when mental diseases were beginning to be studied and treated by physicians, this pioneering essay anticipates a number of modern views. The last essay, entitled "A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits," is a fanciful and poetic treatment of paganism and Greek mythology, as well as a good sample of Paracelsus' philosophy and theology. Together these essays show one of the most original minds of the Renaissance at the height of his powers.

Das Buch widmet sich poetischen Positionierungen zu kosmologischen Problemfeldern in lateinischen und deutschsprachigen Epen des Hochmittelalters, u.a. der Cosmographia, dem Architrenius, dem Laborintus, Flore und Blanscheflur, dem Wigalois sowie der Crone. Dabei plausibilisiert es ein Diskursnetz im Bereich jeweils kosmologisch fundierter anthropologischer, epistemologischer sowie poeto-logischer Fragehorizonte. An die Stelle eines einstrangigen Fortschrittsnarrativs tritt die Annahme einer 'Gemengelage', einer Textlandschaft aus verstreuten Einheiten. Gezeigt wird, wie diese sich - zumeist in Form von Verschiebungen, UEberlagerungen und Synkretismen - zu den drangenden Fragen zeitgenoessischer Kosmologie im 12./13. Jahrhundert positionieren.

Uncovers the interplay of the physical and the aesthetic that shaped Viennese modernism and offers a new interpretation of this moment in the history of the West. Viennese modernism is often described in terms of a fin-de-siecle fascination with the psyche. But this stereotype of the movement as essentially cerebral overlooks a rich cultural history of the body. The Naked Truth, an interdisciplinary tour de force, addresses this lacuna, fundamentally recasting the visual, literary, and performative cultures of Viennese modernism through an innovative focus on the corporeal. Alys X. George explores the modernist focus on the flesh by turning our attention to the second Vienna medical school, which revolutionized the field of anatomy in the 1800s. As she traces the results of this materialist influence across a broad range of cultural forms--exhibitions, literature, portraiture, dance, film, and more--George brings into dialogue a diverse group of historical protagonists, from canonical figures such as Egon Schiele, Arthur Schnitzler, Joseph Roth, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal to long-overlooked ones, including author and doctor Marie Pappenheim, journalist Else Feldmann, and dancers Grete Wiesenthal, Gertrud Bodenwieser, and Hilde Holger. She deftly blends analyses of popular and "high" culture, laying to rest the notion that Viennese modernism was an exclusively male movement. The Naked Truth uncovers the complex interplay of the physical and the aesthetic that shaped modernism and offers a striking new interpretation of this fascinating moment in the history of the West.

The Late Scholastics, writing in Europe in the Baroque and Early Modern periods, discussed a wide variety of moral questions relating to political life in times of both peace and war. Is it ever permissible to bribe voters? Can tax evasion be morally justified? What are the moral duties of artists? Is it acceptable to fight in a war one believes to be unjust? May we surrender innocents to the enemy if it is necessary to save the state? These questions are no less relevant for philosophers and politicians today than they were for late scholastic thinkers. By bringing into play the opinions and arguments of numerous authors, many of them little known or entirely forgotten, this book is the first to provide an in-depth treatment of the dynamic and controversial nature of late scholastic applied moral thinking which demonstrates its richness and diversity.

William of Ockham (d. 1347) was among the most influential and the most notorious thinkers of the late Middle Ages. In the twenty-seven questions translated in this volume, most never before published in English, he considers a host of theological and philosophical issues, including the nature of virtue and vice, the relationship between the intellect and the will, the scope of human freedom, the possibility of God's creating a better world, the role of love and hatred in practical reasoning, whether God could command someone to do wrong, and more. In answering these questions, Ockham critically engages with the ethical thought of such predecessors as Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and John Duns Scotus. Students and scholars of both philosophy and historical theology will appreciate the accessible translations and ample explanatory notes on the text.

In this book, Travis DeCook explores the theological and political innovations found in early modern accounts of the Bible's origins. In the charged climate produced by the Reformation and humanist historicism, writers grappled with the tension between the Bible's divine and human aspects, and they produced innovative narratives regarding the agencies and processes through which the Bible came into existence and was transmitted. DeCook investigates how these accounts of Scripture's production were taken up beyond the expected boundaries of biblical study, and were redeployed as the theological basis for wide-reaching arguments about the proper ordering of human life. DeCook provides a new, critical perspective on ideas regarding secularity, secularization, and modernity, challenging the dominant narratives regarding the Bible's role in these processes. He shows how these engagements with the Bible's origins prompt a rethinking of formulations of secularity and secularization in our own time.

This volume is a collection of essays on a special theme in Aristotelian philosophy of mind: the internal senses. The first part of the volume is devoted to the central question of whether or not any internal senses exist in Aristotle's philosophy of mind and, if so, how many and how they are individuated. The provocative claim of chapter one is that Aristotle recognizes no such internal sense. His medieval Latin interpreters, on the other hand, very much thought that Aristotle did introduce a number of internal senses as shown in the second chapter. The second part of the volume contains a number of case studies demonstrating the philosophical background of some of the most influential topics covered by the internal senses in the Aristotelian tradition and in contemporary philosophy of mind. The focus of the case studies is on memory, imagination and estimation. Chapters introduce the underlying mechanisms of memory and recollection taking its cue from Aristotle but reaching into early modern philosophy as well as studying composite imagination in Avicenna's philosophy of mind. Further topics include the Latin reception of Avicenna's estimative faculty and the development of the internal senses as well as offering an account of the logic of objects of imagination.

Exploring what theologians at the University of Paris in the thirteenth century understood about the boundary between humans and animals, this book demonstrates the great variety of ways in which they held similarity and difference in productive tension. Analysing key theological works, Ian P. Wei presents extended close readings of William of Auvergne, the Summa Halensis, Bonaventure, Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. These scholars found it useful to consider animals and humans together, especially with regard to animal knowledge and behaviour, when discussing issues including creation, the fall, divine providence, the heavens, angels and demons, virtues and passions. While they frequently stressed that animals had been created for use by humans, and sometimes treated them as tools employed by God to shape human behaviour, animals were also analytical tools for the theologians themselves. This study thus reveals how animals became a crucial resource for generating knowledge of God and the whole of creation.

Philosophy Bites Back is the second book to come out of the hugely successful podcast Philosophy Bites. It presents a selection of lively interviews with leading philosophers of our time, who discuss the ideas and works of some of the most important thinkers in history. From the ancient classics of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, to the groundbreaking modern thought of Wittgenstein, Rawls, and Derrida, this volume spans over two and a half millennia of western philosophy and illuminates its most fascinating ideas. Philosophy Bites was set up in 2007 by David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton. It has had over 12 million downloads, and is listened to all over the world.

Spinoza's Ethics, and its project of proving ethical truths through the geometric method, have attracted and challenged readers for more than three hundred years. In Spinoza and the Cunning of Imagination, Eugene Garver uses the imagination as a guiding thread to this work. Other readers have looked at the imagination to account for Spinoza's understanding of politics and religion, but this is the first inquiry to see it as central to the Ethics as a whole--imagination as a quality to be cultivated, and not simply overcome. Spinoza initially presents imagination as an inadequate and confused way of thinking, always inferior to ideas that adequately represent things as they are. It would seem to follow that one ought to purge the mind of imaginative ideas and replace them with rational ideas as soon as possible, but as Garver shows, the Ethics don't allow for this ultimate ethical act until one has cultivated a powerful imagination. This is, for Garver, "the cunning of imagination." The simple plot of progress becomes, because of the imagination, a complex journey full of reversals and discoveries. For Garver, the "cunning" of the imagination resides in our ability to use imagination to rise above it.

Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) was arguably the single most important Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages, with an impact on the later Jewish tradition that was unparalleled by any of his contemporaries. In this volume of new essays, world-leading scholars address themes relevant to his philosophical outlook, including his relationship with his Islamicate surroundings and the impact of his work on subsequent Jewish and Christian writings, as well as his reception in twentieth-century scholarship. The essays also address the nature and aim of Maimonides' philosophical writing, including its connection with biblical exegesis, and the philosophical and theological arguments that are central to his work, such as revelation, ritual, divine providence, and teleology. Wide-ranging and fully up-to-date, the volume will be highly valuable for those interested in Jewish history and thought, medieval philosophy, and religious studies.

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.

The "Platonic Theology" is a visionary work and the philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato.

A student of the Neoplatonic schools of Plotinus and Proclus, he was committed to reconciling Platonism with Christianity, in the hope that such a reconciliation would initiate a spiritual revival and return of the golden age. His Platonic evangelizing was eminently successful and widely influential, and his "Platonic Theology, " translated into English for the first time in this edition, is one of the keys to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.