Thomas Aquinas (1224/6-1274) lived an active, demanding academic and ecclesiastical life that ended while he was still comparatively young. He nonetheless produced many works, varying in length from a few pages to a few volumes.
The present book is an introduction to this influential author and a guide to his thought on almost all the major topics on which he wrote. The book begins with an account of Aquinas's life and works. The next section contains a series of essays that set Aquinas in his intellectual context. They focus on the philosophical sources that are likely to have influenced his thinking, the most prominent of which were certain Greek philosophers (chiefly Aristotle), Latin Christian writers (such as Augustine), and Jewish and Islamic authors (such as Maimonides and Avicenna). The subsequent sections of the book address topics that Aquinas himself discussed. These include metaphysics, the existence and nature of God, ethics and action theory, epistemology, philosophy of mind and human nature, the nature of language, and an array of theological topics, including Trinity, Incarnation, sacraments, resurrection, and the problem of evil, among others. These sections include more than thirty contributions on topics central to Aquinas's own worldview. The final sections of the volume address the development of Aquinas's thought and its historical influence.
Any attempt to present the views of a philosopher in an earlier historical period that is meant to foster reflection on that thinker's views needs to be both historically faithful and also philosophically engaged. The present book combines both exposition and evaluation insofar as its contributors have space to engage in both. This Handbook is therefore meant to be useful to someone wanting to learn about Aquinas's philosophy and theology while also looking for help in philosophical interaction with it.

Daniel Schwartz examines the views on friendship of the great medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas. For Aquinas friendship is the ideal type of relationship that rational beings should cultivate. Schwartz argues that Aquinas fundamentally revises some of the main features of Aristotle's paradigmatic account of friendship so as to accommodate the case of friendship between radically unequal beings: man and God. As a result, Aquinas presents a broader view of friendship than Aristotle's, allowing for a higher extent of disagreement. lack of mutual understanding, and inequality between friends.

This anthology provides a set of distinctive, influential views that explore the mysteries of human nature from a variety of perspectives. It can be read on its own, or in conjunction with Joel Kupperman's text, Theories of Human Nature .

Studies of medieval Biblical interpretation usually focus on the printed literature, neglecting the vast majority of relevant works. Timothy Bellamah offers a groundbreaking examination of the exegesis of William of Alton, a thirteenth-century Dominican regent master at Paris whose commentaries have never previously appeared in print.
As a near contemporary of Hugh of St. Cher, Bonaventure, Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas, William was an important representative of university exegesis at a time of rapidly changing methods and remarkable intellectual development. His commentaries are valuable resources for understanding Biblical study of the thirteenth century, in the schoolroom and in the pulpit. Yet study of William's work has been impeded by the dubious authenticity of numerous commentaries questionably attributed to him over the centuries.
Bellamah addresses these complex problems by unearthing evidence of authorship in each commentary's style and methodology. This inquiry employs the traits of William's commentaries as criteria for constituting a list of works that can be reliably attributed to him, which, in turn, provides a crucial basis for studying his exegesis. William was a man of his time, but even more than his contemporaries he was deeply interested in history and the literal sense, which he understood to be the intention of Scripture's authors, divine and human. He took a keen interest in Biblical history and put to use a wide array of procedures for textual, linguistic, and rhetorical analysis. At the same time, he remained aware of the spiritual senses and the diverse elements of the exegetical and theological tradition in which he stood.

Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed is one of the most discussed books in Jewish history. Over 800 years after the author's death it remains disputed with readers seeking secret philosophical messages behind its explicit teaching, a quest fueled partly by Maimonides' own statement that certain parts of the Guide are based upon ideas that conflict with other parts. Many who adhere to an 'esoteric' reading of the Guide profess to find these contradictions in Maimonides' metaphysical beliefs. Through close readings of the Guide, this book addresses the major debates surrounding its secret doctrine. It argues that perceived contradictions in Maimonides' accounts of creation and divine attributes can be squared by paying attention to the various ways in which he presented his arguments. Furthermore, it shows how a coherent theological view can emerge from the many layers of the Guide. But Maimonides' clear declaration that certain matters must be hidden from the masses cannot be ignored and the kind of inconsistency that is peculiar to the Guide requires another explanation. It is found in the purpose Maimonides assigns to the Guide scriptural exegesis. Ezekiel's Account of the Chariot, treated in one of the most laconic sections of the Guide, is the subject of the final chapters. They offer a detailed exposition of Maimonides' interpretation, the deepest ''secret of the Torah, '' which, in Maimonides' works, shares its name with metaphysics. By connecting the vision with currents in the wider Islamic world, the chapters show how Maimonides devised a new method of presentation in order to imitate scripture's multi-layered manner of communication. He updated what he took to be the correct interpretation of scripture by writing it in a work appropriate for his own time and to do so he had to keep the Torah's most hidden secrets.

Through a focused and systematic examination of late medieval scholastic writers - theologians, philosophers and jurists - Joseph Canning explores how ideas about power and legitimate authority were developed over the 'long fourteenth century'. The author provides a new model for understanding late medieval political thought, taking full account of the intensive engagement with political reality characteristic of writers in this period. He argues that they used Aristotelian and Augustinian ideas to develop radically new approaches to power and authority, especially in response to political and religious crises. The book examines the disputes between King Philip IV of France and Pope Boniface VIII and draws upon the writings of Dante Alighieri, Marsilius of Padua, William of Ockham, Bartolus, Baldus and John Wyclif to demonstrate the variety of forms of discourse used in the period. It focuses on the most fundamental problem in the history of political thought - where does legitimate authority lie?

Richard Kilvington was an obscure fourteenth-century philosopher whose Sophismata deal with a series of logic-linguistic conundrums of a sort which featured extensively in philosophical discussions of this period. Originally published in 1990, this was the first ever translation or edition of his work. As well as an introduction to Kilvington's work, the editors provide a detailed commentary. This edition will prove of considerable interest to historians of medieval philosophy who will realise from the evidence presented here that Kilvington deserves to be studied just as seriously as Duns Scotus or William of Ockham.

Originally published in 1936, this book provides a concise discussion of Sir Walter Raleigh's connection to the intellectual environment of his time. It analyses Raleigh's position as the focal point for 'The School of Night', a speculated group of literary, philosophical and scientific figures including prominent individuals such as Christopher Marlowe, George Chapman and Thomas Herriot. Whilst there is no firm evidence for the existence of a clearly defined 'School', this remains a thoughtful and rigorous study. It contextualises the development of new ideas during the time, and reveals the close connection between literature and theoretical developments in other areas. A fascinating book, it will be of value to anyone with an interest in the cultural atmosphere of the English Renaissance.

The history of moral dilemma theory often ignores the medieval period, overlooking the sophisticated theorizing by several thinkers who debated the existence of moral dilemmas from 1150 to 1450. In this book Michael V. Dougherty offers a rich and fascinating overview of the debates which were pursued by medieval philosophers, theologians and canon lawyers, illustrating his discussion with a diverse range of examples of the moral dilemmas which they considered. He shows that much of what seems particular to twentieth-century moral theory was well-known long ago - especially the view of some medieval thinkers that some forms of wrongdoing are inescapable, and their emphasis on the principle 'choose the lesser of two evils'. His book will be valuable not only to advanced students and specialists of medieval thought, but also to those interested in the history of ethics.

Robert Pasnau traces the developments of metaphysical thinking through four rich but for the most part neglected centuries of philosophy, running from the thirteenth century through to the seventeenth. At no period in the history of philosophy, other than perhaps our own, have metaphysical problems received the sort of sustained attention they received during the later Middle Ages, and never has a whole philosophical tradition come crashing down as quickly and completely as did scholastic philosophy in the seventeenth century. The thirty chapters work through various fundamental metaphysical issues, sometimes focusing more on scholastic thought, sometimes on the seventeenth century. Pasnau begins with the first challenges to the classical scholasticism of Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas, runs through prominent figures like John Duns Scotus and William Ockham, and ends in the seventeenth century, with the end of the first stage of developments in post-scholastic philosophy: on the continent, with Descartes and Gassendi, and in England, with Boyle and Locke.

In this groundbreaking collection of essays the history of philosophy appears in a fresh light, not as reason's progressive discovery of its universal conditions, but as a series of unreconciled disputes over the proper way to conduct oneself as a philosopher. By shifting focus from the philosopher as proxy for the universal subject of reason to the philosopher as a special persona arising from rival forms of self-cultivation, philosophy is approached in terms of the social office and intellectual deportment of the philosopher, as a personage with a definite moral physiognomy and institutional setting. In so doing, this collection of essays by leading figures in the fields of both philosophy and the history of ideas provides access to key early modern disputes over what it meant to be a philosopher, and to the institutional and larger political and religious contexts in which such disputes took place.

This book reveals how Moses ibn Ezra, Judah Halevi, Moses Maimonides, and Shem Tov ibn Falaquera understood metaphor and imagination, and their role in the way human beings describe God. It demonstrates how these medieval Jewish thinkers engaged with Arabic-Aristotelian psychology, specifically with regard to imagination and its role in cognition. Dianna Lynn Roberts-Zauderer reconstructs the process by which metaphoric language is taken up by the imagination and the role of imagination in rational thought. If imagination is a necessary component of thinking, how is Maimonides' idea of pure intellectual thought possible? An examination of select passages in the Guide, in both Judeo-Arabic and translation, shows how Maimonides' attitude towards imagination develops, and how translations contribute to a bifurcation of reason and imagination that does not acknowledge the nuances of the original text. Finally, the author shows how Falaquera's poetics forges a new direction for thinking about imagination.

This book offers a comprehensive treatment of the philosophical system of the seventeenth-century philosopher Pierre Gassendi. Gassendi's importance is widely recognized and is essential for understanding early modern philosophers and scientists such as Locke, Leibniz and Newton. Offering a systematic overview of his contributions, LoLordo situates Gassendi's views within the context of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century natural philosophy as represented by a variety of intellectual traditions, including scholastic Aristotelianism, Renaissance Neo-Platonism, and the emerging mechanical philosophy. LoLordo's work will be essential reading for historians of early modern philosophy and science.

This single-volume reference guide covers the most important authors and movements in Continental Philosophy. Each section focuses on a school of thought, bringing together articles by leading scholars which explore the key thinkers and texts. Arranged in chronological order, the volume begins with the founding texts of Classical Idealism and concludes with Post-structuralism. Sections and Section Editors: Classical Idealism - Philip Stratton-Lake Philosophy of Existence - Lewis R. Gordon Philosophies of Life and Understanding - Fiona Hughes Phenomenology - Gail Weiss Politics, Psychoanalysis and Science - Gillian Howie The Frankfurt School and Critical Theory - Simon Jarvis Structuralism - Jeremy Jennings Post-Structuralism - John Protevi

Born in Saxony in 1096, Hugh became an Augustinian monk and in 1115 moved to the monastery of Saint Victor, Paris, where he spent the remainder of his life, eventually becoming the head of the school there. His writings cover the whole range of arts and sacred science taught in his day. Paul Rorem offers a basic introduction to Hugh's theology, through a comprehensive survey of his works. He argues that Hugh is best understood as a teacher of theology, and that his numerous and varied writings are best appreciated as a comprehensive pedagogical program of theological education and spiritual formation. Drawing his evidence not only from Hugh's own descriptions of his work but from the earliest manuscript traditions of his writings, Rorem organizes and presents his corpus within a tri-part framework. Upon a foundation of training in the liberal arts and history, a structure of doctrine is built up, which is finally adorned with moral formation. Within this scheme of organization, Rorem treats each of Hugh's major works (and many minor ones) in its appropriate place, orienting the reader briefly yet accurately to its contents, as well as its location in Hugh's overarching program of theological pedagogy.

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 der Kantforschung zahlt Locke problemgeschichtlich gesehen zu den wichtigsten Vorgangern Kants. Die Forschung hat sich dabei - ahnlich wie Kant selbst - an Lockes opus magnum, dem Essay concerning Human Understanding, orientiert. Die Arbeit revidiert die landlaufige Ansicht, nach der die englische Aufklarung keinen massgeblichen Einfluss auf die deutsche gehabt habe. Lockes Nachlassschrift Of the Conduct of the Understanding hat u.a. auf Wolffs mathematische Methode und auf seine Unterscheidung zwischen mathematischer, historischer und philosophischer Erkenntnis eine erhebliche Wirkung ausgeubt sowie - uber die Vermittlung von Knutzen und Kypke - auch auf Kant. Die Erstlingsschrift Kants, die Gedanken von der wahren Schatzung der lebendigen Krafte, verdankt Lockes Nachlassschrift ebensoviel wie die skeptische Methode der Vernunftkritik, die quellengeschichtlich auf Lockes Konzept der "Gleichgultigkeit" des Verstandes zuruckverweist.

By modern standards Bacon's writings are striking in their range and diversity, and they are too often considered a separate specialist concerns in isolation from each other. Dr Jardine finds a unifying principle in Bacon's preoccupation with 'method', the evaluation and organisation of information as a procedure of investigation or of presentation. She shows how such an interpretation makes consistent (and often surprising) sense of the whole corpus of Bacon's writings: how the familiar but misunderstood inductive method for natural science relations to the more information strategies of argument in his historical, ethical, political and literary work. There is a substantial and valuable study of the intellectual Renaissance background from which Bacon emerged and against which he reacted. Through a series of details comparisons and contrasts we are led to appreciate the true originality and ingenuity of Bacon's own views and also to discount the more superficial resemblances between them and later developments in the philosophy of science.

This edited volume presents a comprehensive history of modern logic from the Middle Ages through the end of the twentieth century. In addition to a history of symbolic logic, the contributors also examine developments in the philosophy of logic and philosophical logic in modern times. The book begins with chapters on late medieval developments and logic and philosophy of logic from Humanism to Kant. The following chapters focus on the emergence of symbolic logic with special emphasis on the relations between logic and mathematics, on the one hand, and on logic and philosophy, on the other. This discussion is completed by a chapter on the themes of judgment and inference from 1837-1936. The volume contains a section on the development of mathematical logic from 1900-1935, followed by a section on main trends in mathematical logic after the 1930s. The volume goes on to discuss modal logic from Kant till the late twentieth century, and logic and semantics in the twentieth century; the philosophy of alternative logics; the philosophical aspects of inductive logic; the relations between logic and linguistics in the twentieth century; the relationship between logic and artificial intelligence; and ends with a presentation of the main schools of Indian logic.
The Development of Modern Logic includes many prominent philosophers from around the world who work in the philosophy and history of mathematics and logic, who not only survey developments in a given period or area but also seek to make new contributions to contemporary research in the field. It is the first volume to discuss the field with this breadth of coverage and depth, and will appeal to scholars and students of logic and itsphilosophy.

Robert Greystones on Certainty and Skepticism: Selections from His Works is a continuation of the volume previously published by Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi, Robert Greystones on the Freedom of the Will: Selections from His Commentary on the Sentences (edited by Mark Henninger, with Robert Andrews and Jennifer Ottman, 2017). In the course of preparation of the first volume, startling information arose concerning the nature and extent of Greystones' skepticism. Following draft editions of a number of Greystones' Sentences commentary questions, the most relevant five questions were selected for editing and translation. Greystones is in the tradition of Nicholas of Autrecourt, William Crathorn, Monachus Niger (the Black Monk), Nicholas Aston, and John Went, but the earliest of these figures. Building upon the 69th proposition of the Condemnation of 1277, Greystones concludes that God's unlimited power must lead to a radical skepticism about human knowledge. We cannot be certain whether we are in this life or the afterlife, in a body or not. We cannot be certain about the existence of any external object. We have no certain knowledge of cause and effect, the existence of substances, or of any contingent event. Like Descartes, Greystones held that we can be certain about our own existence (ego sum). But preempting Descartes' appeal to a beneficent, non-deceptive God, Greystones says: God does not deceive. But you deceive yourself if you insist on believing that something exists when you know that it might not! You know that God can intervene at any instant, and thus that you can never completely trust your senses. Greystones' skepticism is strikingly significant in light of the later historical development of philosophy. Recent researchers on medieval skepticism such as Henrik Lagerlund, Dominik Perler, and Jos e Luis Bermudez show no awareness of Greystones. Indeed, Bermudez claims that "the resources were not available in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to entertain those ... skeptical worries that were identified as distinctive of Cartesian skepticism." This edition of Greystones should prompt not just a footnote to, but a re-writing of, the history of philosophy.

Neostoicism was one of the most important intellectual movements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It started in the Protestant Netherlands during the revolt against Catholic Spain. Very quickly it began to influence both the theory and practice of politics in many parts of Europe. It proved to be particularly useful and appropriate to the early modern militaristic states; for, on the basis of the still generally accepted humanistic values of classical antiquity, it promoted a strong central power in the state, raised above the conflicting doctrines of the theologians. Characteristically, a great part of Neostoic writing was concerned with the nationally organized military institutions of the state. Its aim was the general improvement of social discipline and the education of the citizen to both the exercise and acceptance of bureaucracy, controlled economic life and a large army.

This is a brief, accessible introduction to the thought of the philosopher John Buridan (ca. 1295-1361). Little is known about Buridan's life, most of which was spent studying and then teaching at the University of Paris. Buridan's works are mostly by-products of his teaching. They consist mainly of commentaries on Aristotle, covering the whole extent of Aristotelian philosophy, ranging from logic to metaphysics, to natural science, to ethics and politics. Aside from these running commentaries on Aristotle's texts, Buridan wrote influential question-commentaries. These were a typical genre of the medieval scholastic output, in which the authors systematically and thoroughly discussed the most problematic issues raised by the text they were lecturing on. The question-format allowed Buridan to work out in detail his characteristically nominalist take on practically all aspects of Aristotelian philosophy, using the conceptual tools he developed in his works on logic. Buridan's influence in the late Middle Ages can hardly be overestimated. His ideas quickly spread not only through his own works, but to an even larger extent through the work of his students and younger colleagues, such as Nicholas Oresme, Marisilius of Inghen, and Albert of Saxony, who in turn became very influential themselves, and turned Buridan's ideas into standard textbook material in the curricula of many late medieval European universities. With the waning of scholasticism Buridan's fame quickly faded. Gyula Klima argues, however, that many of Buridan's academic concerns are strikingly similar to those of modern philosophy and his work sometimes quite directly addresses modern philosophical questions.

Peter Abelard conducted many analyses of Scriptural and Patristic teachings, and achieved an extensive rapprochement between Christian and pagan thought. His public career was ended in 1140 by an ecclesiastical condemnation, but this touched upon the central issues facing the early leaders of the medieval scholastic movement and Abelard's own teachings continued to be controversial. Dr Luscombe considers the influence of Abelard's principal teachings among his contemporaries and successors. his aim is to explain the conflicting estimates of Abelard which were current in the twelfth century and later, and to provide a full account of the writings and varied fortunes of Abelard's disciples. He also examines the manuscript tradition of Abelard's work and that of his followers. The condemnation of 1140 repudiated Abelard's leading doctrines. This led some of Abelard's disciples to partly retreat from the position of their master, whereas some chose to adapt and extend his teachings.

Archbishop of Canterbury from 1272 until his death in 1279, the Dominican friar Robert Kildwardby has long been known primarily for his participation in the Oxford Prohibitions of 1277, but his contributions spread far wider. A central figure in the Late Middle Ages, Kilwardby was one of the earliest commentators of the work of Aristotle, as well as an unwavering proponent of Augustinian thought and a believer of the plurality of forms. Although he was a prominent thinker of the time, key areas of his philosophical thought remain unexamined in contemporary scholarship. Jose Filipe Silva here offers the first book-length analysis of Kilwardby's full body of work, which is essential in understanding both the reception of Aristotle in the Latin West and the developments of later medieval philosophy. Beginning with his early philosophical commitments, Silva tracks Kilwardby's life and academic thought, including his theories on knowledge, moral happiness, and the nature of the soul, along with his attempts to reconcile Augustinian and Aristotelian thought. Ultimately, Robert Kilwardby offers a comprehensive overview of an unsung scholar, solidifying his philosophical legacy as one of the most influential authors of the Late Middle Ages.