MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY 1
No gap between the Neoplatonists (late antiquity) and Descartes (early Modernity)
- period not set in stone
- 450 - 1450 (fall of Rome to Ottoman Empire taking Constantinople)
- in between Antiquity and the Renaissance
- characterized by the Latin language
- many neglected works and authors
- influenced by religion, theology (the 3 Abrahamic ones)
- motivated by theological study: development in logic, metaphysics, epistemology
4 traditions:
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Orthodox Christian [Byzantine] (Greek)
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Islamic (Arabic, Persian)
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Jewish (Arabic, Hebrew)
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Catholic Christian (Latin)
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Ancient philosophy transported to Abrahamic monotheism
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Plato: Timaeus, some of Phaedo
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Aristotle: The Philosopher, canonical works, many interpretations, entered via Arabic world
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Presocratics: Heraclitus and becomings, Parmenides/Zeno and absolute being
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Plato (via Augustine): Forms/Ideas as being, sensible world as becoming, knowledge isn’t in particulars, but in univerals (Forms); knowledge via Forms: intelligable, universal, immaterial, unchanging, unbecoming, solid; via the metaphysics of a form things are, via its epistemology they’re known; Recollection (past participation in Forms); the body as a burden to the soul (important for Medieval writers);
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Aristotle: logical works (Organon + others) pre 12thC, whole corpus post 12thC; humans as political animals
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Stoics, Epicureans, Neoplatonists: reject corporeality, don’t fear death