Elites Grid Weekly Track

Day 3: Medieval Schools of Philosophy

Averroism 1
Avicennism 4
Illuminationism 7
Scholasticism 9
Scotism 13
Thomism 15
  
Averroism
Averroism is a ​Medieval school of philosophy, begun in the late 13th Century,
which was based on the works of the 12th Century Arab philosopher ​Averroës
(also known as Ibn Rushd) and his interpretations of ​Aristotle and his
reconciliation of ​Aristotelianism with the Islamic faith. The movement, which can
be considered a type of ​Scholasticism​, is sometimes also known as Radical
Aristotelianism or Heterodox Aristotelianism. The term "Averroism" itself was
coined as late as the 19th Century.

European philosophers (such as the 13th Century Belgian philosopher Siger of

Brabant and the 13th Century Swedish/Danish philosopher Boetius of Dacia) in
turn applied these ideas to ​Aristotle​'s writings and their relation to the Christian
faith, a variant sometimes known as Latin Averroism.

The main ideas of the philosophical concept of Averroism include:

● there is one truth, but there are (at least) two ways to reach it, through
philosophy and through religion;

● the world is eternal;

● the soul is divided into two parts, one individual, and one divine;

● the individual soul is not eternal;

● all humans at the basic level share one and the same divine soul (an idea
known as monopsychism);

● resurrection of the dead is not possible (this was put forth by Boetius)
  
Averroës believed that Scripture sometimes uses metaphorical language, and that
those without the philosophical training to appreciate the true meaning of the
passages in question are obliged to believe the literal meaning. Siger expanded
this to claim that there exists a "double truth": a factual or "hard" truth that is
reached through science and philosophy, and a "religious" truth that is reached
through religion. Particularly galling to the Church of the time was the Averroist
emphasis on the superiority of reason and philosophy over faith and knowledge
founded on faith, the independent use of reason, and the idea that the
philosophical and religious worlds are separate entities.

Averroism supports the idea that "existence precedes essence" (the philosophic
concept based on the idea of existence without essence) in direct opposition to
the ​Essentialism of rival Islamic movements, ​Avicennism and ​Illuminationism​.
Much later, the Transcendent Theosophy of Mulla Sadra (c. 1571 – 1640) in the
17th Century and ​Existentialism in the 20th Century were to develop this radical
idea.

The Roman Catholic Church in the ecclesiastical centers of Paris and Oxford
condemned 219 of ​Averroës​' theses in 1277, although many of their objections
were identical to the arguments of Al-Ghazali (1058 - 1111) against philosophers
in general in his "Incoherence of the Philosophers" (which ​Averroës had earlier
tried to demonstrate to be unjustified). ​St. Thomas Aquinas opposed Averroism as
a dangerous line of thought, and his synthesis of faith and reason (which is at the
heart of ​Thomism​) was in specific opposition to Averroism.

Despite the condemnations, many Averroistic theses survived to the 16th Century
and can be found in the philosophies of Italian Renaissance thinkers like Pico della
Mirandola (1463 - 1494), Giordano Bruno (1548 -1600) and Cesare Cremonini
(1550 -1631), who talked about the superiority of philosophers to the common
people and the relation between the intellect and human dignity.
  
The ​pantheistic beliefs of ​Baruch Spinoza flowed from Averroistic monopsychism,
as did his belief in the higher state of the philosophers and tendencies toward
secularism (the idea that certain practices or institutions should exist separately
from religion or religious belief). Some scholars consider ​Averroës to be the
founding father of secular thought in Western Europe.
  
Avicennism
Avicennism is a ​Medieval school of philosophy founded by the 11th Century
Persian philosopher ​Avicenna (also known as Ibn Sina). ​Avicenna tried to redefine
the course of Islamic philosophy and channel it into new directions, and
particularly to reconcile ​Aristotelianism​ and ​Neo-Platonism​ with Islamic theology.

Avicenna​'s work, particularly his ​Metaphysics​, had a profound influence on other

medieval ​Scholastics such as ​St. Thomas Aquinas​, ​Albertus Magnus and William of
Auvergne. Despite some criticism by later Muslim theologians, Avicennism
became the leading school of Islamic philosophy by the 12th Century, and even
today forms the basis of philosophic education in the Islamic world

Early Islamic philosophy and theology distinguishes more clearly than

Aristotelianism the difference between existence (the domain of the contingent
and the accidental) and essence (which endures within a being, beyond the
accidental). ​Avicenna argued that the fact of existence can not be inferred from,
or accounted for, by the essence of existing things, and that form and matter by
themselves cannot interact and originate the movement. He argued that some
existing thing must necessitate, impart, give or add existence to an essence, and
that "essence precedes existence" (​Essentialism​).

According to ​Avicenna​, the universe consists of a chain of actual beings, each

giving existence to, and responsible for, the rest of the chain below (angels, souls
and all of creation). He argued that, as an infinite chain is impossible, the chain as
a whole must terminate in a being that is wholly simple, self-sufficient and one,
whose essence is its very existence (i.e. God). This is a combination of the
Ontological Argument and Cosmological Argument for the existence of God (see
the section on ​Philosophy of Religion​), and a very early use of the method of a
priori proof, utilizing intuition and reason alone.
  
Avicenna also developed his own system of ​Logic​, known as Avicennian Logic, as
an alternative to Aristotelian Logic, and by the 12th Century it had replaced
Aristotelian Logic as the dominant system of ​Logic in the Islamic world. Avicennian
Logic had an influence on early medieval European logicians such as ​Albertus
Magnus​, although Aristotelian Logic later became popular in Europe due to the
strong influence of ​Averroism​. ​Avicenna developed an early theory of the
hypothetical syllogism as well as propositional calculus, an area of ​Logic not
covered in the ​Aristotelianism tradition. He also contributed inventively to the
development of inductive logic, mainly through his medical writings.

In ​Epistemology and the theory of knowledge, ​Avicenna developed the concepts

of ​Empiricism and the tabula rasa (the idea that individual human beings are born
with no innate or built-in mental content), which strongly influenced ​John Locke​'s
formulation of tabula rasa and intuitive reasoning, and later gave rise to the
nature versus nurture debate in modern philosophy and psychology. He was also
the first to describe the methods of agreement, difference and concomitant
variation which are critical to inductive logic and the scientific method, which was
essential to later scientific methodology.

Later in the 12th Century, the Sufi mystic Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (1155 - 1191)
developed ​Illuminationism​, a combination of Avicennism and ancient ​Persian
philosophy​, along with many new innovative ideas of his own. However,
Avicennism was also criticized by several Muslim theologians.
  
Al-Ghazali (1058 - 1111), Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149 - 1209) and the Ash'ari
theologians objected to Avicennism mainly on the grounds of its inconsistencies
with the Qur'an and Hadith. Al-Ghazali's famous work "The Incoherence of the
Philosophers" was specifically aimed at ​Avicenna​, particularly his assertions that
the world has no beginning in the past and is not created in time, that God's
knowledge includes only classes of beings and not individual beings (universals
not particulars), and that after death the souls of humans will never again return
into bodies.

Averroës criticized ​Avicenna mainly due to his divergence from ​Aristotle​. In

particular, he rejected the theory of the celestial Souls and of an imagination
which is independent of the corporeal senses. ​Averroism eventually proved more
influential in the Christian West than Avicennism.

In the 17th Century, Mulla Sadra (c. 1571 – 1640) combined the vision of Sufi
metaphysics with some of the ​rationalistic approach of ​Avicenna​, eventually
leading to a whole new philosophy known as Transcendent Theosophy. However,
he opposed Avicennism's ​Essentialism​, and espoused the opposite idea of
"existence precedes essence", a key foundational concept of later ​Existentialism​.
  
Illuminationism
Illuminationism is a ​Medieval school of Islamic philosophy founded in the 12th
Century by Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi (1155 - 1191). It is a combination of
Avicennism and ancient ​Persian philosophy​, along with many new innovative
ideas of Suhrawardi himself. He is often described as influenced by ​Neo-Platonism
in that he attempted a synthesis of ​Platonic​, Zoroastrian and Islamic ideas.

Suhrawardi was a Sufi (a mystical sect of Islam). He was critical of several of the
positions taken by ​Avicenna​, and radically departed from him through the
creation of a symbolic language derived from ancient Iranian culture.

The fundamental constituent of Suhrawardi’s philosophy is pure, immaterial light,

which unfolds from the "light of lights" in emanations through the descending
order of the light of ever-diminishing intensity. Through complex interaction, this
in turn gives rise to horizontal arrays of lights, similar in concept to Platonic Forms
(see the section on ​Platonic Realism​), which govern the different types of
mundane reality. Thus, it views the whole of reality as a continuum, with the
physical world being an aspect of the divine. Suhrawardi also elaborated the idea
of an independent, intermediary world, the imaginal world.
  
Illuminationist philosophy challenges the ​Aristotelian position of the absolute,
unchanging and universal validity of truths, and argues that a conclusion reached
by using a formally established syllogism has no epistemological value as a
starting point in philosophical construction. It emphasizes intuitive knowledge (as
opposed to acquired or representational knowledge), and attempts to unravel the
mysteries of nature through the metaphysical world of myths, dreams, fantasy
and inspiration, rather than through the principles of physics. It supports the idea
of "essence precedes existence" previously espoused by ​Avicenna and his school
of ​Avicennism​, and opposed by ​Averroism and later by Mulla Sadra (c. 1571 –
1640) and his Transcendent Theosophy movement.

In the 17th Century, Illuminationism initiated a Zoroastrian revival in the figure of

Azar Kayvan (1533 - 1618), but in its original form it has remained an important
force in Islamic, especially Persian, philosophy right up to the present day.
  
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a ​Medieval school of philosophy (or, perhaps more accurately, a
method of learning) taught by the academics of medieval universities and
cathedrals in the period from the 12th to 16th Century. It combined ​Logic​,
Metaphysics and semantics into one discipline, and is generally recognized to
have developed our understanding of ​Logic​ significantly.

The term "scholastic" is derived from the Latin word "scholasticus" and the Greek
"scholastikos" (meaning literally "devoting one's leisure to learning" or "scholar")
and the Greek "scholeion" (meaning "school"). The term "schoolmen" is also
commonly used to describe scholastics.

Scholasticism is best known for its application in medieval Christian theology,

especially in attempts to reconcile the philosophy of the ancient classical
philosophers (particularly ​Aristotle​) with Christian theology. However, in the High
Scholastic period of the 14th Century, it moved beyond theology, and had
applications in many other fields of study including ​Epistemology​, ​Philosophy of
Science​, philosophy of nature, psychology and even economic theory.

Essentially, Scholasticism is a tool and method for learning which places emphasis
on dialectical reasoning (the exchange of argument, or thesis, and counter
argument, or antithesis, in pursuit of a conclusion, or synthesis), directed at
answering questions or resolving contradictions. In medieval Europe, dialectics (or
logic) was one of the three original liberal arts (the "trivium"), in addition to
rhetoric and grammar.

There are perhaps six main characteristics of Scholasticism:

● An acceptance of the prevailing Catholic orthodoxy.

 ●
 
Within this orthodoxy, an acceptance of ​Aristotle as a greater thinker than
Plato​.

● The recognition that ​Aristotle and ​Plato disagreed about the notion of
universals, and that this was a vital question to resolve.

● Giving prominence to dialectical thinking and syllogistic reasoning.

● An acceptance of the distinction between "natural" and "revealed"

theology.

● A tendency to dispute everything at great length and in minute detail, often

involving word-play.

The Scholastic method is to thoroughly and critically read a book by a renowned

scholar or author (e.g. The Bible, texts of ​Plato or ​St. Augustine​, etc), reference
any other related documents and commentaries on it, and note down any
disagreements and points of contention. The two sides of an argument would be
made whole (found to be in agreement and not contradictory) through
philological analysis (the examination of words for multiple meanings or
ambiguities), and through logical analysis (using the rules of formal logic to show
that contradictions did not exist but were merely subjective to the reader).

These would then be combined into "questionae" (referencing any number of

sources to divine the pros and cons of a particular general question), and then
into "summae" (complete summaries of all questions, such as ​St. Thomas Aquinas​'
famous "Summa Theologica", which claimed to represent the sum total of
Christian theology at the time).
  
Scholastic schools had two methods of teaching: the "lectio" (the simple reading
of a text by a teacher, who would expound on certain words and ideas, but no
questions were permitted); and the "disputatio" (where either the question to be
disputed was announced beforehand, or students proposed a question to the
teacher without prior preparation, and the teacher would respond, citing
authoritative texts such as the Bible to prove his position, and the students would
rebut the response, and the argument would go back and forth, with someone
taking notes to summarize the argument).

Scholasticism was concurrent with movements in early ​Islamic philosophy​, some

of which presaged and influenced European Scholasticism. From the 8th Century,
the Mutazilite School of Islam pursued a rational theology known as Kalam to
defend their principles against the more orthodox Ash'ari School, and can be seen
as an early form of Scholasticism. Later, the Islamic philosophical schools of
Avicennism and ​Averroism exerted great influence on Scholasticism. There were
also similar developments in medieval ​Jewish philosophy (especially the work of
Maimonides​).

St. Anselm of Canterbury is sometimes misleadingly referred to as the "Father of

Scholasticism", although his approach was not really in keeping with the
Scholastic method. Probably a better example of Early Scholasticism is the work of
Peter Abelard and Peter Lombard (c. 1100 - 1160), particularly the latter's
"Sentences", a collection of opinions on the Church Fathers and other authorities.
Other early Scholastics include Hugh of St. Victor (1078 - 1151), Bernard of
Clairvaux (1090 - 1153), Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179), Alain de Lille (c. 1128 -
1202) and Joachim of Fiore (c. 1135 - 1202).
  
The Franciscan and Dominican orders of the 13th Century saw some of the most
intense scholastic theologizing of High Scholasticism, producing such theologians
and philosophers as ​Albertus Magnus​, ​St. Thomas Aquinas​, Alexander of Hales
(died 1245) and St. Bonaventure (1221 - 1274). This period also saw a flourishing
of mystical theology, such as Mechthild of Magdeburg (1210 - 1285) and Angela of
Foligno (1248 - 1309), and early natural philosophy (or "science") at the hands of
such men as ​Roger Bacon​ and Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175 - 1253).

Late Scholasticism (14th Century onwards) became more complex and subtle in its
distinctions and arguments, including the ​nominalist or ​voluntarist theologies of
men like ​William of Ockham​. Also notable during the Late Scholasticism period are
John Duns Scotus​, Meister Eckhart (1260 - 1328), Marsilius of Padua (1270 -
1342), John Wycliffe (c. 1320 - 1384), Julian of Norwich (1342 - 1413), Geert
Groote (1340 - 1384), Catherine of Siena (1347 - 1380), Jean Gerson (1363 - 1429),
Jan Hus (c. 1369 - 1415) and Thomas a Kempis (1380 - 1471).

Thomism and ​Scotism are specific off-shoots of Scholasticism, following the

philosophies of ​St. Thomas Aquinas​ and ​John Duns Scotus​ respectively.

Scholasticism was eclipsed by the ​Humanism of the 15th and 16th Centuries, and
it came to be viewed as a rigid, formalistic and outdated way of conducting
philosophy. It was briefly revived in the Spanish School of Salamanca in the 16th
Century, and in the Catholic Scholastic revival (Neo-Scholasticism) of the late 19th
and early 20th Century, although with a somewhat narrower focus on certain
scholastics and their respective schools of thought, most notably ​St. Thomas
Aquinas​.
  
Scotism
Scotism is a ​Medieval school of philosophy named after 13th Century philosopher
and Franciscan theologian ​John Duns Scotus​. His followers were often referred to
as "Dunses", from which the word "dunce" is derived, originally meaning one who
opposed classical studies.

Sometimes referred to as the Later Franciscan School, Scotism (like ​Thomism​, the
other main ​Scholastic movement of the Middle Ages), made free use of
Aristotelianism in Christian theologizing. Unlike ​Thomism​, however, Scotism
adhered more to the teachings of the Older Franciscan School in points such as
the plurality of forms or souls, the spiritual matter of angels, the source of venial
sin, the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary (which had been
specifically rejected by ​St. Thomas Aquinas​), etc.

The importance of Scotism does not consist solely in its negativity and opposition
to ​Aquinas and the ​Thomistic school​, but it does mark a compromise position
between the traditional views, based on the ​Neo-Platonist approach of ​St.
Augustine​, and the more radical departures of ​St. Thomas Aquinas​.

Franciscans and Jesuits generally adopted the Scotist propositions, in opposition

to ​Thomism​, as did many Augustinians and Serviters. However, it is only at the
beginning of the 16th Century, when ​Scotus​' works were finally collected and
edited, that a specifically Scotist School can be spoken of. Its greatest popularity
occurred in the 17th Century, and it had declined substantially in influence by the
19th Century.
  
Notable Scotists include: Francis Mayron (c. 1280 - 1325) in the 14th Century;
Pope Alexander V (c. 1339 - 1410), Pope Sixtus IV (1414 - 1484), Elector Frederick
III of Saxony (1486 - 1525) and Angelus of Chivasso (1411 - 1495) in the 15th
Century; Paul Scriptoris (1460 - 1505) in the 16th Century; Luke Wadding (1588 -
1657), Claude Frassen (1620 -1711) and Francisco Macedo (1596 - 1681) in the
17th Century.
  
Thomism
Thomism is a ​Medieval school of philosophy that arose specifically as a legacy of
the work and thought of the 13th Century philosopher and theologian ​St. Thomas
Aquinas​. His "Summa Theologica" is often considered second only to the Bible in
importance to the Roman Catholic Church, and arguably one of the most
influential philosophies of all time.

Aquinas worked to create a philosophical system which integrated Christian

doctrine with elements taken from ​Aristotelianism​, augmenting the ​Neo-Platonic
view of philosophy (which, after ​St. Augustine​, had become tremendously
influential among medieval philosophers), with insights drawn from ​Aristotle​. He
was instrumental in moving the focus of ​Scholastic philosophy away from ​Plato
and towards ​Aristotle​.

He was greatly influenced by his reading of earlier and contemporaneous Islamic

philosophers, especially the works of ​Avicenna​, Al-Ghazali (1058 - 1111), and
Averroes (although he explicitly rejected ​Averroes​' primary conclusions and
themes). He also drew on the works of the prominent medieval Jewish
philosophers Avicebron (1021 - 1058) and ​Maimonides​, and in turn he influenced
later Jewish philosophy.

Aquinas taught that both faith and reason discover truth (conflict between them
being impossible since they both originate in God), and that reason can, in
principle, lead the mind to God. He offered five proofs for the existence of God,
including the Cosmological Argument (based on ​Aristotle​'s concept of the
"unmoved mover") and the Teleological Argument (which is similar to the modern
idea of "intelligent design"). See the section on ​Philosophy of Religion for more
discussion of these.
  
The Thomistic School is distinguished from other schools of theology chiefly by its
doctrines on the difficult questions relating to God's action on the free will of
Man, God's foreknowledge, the nature of grace (he held that grace was not due to
Man's nature, but was granted to Man by God from the beginning), and
predestination (the idea that God has appointed and pre-ordained from eternity
all events occurring in time).

The Dominican religious order, of which ​Aquinas was a member, quickly adopted
his ideas as an official philosophy of the order, and the Dominicans always
remained his most ardent supporters, through to the 16th Century. The
Franciscan order, on the other hand, including ​John Duns Scotus​, Henry of Ghent
(c. 1217 - 1293) and Giles of Rome (c. 1243 - 1316), vehemently opposed
Thomism. Some of his theses were condemned in 1277 by the important
ecclesiastical authorities of Paris and Oxford, although this condemnation was
revoked after ​Aquinas was canonized in 1323. ​William of Ockham and his
adherents also expressed strong opposition to Thomism, as did the later Jesuit
Molinists (named after the movement's founder, the 16th Century Jesuit
theologian Luis de Molina), notably Robert Bellarmine (1542 - 1621), Francisco
Suárez (1548 -1617) and Francisco de Lugo (1580 - 1652).

In the late 19th Century, Pope Leo XIII (1810 - 1903) attempted a revival of
Thomism (Neo-Thomism), emphasizing the ethical parts of Thomism, and this
held sway as the dominant philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church until the
Second Vatican Council in 1962, and remains a vibrant and challenging school of
philosophy even today.

Analytical Thomism is a recent minor philosophical movement which promotes

the interchange of ideas between Thomism and modern ​Analytic Philosophy​.
  
Content Credits: Philosophy Basics