Name: Viernes, Yssabelle May & Sao, Allan

Grade: 12 – STEM Online

Medieval Philosophy

Activity:

1. Determine at least 5 famous Philosophers during these eras.

2. What is their contribution to the field of Philosophy
3. Discuss his/her Philosophical beliefs

1. St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274)

IItalian San Tommaso d’Aquino, also called Aquinas, byname Doctor Angelicus (Latin:
“Angelic Doctor”). He is was one of the most influential medieval thinkers of Scholasticism and
the father of the Thomistic school of theology.

Contribution to the field of Philosophy

St. Thomas Aquinas was the greatest of the Scholastic philosophers. He produced a
comprehensive synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy that influenced Roman
Catholic doctrine for centuries and was adopted as the official philosophy of the church in 1917.

Philosophical Beliefs
Saint Thomas Aquinas believed that the existence of God could be proven in five ways,
mainly by: 1) observing movement in the world as proof of God, the "Immovable Mover"; 2)
observing cause and effect and identifying God as the cause of everything; 3) concluding that the
impermanent nature of beings proves the existence of a necessary being, God, who originates
only from within himself; 4) noticing varying levels of human perfection and determining that a
supreme, perfect being must therefore exist; and 5) knowing that natural beings could not have
intelligence without it being granted to them it by God. Subsequent to defending people's ability
to naturally perceive proof of God, Thomas also tackled the challenge of protecting God's image
as an all-powerful being.

2. John Duns Scotus (c. 1265-1308)

Scottish philosopher and theologian.

Contribution to the field of Philosophy

He contributed to the development of a metaphysical system that was compatible with
Christian doctrine, an epistemology that altered the 13th-century understanding of human
knowledge, and a theology that stressed both divine and human will. Scotus contributed to a more
exact understanding of the relation between philosophy and theology. He emphasized the
practical and affective nature of theology, denying to it the rigorous demonstrative quality of the
Aristotelian sciences. Scotus, however, shared with St. Thomas Aquinas the belief that truth was
one and that theology and philosophy do not contradict each other but represent two different
approaches to the same truth.
Philosophical Beliefs
Scotus understood metaphysics as that aspect of philosophy that studies the nature of
being itself rather than any particular object possessing being that exists in external reality. On
the basis of his belief that the term "being" applied to God and man in the same sense and that
one part of a disjunctive requires the other part, Scotus established a proof for God's existence
based on the nature of being. The existence of finite, contingent beings requires the existence of
an infinite, necessary being, namely God. The main feature of Scotus's theology is the importance
he gives to the primacy of the will in both God and man. In contrast to St. Thomas Aquinas, who
tended to emphasize the intellect or reason, Scotus stressed the freedom of the divine will and
the freedom of the human will within an order freely chosen by God.

3. William of Ockham (c. 1287-1347)

Contribution to the field of Philosophy

Ockham is also increasingly being recognized as an important contributor to the
development of modern Western constitutional ideas (especially the idea of government with
limited responsibility), and to the emergence of liberal democratic ideologies. He was one of the
first medieval authors to advocate a form of Church-State separation, and was important for the
early development of the notion of property rights and freedom of speech. Ockham also wrote a
great deal on natural philosophy, including a long commentary on Aristotle's physics.

Philosophical Beliefs
Throughout his career, Ockham remained a fideist, convinced that belief in God is a matter
of faith alone. Against the scholastic mainstream, he insisted that theology is not a science and
rejected all the alleged proofs of the existence of God. At the same time, however, he upheld the
absolute omnipotence of God, which committed him to “divine command theory” in ethics—God
can command individuals to do things that may ordinarily be wrong (such as disobey the pope),
making them right through his command.

4. Saint Bonaventure (1221-74)

Contribution to the field of Philosophy

Bonaventure showed how philosophical reasoning works in theology in the very structure
of his disputed question On the Mystery of the Trinity. Each question is divided into two articles,
the first proven using rational premises and the second proven using premises drawn from faith.

Philosophical Beliefs
His theology was marked by an attempt completely to integrate faith and reason. He
thought of Christ as the “one true master” who offers humans knowledge that begins in faith, is
developed through rational understanding, and is perfected by mystical union with God.

5. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 480–524/525)

Contribution to the field of Philosophy

The Roman logician and theologian Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 480-c. 524) is
best known for his influential work "The Consolation of Philosophy." He also wrote theological
treatises and transmitted to the Middle Ages portions of Aristotle's writings.
Philosophical Beliefs
Like his Greek predecessors, Boethius believed that arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and
music were intertwined, hence the Quadrivium helped to mutually reinforce the understanding of
each, and together exemplified the fundamental principles of order and harmony in the
understanding of the universe as it was known during that time.

Sources:

1. St. Thomas Aquinas

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/medieval-philosophy/#Boethius
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Thomas-Aquinas
https://www.biography.com/religious-figure/saint-thomas-aquinas

2. John Duns Scotus

https://biography.yourdictionary.com/john-duns-scotus

3. William of Ockham
https://www.philosophybasics.com/philosophers_ockham.html
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396577/obo-
9780195396577-
0271.xml#:~:text=Throughout%20his%20career%2C%20Ockham%20remained,of%20the%20e
xistence%20of%20God.

4. Saint Bonaventure
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bonaventure/
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bonaventure/

5. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

https://biography.yourdictionary.com/anicius-manlius-severinus-boethius
https://soundpossibilities.net/2010/12/22/introducing-sound-possibilites-ii/