A Johannine Synthesis on Medieval Philosophy

Hans Anthony Joseph T. Calma

Dedicated to all of my batchmates, I made this in response to the request

of some of our classmates and as an attempt to simplify our lessons for the

preliminary exam. My English name is John which means gift of God. I

hope that the writings I make truly become His instruments and signs of His

unfailing love and a gift that is truly God’s. I deliberately shortened this

since I didn’t want to waste time on details since the exam would last for

only an hour. It would be useful if one had read the book we use or at least

had good notes before reading this since this ‘opus’ serves only as a

supplement to what one may have studied.

I. Augustine

- Philosophy as his personal search for true wisdom.

- Was concerned whether truth exists or not/ certitude

- Neoplatonists and Plotinus highly influenced him to lead a moral life

after living as a Manichean. The latter believed that human reason

alone makes men wise.

- Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God. The Truth is a Person and has a

face, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

- Saw errors in the world of the “outside” and uncertainty as well but we

can start with what is certain within ourselves. We know that we “are”

and we love this and that etc.

- He used Platonic ideas as an attempt to explain the faith. When some

ideas were against Christian teachings, he either modified them or

discarded them.

- He believed that the body is an important part of the entire human

being yet He put more focus on God and the soul since certainty

comes from them while our senses from the body err.

- Philosophy and Theology are heavily mixed.

II. Boethius

- Philosophy as love of wisdom is not just some practical or speculative

reality but rather the highest of all and subsistent (existing by Itself)…

God

- Like Augustine, Philosophy is heavily mixed with Theology

- Wrote his “Consolation of Philosophy”

- God is the being Who is supremely good and the source of all good

things.

- Anything is called imperfect because of the privation of perfection.

- Nature doesn’t start with what is imperfect but rather with what is

whole and perfect according to him. God then is the most perfect of

all beings.

- God as supremely good, is supremely happy so we possess what is

good and then become happy if we participate in Him.

- Platonic in ideas. He accepted that we were previously existing with

angels then entered a body , losing our happiness and purity of

intelligence.

- We search for truth by interior meditation. The senses of the body

stirs the intelligence and stimulates the forms within. We were born

with ideas.

- Central problem of universals is whether they are real or conceptions

of the mind…fundamentally a metaphysical problem

- “There is no chance” because everything has a cause. God is the first

cause. In relation to Him, nothing happens by chance.

- God is in eternity. All events, past, present, and future in our time are

simultaneously present to Him. God just sees.

III. John Scotus Erigena

- One of those great thinkers who brought back classical learning from

the English isles back to the European mainland.

- He received a Neoplatonist philosophical formation and sometimes

allowed that to distort rather than illuminate the teachings of the faith.

- For him though, like Augustine, the goal of life is knowing the truth

revealed in Scripture.

- Philosophy is nothing else but understanding Scripture.

- Philosophy explains the rules of true religion of God, the highest and

principal cause of all things. No one can enter heaven except by

philosophy. It illumines faith.

IV. St. Anselm

- Lived at a time where there was so much interest in a rational

explanation of the faith. His monks even asked that a meditation be

composed, proving the existence of God without the authority of

Scriptures. This was answered in the Monologion.

- Other thinkers looked at Philosophy as pagan. Anselm stands out as

the best-balanced mind among his contemporaries. He was a

follower of Augustine.

- Reason makes faith more understandable. He upholds the primacy of

faith, believing first to be able to understand.

- After being established in faith, a Christian may legitimately try to

understand the mysteries of what he believes. He may not

comprehend them all fully in this life, but he confidently believes that

the mind can give necessary reasons for them.

- Best known for his ontological argument. He first wrote the

Monologion then the Proslogion which contains the ontological

argument.

- In the Monologion, he demonstrates first that the most excellent of all

things is God while other beings are good in varying degrees. They

are good, perfect, and in being insofar as they participate in God.

- In the Proslogion, he demonstrates that God is a being than which

none greater can be thought. It cannot simply exist in the mind. There

must exist both in the mind and in reality, that which nothing greater

can be thought of.

- It is greater to exist than not to exist at all. God exists by necessity.

One can think of the most perfect island (Gaunilon’s objection) or

even a mythological creature but our conception of their existence is

not necessary unlike God Who necessarily exists, keeping things in

existence. Our conception of Him makes Him necessary to exist. (my

thoughts)

- In Anselm’s day, there were two main groups of philosophers:

nominalists and realists. Nominalists identify the content of thought

with words while realists identify the content of thought with things

(the res itself). Nominalists can interchange fire and water since they

are just words.

V. Peter Abelard

- His purely philosophical writings are concerned with logic. He could

be said to be a rationalist but did not separate faith and reason nor

put reason above faith.

- He was a pioneer in the formation of the scholastic method. He was

not contented with merely reading Scripture then reading what the

Church Fathers thought. He would open the discussion, synthesizing

 the Yes and No, a scientific approach and not monastic

contemplation of the faith.

- He was at the thick of the battle concerning the Problem of the

Universals. He was a critic of William of Chapeaux who held that

universals are substances common to all individuals. All men

according to William are essentially one in being human but the

substance is individual through personal qualities, and quantities like

Socrates and Plato.

- Abelard questioned this, whether humanity is whole then or only

partial in each individual?

- Abelard points out that even if individuals have no essences in

common, they do have a common likeness that serve as a ground for

our universal names and concepts.

- Abelard’s Ethics is radical subjectivism for the only criterion of

morality it recognizes is intention. He focused on the subjective side

of morality.
VI. The School of Chartres

- Aside the school of Abelard, we have the school of St. Victor by

William of Chapeaux and the School of Chartres attached to the

cathedral of that name

- This school interested itself in Philosophy. While Abelard focused on

reason and logic, this School probed nature and cosmological

questions.

- Platonic in Philosophy yet supplemented by scientific and

mathematical works of Greeks and Arabians.

- This School emphasized the value of the Latin classics and the

cultivation of literary taste and style. It was the center of classical

learning and Christian humanism.

- The Men of Chartres did not rigidly adhere to the same philosophical

principles. They shared certain philosophical allegiances but each

was an individual thinker.

- Typical or common to this School is Thierry’s fourfold division of the

causes of the universe. God is the efficient cause and His Wisdom

(the Son) is the formal cause. The Goodness of God is the final

cause (love, the Holy Spirit) while the 4 elements (earth, water, fire,

and air) are the material cause.

VII. Introduction to Scholasticism

- A large number of Greek, Arabian, and Jewish philosophical writings

were translated into Latin profoundly transforming Christian theology

and Philosophy. A new chapter in Western culture began called

“scholasticism.”

- Schoolmen learned Aristotelian methods of disputation and science.

Some theologians like Thomas Aquinas adapted Aristotelian notion of

science to theology.

- Opposition to Aristotelian thought came from some sectors like

Bonaventure yet no one remained outside the sphere of his influence.

For everyone, he was the philosopher.

- Translations of the works of ancient writers came chiefly from

Mediterranean countries where Jews, Moslems, and Christians

mingled freely and spoke each other’s language.

- Scholastics learned the accurate difference between Aristotelian and

Neoplatonic thought thanks to the progress of translation. Earlier

writers like some Arabic and Greek writers freely mingled their own

thoughts in the translations. The Arabian philosophers considered

Plato and Aristotle as exponents of the same philosophy.

- These new literatures were accepted by those curious and anxious

for a more satisfying scientific and philosophical conception of the

Universe. It scandalized conservative Christians. Some prohibitions

were made on Aristotle’s works.

- Prohibition applied only to the University of Paris but not to the

others. Private reading wasn’t banned either.

- The work of censorship didn’t succeed because of the death of its

distinguished member in the commission. The tide went out strongly

in favor of Aristotle.

- In the Scholastic method, discussions were held with all its pros and

cons in every topic. The Master was in charge of the debate and it

was his duty to settle the question according to his opinion and to
 reply to objections. Students were trained to see both sides of the

problem.

VIII. Arabian and Jewish Philosophy

- In the development of scholasticism, one major development was the

contact of Christian West with Arabian and Jewish thought. The

Moslem world possessed the main works of Aristotle long before the

West and many of the first Latin translations were from Arabic

manuscripts.

- Arabic scholars passed on their own commentaries and the original

philosophical works. Jewish thinkers also provided new ideas and

approaches to philosophical and theological problems.

Avicenna

- He wrote and commented on many sources including Aristotle, the

Neoplatonists, and his predecessors at Baghdad.

- He passed on to the scholastics many metaphysical notions such as

the notion of being as first conceived by the intellect.

- A being is something that exists. A thing is a truth about which a truth

can be enunciated. Every thing has an essence or quiddity by which

the thing is what it is.

- The essence of a thing is certitude for it is the truth known by the

intellect expressed in speech.

- Every being involves necessity for it has an essence through which it

is necessarily what it is. A being with the essence of a triangle is

necessary a triangle.

- Metaphysics is the primary science because its subject is primary

being.

- Whatever begins to be must have cause for its being. Cause of

motion is not the same as cause for its very being.

- We need a First Cause which in itself is not a possible being or

dependent on some other being for continuing to be but rather

receiving existence from no prior cause. This is God. The First Cause

is not a possible being but rather a necessary one.

- His metaphysical notions were widely accepted by scholastics.

- Not all of his ideas were accepted by Orthodox Islamic theologians as

well as scholastics such as God transcending the world and only

knowing possible beings in general and not in particular.

- Avicenna’s doctrine of creation however was important for scholastic

development such as the difference between essence and existence.

- The doctrine was originally taken from Alfarabi. Aristotle said

something similar back then (notion of what a thing is and the fact

that it is). We conceive something that is without knowing whether it

exists or not. Existence is not contained in the essence of things but

rather an accident of them.

- God is denied any essence. God is pure existence Itself, necessarily

existing through Himself.

Averroes

- He was given the name, the Commentator.

- His ambition was to understand and teach the philosophy of Aristotle.

It was the least creative and progressive because Averroes equated

Philosophy itself with Aristotle’s philosophy.

- He tried to purify philosophy from any traces of religion. While

defending philosophy as the highest truth, he considered religion as a

social necessity.

- Religion is truth made accessible to those whose imagination is

stronger than reason.

- Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed were true prophets sent by God to

mankind. Their religions are just popular approaches to truth found in

its purity in philosophy.

- God is the Prime Mover, the ultimate Cause of all motion.

- His metaphysical notions followed Aristotle. Being in the primary

sense of the word is substance, an individual existing thing. Primary

Substances are the Intelligences or Immaterial Forms and pure Acts.

In material things, forms are united to matter. All beings are either

substances or accidents.

- The human soul is the substantial form of the human body.

Solomon Ibn Gabirol

- He was best known for teaching that all creatures, corporeal and

incorporeal are composed of matter and form. Only God lacks this

composition.

- There are 2 kinds of matter: Corporeal matter in our bodies and those

around us and Spiritual Matter for angels and souls.

- The presence of Spiritual Matter explains how there can be many in

one species yet have individuation.

 Moses Maimonides

- He was frequently referred by his own name signifying the respect

Aquinas and his contemporaries had with him.

- He maintained that there can be no conflict between reason and faith.

- Any apparent conflicts between them rises from misinterpretation of

Scripture or the writings of the philosophers.

- Scripture uses anthropomorphic passages that are not to be taken

literally.

- Positioned that God is free to create the Universe of whatever

duration, reconciling the notion that the Universe was created in time

and the Aristotelian notion that the Universe is eternal.

- He anticipated Thomas Aquinas’ proofs for the existence of God as

First Mover and First Cause and as the Necessary Being.

IX. Early Philosophy at Paris and Oxford

- The development of scholasticism went hand in hand with the

Universities.

- The greatest were in Oxford and Paris. There was a continuous traffic

and communication between the two schools. Each had their own
 intellectual interest and attitude. In general, Aristotle (biological

approach) triumphed in Paris while Oxford upheld Plato

(mathematical study of nature) and Augustine. There were notable

exemptions.

- In these Universities, philosophical and scientific thought developed,

raising critical problems among anxious minds to preserve the

Christian Faith, and the heritage of the Church Fathers.

William of Auvergne (Paris)

- He was concerned with the implications of Avicenna’s philosophy for

Christian thought.

- Firmly grounded in Augustine, Boethius, and Anselm, he considered

Avicenna a threat to the faith.

- The challenge of Avicenna led him to deeper philosophical reflection

and led him to ask new questions and rethink old ones in new terms.

- His criticisms focused on Avicenna and his notions of God and

creation. Avicenna posited that God was not free to create the world
 nor the immediate Creator. This was seen as an ignorance of the

Omnipotence and Freedom of God.

- He also along with Avicenna, helped Aquinas in shaping the notion of

God as pure existence.

- 2 types of being: being that receives existence from another and

being that exists by itself because existence is underived.

- 2 meanings of being: first, it is the substance or essence of a thing

considered in itself and stripped of all accidents. Being then is that

which a thing’s definition signifies. Second, being means a thing’s

existence, designated by ‘is.’

- We can define the essence of man or animal not necessarily existing.

God is a different case. God and His existence are identical.

- He put greater value in existence than essence.

- All creatures depend on God for existence. He was not pantheistic

but stressed that God is the being of all things. William leaves it

ambiguous.

- God alone is a cause and created beings are empty.

- His views on the soul were platonic. The soul is held captive as the

pilot of the body. His true self is the soul while the body is an

instrument.
- Spiritual substances such as angels command bodies and move

them w/o residing in them. Human soul must live in the body due to

its imperfection and weakness in commanding.

- When released from the body, the soul will know the substance of

things. Either that or by divine illumination.

Robert Grosseteste (Oxford)

- Influential in shaping the Oxford University as its first great scholar

and chancellor. Philosophical ideas always held first place.

- Many of his ideas came from personal experiences and observations.

- The aim of natural science is to arrive at laws by which things operate

in accordance with their natures or forms.

- Stimulation of sensible things is required for knowledge but certitude

and knowledge are gained by the soul’s awakening to the light of

divine Ideas operating within it.

- God is the primal, uncreated illuminating light.

- The diffusion of this light led to a finite Universe.

- This light is not physical light that we see but rather unextended point

of energy manifesting in visible light in all processes of nature. Matter

and light substances cannot be separated from one another.

- Light diffuses into directions giving our 3-dimensionality.

- Light is the form. Matter gives it extension in space.

X. Summary of the History of Medieval Thought (Augustine to Paris

and Oxford)

As the Roman Empire spread, it necessarily had to divide itself

into 4 parts. Foreigners freely entered the vast borders settling

within the area. Disunity in the Empire and the growing Germanic

tribes led to chaos and the collapse of the Empire. Men like

Augustine were one of the last great thinkers in at least the falling

Western Roman Empire while the East flourished. As the Dark

Ages crept in with the fall of the civilized Roman Empire, monks

and clerics kept learning alive by writing down by hand the bible

and other ancient manuscripts. Some monasteries had towers

were they were kept and the ladders were raised during an attack,

keeping ancient knowledge safe yet suspended. Their discovery

later on slowly led to a rebirth of classical learning. Monks

converted and educated the Germanic tribes with Roman ideals of

civilization while the Christian East flourished. Contact with

Arabians and Jews further led to more accurate translations of

ancient writings since they kept humanity’s ancient progress with

them on paper and ink. Latin translations were studied by scholars

and scholastics. The dawn of the renaissance was still far which

would be fueled by migrants from the Christian East, fleeing from

the Islamic invasion of Constantinople, carrying with them

preserved Greek and classical works of arts and literatures.