Image: Aristotle's Physics translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona; the manuscript also contains a text by Avicenna (British Library, Harley MS 3487; further details). 
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Introduction

This course will examine a range of key thinkers and themes in medieval philosophy, from the fourth to the fourteenth century, telling the story of the development and transmission of philosophical ideas along the way. It will begin in late antiquity, showing the ways in which medieval thought was built on the ancient Greek philosophical tradition. It will outline the transmission of Greek thought to the Arabic-speaking world, examine a number of Arabic philosophers, and consider the impact of Arabic thought on medieval philosophy in Paris. It will conclude with William of Ockham, active in fourteenth century London and Oxford. Topics discussed will focus on problems in metaphysics, such as the nature of existence, universals, and the mind. The relationship between philosophy and theology (or reason and faith) will be a continuing theme.

The abbreviation 'HWW' below refers to A. Hyman, J. Walsh, and T. Williams, Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions, Third Edition (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2010) and 'HW' refers to the earlier edition, A. Hyman and J. Walsh, Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions, Second Edition (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1973). 

Background/General Reading

Starting with the most introductory and building up: 
  • Marenbon, J., Medieval Philosophy, A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016)
  • Kenny, A. Medieval Philosophy, A New History of Western Philosophy 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005) 
  • Marenbon, J., Medieval Philosophy (London: Routledge, 2007)  
  • McGrade, A. S., ed., The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
  • Adamson, P., and Taylor, R. C., eds, The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
  • Marenbon, J., ed., The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) 
  • Pasnau, R., ed., The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) 

Note also: 
  • Fakhry, M., A History of Islamic Philosophy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004) 
  • McGinnis J., and Reisman, D. C., Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007) 
  • Spade, P. V., Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994) 

1. Neoplatonism

Texts: Readings: 
  • Bussanich, J., ‘Plotinus’s Metaphysics of the One’, in L. Gerson, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 38-65, doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521470935.003
Online Resources:  Podcasts:  ​

2. Augustine (on the Mind)

Texts: Readings: 
  • Stróżyński, M., ‘There is No Searching for the Self: Self-Knowledge in Book Ten of Augustine's De Trinitate’, Phronesis 58 (2013): 280-300, www.jstor.org/stable/42000239
Online Resources:  Podcasts:  ​

3. Boethius (on Divine Foreknowledge)

Texts:
  • Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy 5.1-6 (HWW 127-37), available online at www.loebclassics.com (requires library login)
​​Readings: 
  • Marenbon, J., ‘Divine Prescience and Contingency in Boethius’s Consolation Of Philosophy’, Rivista Di Storia Della Filosofia 68 (2013): 9-22, www.jstor.org/stable/24866884
Online Resources:  Podcasts:  ​

4. Avicenna (on Existence and Essence)

Texts:
  • Avicenna, Metaphysics of The Salvation/Deliverance (Kitab al-Najat) 2.1-5 (HWW 244-9); note also Metaphysics of The Healing/Cure (Kitab al-Shifa) 1.6 (HW 241-4) 
Readings:  Online Resources:  Podcasts:  ​

5. Avicenna (on Soul and Body)

Texts:
  • Avicenna, Psychology of The Salvation/Deliverance (Kitab al-Najat) 6.13 (HWW 259-61) and On the Soul (Kitab al-Nafs) 1.5 (HWW 261-4); note also On the Soul 1.1 (in McGinnis and Reisman 2007: 175-9) [extracts online at wmpeople.wm.edu/asset/index/cvance/Avicenna2]
Readings:  Online Resources:  Podcasts:  ​

6. Al-Ghazali (on Causation)

Texts:
  • Al-Ghazali, Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahafut al-falasifa) 17 (HWW 278-84, also HW 283-91); note also Averroes, Incoherence of the Incoherence (Tahafut al-Tahafut), in Van Den Burgh 1954: 1:316-21 
Readings:  Online Resources:  Podcasts:  ​

7. Averroes (on Faith and Reason)

Texts: Readings: 
  • Butterworth, C., ‘Averroës, Precursor of the Enlightenment?’, Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 16 (1996): 6-18, www.jstor.org/stable/521828
Online Resources:  Podcasts:  ​

8. Siger of Brabant and Thomas Aquinas (on Eternity of the World)

Texts: Readings:
  • Bukowski, T., ‘The Eternity of the World according to Siger of Brabant: Probable or Demonstrative?’, Recherches De Théologie Ancienne Et Médiévale 36 (1969): 225-29, www.jstor.org/stable/26188141 ​
Podcasts: ​

9. Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus (on Being)

Texts:
  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Ia 13.5 (HWW 474-6, also HW 529-31), online at www.newadvent.org/summa/​
  • Duns Scotus, Ordinatio 1 d. 3 p. 1 q. 1 (HWW 567-70, also HW 602-6)
Readings:
  • Bonansea, B., ‘The Human Mind and the Knowledge of God: Reflections On A Scholastic Controversy’, Franciscan Studies 40 (1980): 5-17, www.jstor.org/stable/41974961
Online Resources: Podcasts: ​

10. William of Ockham (on Universals)

Texts: Readings: Online Resources: Podcasts: ​
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