JOHN SELLARS
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Medieval Philosophy

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). 
​

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:
  • Plotinus, Enneads, available online at www.loebclassics.com (requires library login)
  • Pseudo-Dionysius, The Mystical Theology (HWW 142-4), online at esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/MysticalTheology.html
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: 
  • Wildberg, Christian, 'Neoplatonism', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2019/entries/neoplatonism/
  • Corrigan, Kevin, and L. Michael Harrington, 'Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/pseudo-dionysius-areopagite/
Podcasts: 
  • Adamson, Peter, 'Simplicity Itself: Plotinus on The One and Intellect', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/plotinus-one-intellect
  • Adamson, Peter, 'Naming the Nameless: The Pseudo-Dionysius', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/pseudo-dionysius
​

2. Augustine (on the Mind)

Texts:
  • Augustine, De trinitate 15.12 (HWW 64-5) or 10.10 (HW 71-3) [online at www.newadvent.org/fathers/1301.htm]; De libero arbitrio 2.3.7 (HWW 34-5, also HW 33-4) 
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: 
  • Tornau, Christian, 'Saint Augustine', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/augustine/
Podcasts: 
  • Adamson, Peter, 'Me, Myself and I: Augustine on Mind and Memory', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/augustine-mind
​

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: 
  • Marenbon, John, 'Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/boethius/
Podcasts: 
  • Adamson, Peter, 'Fate, Hope and Clarity: Boethius', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/boethius
​

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: 
  • Bäck, A., ‘Avicenna’s Conception of the Modalities’, Vivarium 30 (1992): 217-55, www.jstor.org/stable/42569869
Online Resources: 
  • Lizzini, Olga, 'Ibn Sina’s Metaphysics', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/ibn-sina-metaphysics/
Podcasts: 
  • Adamson, Peter, 'By the Time I get to Phoenix: Avicenna on Existence', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/avicenna-metaphysics
  • BBC In Our Time on Avicenna, www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00855lt
​

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: 
  • Marmura, M., ‘Avicenna’s ‘Flying Man’ in Context’, The Monist 69 (1986): 383-95, www.jstor.org/stable/27902982
Online Resources: 
  • Rahman, F., 'Avicenna vi. Psychology', Encyclopædia Iranica (III/1, pp. 83-84), online at www.iranicaonline.org/articles/avicenna-vi 
Podcasts: 
  • Adamson, Peter, 'Into Thin Air: Avicenna on the Soul', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/avicenna-soul
​

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: 
  • Goodman, L., ‘Did Al-Ghazâlî Deny Causality?’, Studia Islamica 47 (1978): 83-120, www.jstor.org/stable/1595550
Online Resources: 
  • Griffel, Frank, 'al-Ghazali', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),  plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/al-ghazali/
  • Richardson, Kara, 'Causation in Arabic and Islamic Thought', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/arabic-islamic-causation/
  • Lee, Sukjae, 'Occasionalism', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/occasionalism/
Podcasts: 
  • Adamson, Peter, 'Miracle Worker: Al-Ghazali Against the Philosophers', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/al-ghazali-incoherence
​

7. Averroes (on Faith and Reason)

Texts:
  • Averroes, Decisive Treatise  (Fasl al-maqal) (HWW 289-304, also HW 297-316); an older translation is available online at https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/rushd-the-philosophy-and-theology-of-averroes 
Readings: 
  • Butterworth, C., ‘Averroës, Precursor of the Enlightenment?’, Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics 16 (1996): 6-18, www.jstor.org/stable/521828
Online Resources: 
  • Hillier, H. C. 'Ibn Rushd (Averroes)', Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://iep.utm.edu/ibnrushd/
Podcasts: 
  • Adamson, Peter, 'Back to Basics: Averroes on Reason and Religion', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/averroes-reason-religion
  • ​BBC In our Time on Averroes, www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0038x79
​

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

Texts:
  • Siger of Brabant, De aeternitate mundi (HWW 440-46, also HW 493-502), online at individual.utoronto.ca/pking/translations/SIGER.Eternity_of_World.pdf
  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Ia 46.1-2 (HWW 487-93, also HW 537-41), online at www.newadvent.org/summa/​ (As further reading, Aquinas's On the Eternity of the World is available online at https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/aquinas-eternity.asp)
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:
  • Adamson, Peter, 'Neverending Story: The Eternity of the World', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/medieval-eternity​
​

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:
  • Williams, Thomas, "John Duns Scotus", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/duns-scotus/
Podcasts:
  • Adamson, Peter, 'Once and For All: Scotus on Being', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/scotus-being
​

10. William of Ockham (on Universals)

Texts:
  • William of Ockham, Ordinatio 1 d. 2 qq. 4-8 (HWW 616-24, also HW 662-70), online at www.individual.utoronto.ca/pking/editions_and_translations.html
Readings:
  • McCord Adams, M., ‘Ockham’s Nominalism and Unreal Entities’, Philosophical Review 86 (1977): 144-76, www.jstor.org/stable/2184004
Online Resources:
  • Spade, Paul Vincent and Claude Panaccio, "William of Ockham", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/ockham/
Podcasts:
  • Adamson, Peter, 'A Close Shave: Ockham's Nominalism', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/ockham-nominalism
  • Adamson, Peter, 'What Do You Think? Ockham on Mental Language', History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, historyofphilosophy.net/ockham-mental-language​
​

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  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • Art of Living
    • On Constancy
    • Stoicism
    • Handbook of the Stoic Tradition
    • Hellenistic Philosophy
    • Lessons in Stoicism
    • Meditations
    • Marcus Aurelius
    • Fourfold Remedy
    • Barlaam on Stoic Ethics
    • Aristotle
    • Companion to Marcus Aurelius' Meditations
  • Writing
    • Academic Publications
    • Popular Writing
  • Other
    • Talks
    • Interviews
    • Book History
    • Modern Stoicism
  • News