MIDDLE AGES PHILOSOPHY Plato Seneca and Aristotle from

MIDDLE AGES PHILOSOPHY Plato, Seneca, and Aristotle from a medieval manuscript, Devotional and Philosophical Writings, c. 1330 1

MIDDLE AGE PHILOSOPHY: A SHORT INTRODUCTION Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe in the "era" now known as medieval or the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. Medieval philosophy is characteristically theological. Thomas Aquinas, following Peter Damian, argued that philosophy is the handmaiden of theology. 2

MIDDLE AGES PHILOSOPHY Two periods can be distinguished: Patristic and Scholastic philosophy. 1) Patristic philosophy: “fathers” of the Christian Church making sense of the life of Christ using mainly Platonic Philosophy. Augustine of Hippo 2) Scholastic philosophy: with the re-apparition of Aristotle’s works a new synthesis is needed appearing plenty of different schools associated with first Universities. The philosophy of this period is characterized by analysis of the nature and properties of God. Many of these philosophers took as their starting point theories of Plato or Aristotle. Others, however, such as Tertullian, rejected Greek philosophy as antithetical to revelation and faith.

The main theological issues, which were connected with main philosophical concepts: 1) the problem of the Trinity, 2) the problem of the incarnation, 3) relation between freedom and Grace, 4) relation between faith and reason

I. PATRISTIC PHILOSOPHY. Tertullian, (155– 230) Tertullian denounced Christian doctrines he considered heretical, but later in life adopted views that came to be regarded as heretical themselves. He was the first great writer of Latin Christianity, thus sometimes known as the "father of the Latin Church". He introduced the term Trinity, as the Latin trinitas, to the Christian vocabulary and also probably of the formula "three Persons, one Substance" as the Latin "tres Personae, una Substantia" and also the terms vetus testamentum ("old testament") and novum testamentum ("new testament"). “I do believe because it is absurd” Justin (100 – 165) : “ Faith is superior and reason (philosophy) must submit to faith” 5

DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE Не was a Christian theologian and philosopher of the late 5 th to early 6 th century Dionysius: Positive and Negative Religious Language The cornerstone of his religious mysticism is his view that a direct experience of God is so blinding and overpowering that it leaves us in what he calls both an “unapproachable light” and a “dazzling darkness. ” The experience is “darkness” insofar as we are incapable of describing anything concrete about it; it is ineffable, meaning that it is unspeakable. Dionysius maintains that we must describe God by way of negation. In his short work titled Mystical Theology, he discusses the limits of religious language and presents a two-step process that we must take when describing God. First, we begin with positive descriptions by which we attempt to say what God is, such as by saying that God is powerful. Second, realizing the inadequacy of our positive descriptions, we then proceed negatively by denying the positive ascriptions that we made; for example, we deny that God is powerful as humans understand the term “power. ” Thus, the more we deny our positive descriptions of God, the closer we get to an understanding of God.

St. Augustine (Latin Augustinus Sanctus, full name Рисунок Aurelius Augustine; 354— 430) — He was a philosopher, a powerful preacher, a Christian theologian and politician. Some of the information about Augustine goes back to his autobiographical «Confessiones» . Augustine’s doctrine of predestination (predetermination)– pre-ordained by God to human bliss or a anathema. 7

St. Augustine Theory of the state– The human Рисунок 8 story that Augustine sets out in his book, “The city of God’, is a struggle between two antagonistic kingdoms – the kingdom of followers all across the enemies of God, that is the secular world (civitas terrena or diaboli), and the kingdom of God (civitas dei). At the same time he identifies the kingdom of God, according to his earthly form of existence, with Roman Church.

ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: ANSELM OF CANTERBURY (1033 -1109) An ontological argument for the existence of God is an argument that God's existence can be proved a priori, that is, by intuition and reason alone. The argument works by examining the concept of God, and arguing that it implies the actual existence of God; that is, if we can conceive of God, then God exists — it is thus selfcontradictory to state that God does not exist. This is obviously a controversial position, and the ontological argument has a long history of detractors and defenders. The ontological argument was first proposed by Anselm of Canterbury (1033– 1109) in Chapter 2 of the Proslogion. While Anselm did not propose an ontological system, he was very much concerned with the nature of being. He argued that there are necessary beings – things that cannot exist – and contingent beings – things that may exist but whose existence is not necessary. 9

II. SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY (V-XV CENTURIES). It is a “school philosophy” of the medieval universities, united the Christian dogma with logical reasoning. The basic purpose is to validate the scholasticism, protection and systematization the religious dogma by logical way. Dogma (opinion) is thesis which certainly taken it on faith and not be questioned and criticized. 10

Thomas Aquinas (1225 -1274) He created a philosophical concept, which became the basis of the official Catholic ideology. In honor of his name orthodox philosophical doctrine of Catholicism called Thomism. The main books: “The sum of Philosophy”, “Summa Theological”. He holds a clear line between faith and knowledge, religion and science. Religion acquires knowledge in the revelations. Science can logically prove the truth of revelation, that is its purpose. Allowing the existence of only theoretical science. Experimental and science (sense) knowledge is of the sinful 11

LOGICAL PROOFS OF GOD BY AQUINAS Five of the provisions of the cosmological proof of God he concluded from the fact that every phenomenon has its cause. Following from one cause to another, Thomas comes to idea of the existence of God as the supreme cause of all phenomena and processes, as measure, as form of forms and as a purpose of all. Aquinas was awarded the title of “angelic doctor”

THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSALS: NOMINALISM VS. REALISM At issue are the “universals” (this is a general concepts – the terms and names, like «table» , «tree» , «human» and others. Realism acknowledged that universals exist objectively, independently of the knowing mind. Philosophical realism holds that when we use descriptive terms such as "green" or "tree, " the Forms of those concepts really exist, independently of the world in an abstract realm. Such thought is associated with Plato, for instance. Nominalism admitted that there actually only objects and general concepts – there are the names created by the knowing subject. Universals are just product of human abstraction. Nominalism is "the doctrine holding that abstract concepts, general terms, or universals have no independent existence but exist only as names. " Nominalism has also been defined as a philosophical position that various objects labeled by the same term have nothing in common but their name. In this view, it is only actual physical particulars that can be said to be real and universals exist only post res, that is, subsequent to particular 13 things.

THOMAS OF AQUINAS DEFENDED THAT UNIVERSALS HAD THREE TYPES OF REALITY: 1. 2. 3. Before particular things, when they were in God’s mind In the particular things, while they exist in each creature created by God, inside each individual. After particular things, being a product of the human capacity to detect them in the individuals.

WILLIAM OF OCKHAM (1285 -1347) William of Ockham (1285 -1347) was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher, from Ockham, a small village in England. Although commonly known for Ockham's Razor, the methodological procedure that bears his name, William of Ockham also produced significant works on logic, physics, and theology. 15