The Cambridge companion to medieval philosophy / edited by A.S. McGrade.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

McGrade, Arthur Stephen.

Series:

Cambridge companions to philosophy

Cambridge companions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy, Medieval.

Physical Description:

xviii, 405 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Summary:

The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy takes its readers into one of the most exciting periods in the history of philosophy. It spans a millennium of thought extending from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas and beyond. It includes not only the thinkers of the Latin West but also the profound contributions of Islamic and Jewish thinkers such as Avicenna and Maimonides. Leading specialists examine what it was like to do philosophy in the cultures and institutions of the Middle Ages and engage with all the areas in which medieval philosophy flourished, including language and logic, the study of God and being, natural philosophy, human nature, morality, and politics. The discussion is supplemented with chronological charts, biographies of the major thinkers, and a guide to the transmission and translation of medieval texts. The volume will be invaluable for all who are interested in the philosophical thought of this period.

Contents:

Entry points 2

Otherness 3

A final image: medieval philosophy and freedom 8

1 Medieval philosophy in context / Steven P. Marrone 10

Emergence of medieval philosophy in the late Roman Empire 11

Monastic discipline and scholarship 16

Islam 19

The rise of the West and the reemergence of philosophy 21

Rationalization in society: politics, religion, and educational institutions 28

Aristotle and thirteenth-century scholasticism 32

The contested fourteenth century 36

The place of authority in medieval thought 40

Philosophical sources 43

Genres 43

2 Two medieval ideas: eternity and hierarchy / John Marenbon, D. E. Luscombe 51

3 Language and logic / E. J. Ashworth 73

Sources and developments 73

The purpose and nature of language and logic 77

Signification, conventional and mental language 81

Paronymy and analogy 85

Reference: supposition theory 90

Truth and paradox 92

Inference and paradox 93

4 Philosophy in Islam / Therese-Anne Druart 97

Philosophy, religion, and culture 100

Psychology and metaphysics 108

Ethics 113

5 Jewish philosophy / Idit Dobbs-Weinstein 121

The roots of knowledge

Saadiah Gaon 122

Universal hylomorphism

Ibn Gabirol 126

The limits of reason

Moses Maimonides 128

A purer Aristotelianism

Gersonides 137

Jewish-Christian interactions 141

6 Metaphysics: God and being / Stephen P. Menn 147

Physical and metaphysical proofs of God 147

Avicenna's argument and some challenges to it 150

Essence and existence 154

Only one necessary being? 157

Challenges to essence-existence composition 158

Challenges about God and esse 160

Univocity, equivocity, analogy 162

7 Creation and nature / Edith Dudley Sylla 171

Nature as epiphany: natural philosophy through the twelfth century 174

Astronomy and astrology 177

Scholastic natural philosophy 179

Interactions of natural philosophy and theology 187

8 Natures: the problem of universals / Gyula Klima 196

Exemplarist realism: universals as divine reasons 196

Common natures, singular existents, active minds 201

Common terms, singular natures 204

9 Human nature / Robert Pasnau 208

Mind and body and soul 208

Cognition 213

Will, passion, and action 221

Freedom and immortality 224

10 The moral life / Bonnie Kent 231

Augustine and classical ethics 232

Happiness and morality 235

Evil, badness, vice, and sin 243

Virtues, theological and other 246

11 Ultimate goods: happiness, friendship, and bliss / James McEvoy 254

Augustine and the universal desire for happiness 255

Boethius: philosophy has its consolations 259

Thomas Aquinas 261

Happiness in the intellectual life 266

Theories of friendship 271

Happiness and peace at the end of history: Joachim of Fiore 273

12 Political philosophy / Annabel S. Brett 276

The one true city 278

Reason, nature, and the human good 280

Election and consent 285

Hierarchy and grace 288

History, autonomy, and rights 290

13 Medieval philosophy in later thought / P. J. Fitzpatrick, John Haldane 300

The Renaissance and seventeenth century 300

Current engagements 316

14 Transmission and translation / Thomas Williams 328

Channels of transmission 329

Translating medieval philosophy 338

Pairs and snares 341

A word of encouragement 343

Chronology of philosophers and major events 347

Biographies of major medieval philosophers 350.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 360-397) and index.

ISBN:

0521806038

0521000637

OCLC:

52286793