(Originally Written January 24, 2014 on scrap paper)
It seems that every time I find myself to be bored intellectually I try to take up some sort of journaling endeavor. I come back to this or that book that had at one point sparked an endeavor to delve into some short-lived intellectual pursuit. Perhaps today is the beginning of one such short-lived journey. Perhaps not. We shall se in a month whether or not I am purchasing another composition notebook or not.
But, in my most recent returns to intellectual pursuits for the sake of the pursuit, I have come to the table trying to come from the perspective of the tabula rasa. I say, whether on paper or in some unfinished and unread blog things such as "of course one that is 30 cannot fully push beyond one's self all the experience of the past three decades" or "I shall try to come to an idea as if I were in possession of a blank slate as my mind". Firstly, when I think on these statements I laugh at my pretentiousness. Second, I find myself admiring the thought of trying to come from a clean slate without preconceived notions and without a desire to judge an idea.
Isn't it what we as modern human beings need? Openness in intellectual discussions, a willingness to abandon early notions for better ones, and a passion to keep an open mind about everything are the hallmarks of modernity in today's accepting society. But, then after I think critically about this clean slate approach I find myself souring on the entire idea. Besides that, the hallmarks of modernity are illusionary at best. The openness is only open for those that agree with you, the abandonment of early notions for better more progressive ones comes only when it suits a politically expedient solution and today's accepting society is partisan.
Of course some knowledge is gained through experience. Of course as we grow older our experiences change and shape our minds. But, the notion of there ever a mind that truly exists as a blank slate is nonsensical on many fronts. From a purely biological standpoint we, though we know still so little, we comprehend enough genetic knowledge to confidently say the sense play a major role in much of who we are. I won't say much more on this matter because what little collective genetic knowledge there is out there, even less is in my head.
Outside of the biological issues with a tabula rasa that interest me little, there are deeper issues with a clean slate idea. While the man will learn much from experience, the notion that there is not a framework for understanding contained in every human from birth is unpalatable on a couple of levels. First, logical reasoning is not something that can be absolutely empirically derived. Experience will have the logical functions of the mind. Language is another thing that exists intuitively. Of course humans learn language, but a baby reacts and interacts with a mother's voice from even inside the womb. There exists some framework in the mind that is innate.
Of course, then there is the imago dei, the strongest argument against a tabula rasa. While there is argument over exactly what the image of God is in humanity, its existence denies any notion of a clean slate at birth. Also, the inherited sin nature of man excludes a clean slate. Of course this argument is transcendental and falls on deaf ears to an unbelieving reader. But, as one who has experience God in relationship it is impossible for me to see from a viewpoint that has not had that experience. The opposite is true as well. One who has not accepted and experienced God in however little and partial as I have cannot see from my vantage point.
And lastly, the approach that I have taken in the past to achieve what I initially believed to be a noble pursuit was actually little more than a spineless approach to intellectual curiosity. In our open society, those who judge something as true or something as false, something as good or something as evil are quickly becoming labeled as bigoted or as close-minded. But, a pursuit of any intellectual subject must have as its end a desire to gain an understanding of that pursuit's truth. So it is with a desire to understand and attain truth that I set out on this adventure, however short-lived it may turn to be. (As an aside, this short-lived adventure lasted an incredible 19 days).
Now that I have trekked back to an old familiar starting point to begin again anew, let's go over the focus. What I will do in this journal is chronicle my thoughts from three sources. For the grounding I will delve into the Scriptures. For my intellectual curiosity I will start again in Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Philosophy. To stay current I will push into various weekly installments of The Economist. Because of my lack of direction in the Scriptures, I will start in Proverbs because of their instructive nature. I want to learn and that is in fact the goal of Proverbs, to instruct.
Proverbs 1
1:7a "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge".
I do wonder now at 30, am I the young in need of knowledge and discretion? Surely, I am not the wise ready to listen and add to my learning. Guide me then my Lord and teach me discretion. Help me to acquire a disciplined and prudent life.
I am struck by a couple of things. First, as I am setting out to find knowledge I have stumbled upon the perfect passage. "The beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. This is a hard pill for the non-believer, but a grounding for me. Help me to never rely on my own cleverness and to always begin my pursuit of knowledge with the fear of the Lord.
Second, God as personified as wisdom calls out to us. If we do not reject Him, he would pour out His heart and make his thoughts known (1:23). How much do we as Christians struggle with what is the will of God? We toss and turn and say, 'is this your will'? Yet, God says to listen to His rebuke and He will make His mind known to us. But that word rebuke is thought to swallow. As the non-believer finds it unpalatable to admit knowledge begins with the fear of the Lord, the Christian finds it just as unsatisfying to know that we must heed God's correction to know his mind. Break me of my pride so that I hear your rebuke, Lord.
I pray this because God as wisdom personified states that if we reject wisdom we will be turned over to our own sinful desires. God will not intercede on our behalf if we don't call on him. This is the real problem of Free Will, not the mere intellectual one. The part I find most terrifying is 1:32b "The complacency of fools will destroy them". Lord, hear my prayer: let me bend my will to your gentle rebuke and help me not to be complacent. Let me take safety in your wisdom.
A History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
I chose this book because I read it in the summer of 2005 when I was becoming interested in philosophy. It seemed a good starting point then and an appropriate one now. I enjoy the historical aspect of it and it should offer a good launching pad into specific areas of thought.
Introduction:
Philosophy is the product of two factors for Russell, an inherited religious and ethical conception and a sort of scientific investigatory process. "Philosophy is something intermediate between theology and science" (Russell, xiii). Russell states that all definite knowledge belongs to science, while dogma - that which surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology. Between definite knowledge and dogma is philosophy, a no man's land open to attack from both sides. The studying of questions here in the middle is the business of philosophy.
Russell freely admits that science cannot provide all the answers to life. But he contends that theology has provided answers that are so definitive that they must be met with suspicion by the modern mind. He contends that uncertainty, though painful, must be a part of life if we are to live without "the support of comforting fairy tales" (Russell, xiv). He contends that philosophy is the key to teach one how live in the face of that uncertainty.
Russell seems to state that Christianity's rise was aided by some Stoic traditions. Is this true? He states that Christianity replaced the ideal of antiquity of man's allegiance to the state with man's allegiance to God.
"Dante achieved a synthesis, and gave the only balance exposition of the complete medieval world of ideas" (Russell, xviii). I must read the whole of Dante in the near future.
"The Catholic Church was derived from three sources. Its sacred history was Jewish, its theology was Greek, its government and cannon law...Roman. The Reformation rejected the Roman elements, softened the Greek elements and greatly strengthened the Judaic elements" (Russell, xx).
I do like what Russell says about the Reformation and it explains neatly the current state of Christianity. In the rejection of Catholicism and a central authority determining Truth, the fracturing of Protestantism led to a deepening subjectivism and leading to personal isolation. While the Reformation led to an opening up of a personal avenue between God and man by removing an unnecessary and human constructed constraint between God and man, it fractured a core tenant of Christian belief - the corporate nature of faith. This seems very sad to me.
Showing posts with label Dante. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dante. Show all posts
Friday, January 24, 2014
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Medieval Notes, Including John Scotus
(Originally written December 7, 2006 in Book 11)
The History of Philosophy vol. 2
Chapter 5 - The Medieval Interval
Plato and Aristotle dominated the Classical period. Augustine and Aquinas dominated the Medieval period; but, lived 8 centuries apart. Augustine and Aquinas dealt with different problems, whereas Plato and Aristotle dealt with the same problems.
The Dark Ages
The barbarian conquering of Rome caused enormous stress. The barbarians were incapable of sustaining such a complex culture like Rome's.
The collapse of a uniform society caused man to primarily focus on staying alive.
The Classical philosophy was lost to Europe in the Dark Ages.
Literacy declined to the point that Charlemagne complained that the clergy did not know enough Latin to interpret the Scriptures.
The Church
Anything surviving from the Roman World in the Dark Ages was due to the Church.
Christianity made converts out of the pagan and Arian barbarians.
"By the end of the Dark Ages, Christianity was more widely spread and Orthodoxy more firmly entrenched than before the barbarian invasions began" (Jones, 142).
The Rise of the Papacy
The early Church was ruled by bishops, not by the Pope.
The doctrine of Papal primacy made the Pope the head of the Church and gave it temporal authority.
A Christian king was subject to the Pope.
Pope Gregory VII in the 11th century pulled papal primacy to its extreme. The power of the Popes stopped Europe from instituting a unified government until the rise of nationalism in the early Modern period.
Monasticism
While the Papacy drove the Church to become a secular power, the spiritual nature was preserved by two things:
1) Monasticism
2) The Friars
Monasticism began in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D.
Monasticism got its credibility from St. Benedict.
Humility was the top virtue in monastic life.
The monastic movement constantly reformed to maintain a spiritual primacy over a temporal primacy. Though it wasn't perfect it worked well enough.
The Friars of St. Francis
Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)
Francis of Assisi was a mystic reformer and founded the Order of the Friars Minor.
He was dedicated to poverty, simplicity and good works.
He achieved a large measure of success in inflaming the hearts of the average man with the love of God.
The main difference between now and the Dark Ages is that men in the Dark Ages were ready at any moment to be touched by the otherworldly.
Feudalism
Particularism began to grow in the fragmented ruins of the old Empire.
Men with property gained power as central governments were too weak to perform duties.
"Immunity" was granted to land owners by the central government which gave them the power of controlling their lands with no government interference.
Small peasant farmers would "commend" their lands to these large land owners. "Commendation" was the act of giving up one's land for protection and security. The ones who commended their lands would live on them and work them still, but they would no longer own the land.
Charlemagne (742-814) organized a strong central government and was crowned Emperor by the Pope. But his kingdom collapsed shortly after his death.
Feudalism was born out of the rapid commending process that followed the collapse of Charlemagne.
Authority and power and administration became inextricable from land ownership.
Medieval society was dominated by the concept of status, not the concept of citizenship.
The Middle Ages had a very fragmented society.
Chivalry
Chivalry was an ideal that emphasized private honor and public service.
Along with the Church and feudalism Chivalry marked the culture of the Middle Ages.
St. Louis, King of France
Louis IX was born in 1214 and set out to recapture Jerusalem in 1248. It failed, but he tried again in 1270.
Louis IX described chivalry as "upright" and "worthy".
Uprightness involved courage, modesty, charitableness, sobriety, faithfulness and justice.
Louis IX saw sin as a disease, much like Augustine.
Louis IX did not extend his notions of charity and humility to the Jews.
Louis IX distrusted education. As St. Francis, Louis IX was satisfied with simple faith.
Louis IX saw outward dignity as vital in society. His count was elaborate and attendants were lavishly dressed to show their rank.
Feudalism was so deeply entrenched in Louis IX's society that his closest friend and biographer, Sire de Joinville would not swear an oath of allegiance to Louis' family in the event he died in Crusade because Joinville was not his liegeman.
Art and Letters
Architecture
The 12th and 13th centuries were a period of great artistic blossoming.
Vaulted circling and stained glass windows marked the new Gothic style. The abbey church of St. Denis, the Cathedral of Noyon, Enlis, Paris, Rheims and the Sainte Chapelle are perfect examples of the Gothic style. The architecture reflected Christian piety.
Painting and Poetry
Painting and poetry moved from static, unmoving depictions to depictions of living, breathing men in nature.
It focused on the world, but their was still an otherworldly element: case in point - Dante.
The chasm between the otherworld and this world was removed. The two worlds were no longer bitter hostiles at war with each other.
Science
Bartholomew the Englishmen
Bartholomew was one of the most popular science writers of the Middle Ages.
He used Aristotle only in a way to describe it in a very confusing manner.
Science was mixed with heresy and old wives tales.
Aristotle and Medieval Science
It took time to assimilate Aristotle to science.
Men in the Middle Ages were more concerned with salvation, not with accumulating the facts.
Vincent Beauvais
Bartholomew and Vincent Beauvais were very unscientific.
The Universities
Some monastic and cathedral schools popped up after Charlemagne's renaissance.
The Universities slowly arose over Europe to satisfy the new hunger for knowledge slowly awakened over the 8th-11th centuries.
Philosophy during the Medieval Interval
The cultural problem for the 13th century philosopher was to find a place for these this-worldly ends in a scheme of life that still had a basically otherworldly orientation. The success of Aquinas lies in solving this central problem.
There was virtually no philosophical development in the 8 centuries between Augustine and Aquinas, save for Boethius, Isidore of Seville and John Scotus Erigena.
John Scotus Erigena
John Scotus Erigena (ca. 810-877) was born in Ireland. He studied Greek in an Irish monastery at a time when Greek was nearly lost in all the west.
He travels to France in 847 and taught at Paris in the palace school that Charlemagne founded.
He was involved in deep theological topics like Free Will and the Eucharist. He avoided the extreme forms of predestination, but went too far and was condemned as a Pealagian. His views were condemned in 855. Then his views on the Eucharist were condemned (he denied the Doctrine of Transubstantiation)
He decided to take a safer task of translating Greek into Latin.
John Scotus Erigena was deeply concerned with synthesis. As a Christian, Erigena must have a synthesis, an overarching philosophy that fit with the Catholic dogma.
Nature
John began with the nature of reality.
He believed that things fall into two classes:
1) Things that are
2) Things that are not
Things that are not have different modes, they are modes of non-being
1) Sinful man
2) Changing particulars
3) Potential being
4) Things that are "beyond our intellect"
Things that are are those things that we can comprehend.
John Scotus Erigena's divisions are influence by Plato (most of the texts he translated were neoplatonic ones)
Like Plato and the Neoplatonists, John identified the form of the Good with God.
God
According to John, God is "beyond being" and thus, not to be. John had a problem in attempting to reconcile Neoplatonic metaphysics and Christian dogma.
John held that there were two ways for finite minds to approach God:
1) An affirmative way
2) A negative way
The affirmative way consists of stating things like God is being, God is good, etc. These assertions are neither wholly true nor wholly false.
Every positive or affirmative statement about God must be supplemented by a negative statement.
Instead of stating the negative and positive about God as "God is being and not-being" he stated then like "God is super being"
John Scotus Erigena believed that God was truly Good, but to say that God was good was misleading because it wasn't the whole truth.
Creation
John Scotus Erigena started with a paradox in dealing with creation. If God made the world He must move, but how can He who is immutable move?
John asserted that the concepts of making and creation (like the concepts of being and goodness) applied to God in only a metaphorical sense.
He also asserted that the transcendence of the the Creator and the dependence of the creature (Two vitally important Church doctrines) were contradictory.
Theophanies
John held the world to be a "theophany" of God (an appearance of God). It is not an illusion, but the chosen method of God to reveal Himself to man. Human minds are a part of this theophany and thus their understanding is a part of God's theophany.
Knowledge is Illumination
"Everything that exists is an aspect of the divine nature reflected from some perspective or other" (Jones, 179).
Knowledge is fundamentally an act of grace by God in which He illumines our mind.
Four-Fold Division of Nature
While nature is truly one and beyond being, the human mind divides and classifies as was God's intention. There are four divisions of nature:
1) God - the nature that creates and is uncreated
2) The Platonic archetypes - the nature that creates and is created
3) The Physical World - the nature that does not create and is created
4) God - The nature that does not create and is not created
"God issues into the world and returns from it to Himself" (Jones, 180).
God is not conscious until he creates His mind. The archetypes are the divine images of God. They do not exist independently. They are the divine mind.
The archetypes (primordial causes) are the sources of the essences of the particulars in the physical world.
The primordial causes are: goodness, being, life, wisdom, truth, intelligence, reason, virtue, justice, health, greatness, omnipotence, eternity and peace. While we view them as a plurality, they are really a unity.
Anything that exists in the physical world that is describable as one of these primordial causes is so because it takes part (a finite part) in them.
The physical world has being by participating in the various primordial substances.
Is John's view Christian?
There are some Neoplatonic interpretations of nature that readily fit within the framework of Catholic Christianity.
John's metaphysics is a rational system, but is in danger of collapsing into subjectivism and mysticism.
The mystic elements were too strong for a Christian standard at his time. A private mystical basis was not the solution the Church as an institution was looking for.
John's fourth level (not-created and non-creating) seems to destroy individuality. Man's eternal salvation is done through a return to God by all souls. It is not exactly Kosher with the Church. It is blasphemy and heresy.
John's neoplatonism also renders sin and evil as unreal.
John also had to interpret the Scriptures rather loosely.
He also used the writings of St. Dionysius the Areopagite as an almost canonical authority. Unfortunately, St. Dionysius the Areopagite was later shown to be a fake.
The Neoplatonic Problem
Neoplatonic metaphysics and Christian Dogma are antagonistic. The problem was to include some deeply entrenched Neoplatonic ideals of the Middle Ages into Christianity.
The Controversy over Universals
The thinkers of the 11th century were logicians, not metaphysicians. They focused their energy on two very technical problems:
1) The status of universals
2) the relation between the spheres of faith and reason
It was desirable, if only for pragmatic reasons, to prove the Christian truths.
Reason was an indispensable weapon agains infidels and heretics.
Men of the Middle Ages basically agreed there were three modes of cognition
1) Revelation
2) Reason
3) Perception
The problem of universals and the scope of faith and reason was (and is) an interrelated problem.
The History of Philosophy vol. 2
Chapter 5 - The Medieval Interval
Plato and Aristotle dominated the Classical period. Augustine and Aquinas dominated the Medieval period; but, lived 8 centuries apart. Augustine and Aquinas dealt with different problems, whereas Plato and Aristotle dealt with the same problems.
The Dark Ages
The barbarian conquering of Rome caused enormous stress. The barbarians were incapable of sustaining such a complex culture like Rome's.
The collapse of a uniform society caused man to primarily focus on staying alive.
The Classical philosophy was lost to Europe in the Dark Ages.
Literacy declined to the point that Charlemagne complained that the clergy did not know enough Latin to interpret the Scriptures.
The Church
Anything surviving from the Roman World in the Dark Ages was due to the Church.
Christianity made converts out of the pagan and Arian barbarians.
"By the end of the Dark Ages, Christianity was more widely spread and Orthodoxy more firmly entrenched than before the barbarian invasions began" (Jones, 142).
The Rise of the Papacy
The early Church was ruled by bishops, not by the Pope.
The doctrine of Papal primacy made the Pope the head of the Church and gave it temporal authority.
A Christian king was subject to the Pope.
Pope Gregory VII in the 11th century pulled papal primacy to its extreme. The power of the Popes stopped Europe from instituting a unified government until the rise of nationalism in the early Modern period.
Monasticism
While the Papacy drove the Church to become a secular power, the spiritual nature was preserved by two things:
1) Monasticism
2) The Friars
Monasticism began in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D.
Monasticism got its credibility from St. Benedict.
Humility was the top virtue in monastic life.
The monastic movement constantly reformed to maintain a spiritual primacy over a temporal primacy. Though it wasn't perfect it worked well enough.
The Friars of St. Francis
Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)
Francis of Assisi was a mystic reformer and founded the Order of the Friars Minor.
He was dedicated to poverty, simplicity and good works.
He achieved a large measure of success in inflaming the hearts of the average man with the love of God.
The main difference between now and the Dark Ages is that men in the Dark Ages were ready at any moment to be touched by the otherworldly.
Feudalism
Particularism began to grow in the fragmented ruins of the old Empire.
Men with property gained power as central governments were too weak to perform duties.
"Immunity" was granted to land owners by the central government which gave them the power of controlling their lands with no government interference.
Small peasant farmers would "commend" their lands to these large land owners. "Commendation" was the act of giving up one's land for protection and security. The ones who commended their lands would live on them and work them still, but they would no longer own the land.
Charlemagne (742-814) organized a strong central government and was crowned Emperor by the Pope. But his kingdom collapsed shortly after his death.
Feudalism was born out of the rapid commending process that followed the collapse of Charlemagne.
Authority and power and administration became inextricable from land ownership.
Medieval society was dominated by the concept of status, not the concept of citizenship.
The Middle Ages had a very fragmented society.
Chivalry
Chivalry was an ideal that emphasized private honor and public service.
Along with the Church and feudalism Chivalry marked the culture of the Middle Ages.
St. Louis, King of France
Louis IX was born in 1214 and set out to recapture Jerusalem in 1248. It failed, but he tried again in 1270.
Louis IX described chivalry as "upright" and "worthy".
Uprightness involved courage, modesty, charitableness, sobriety, faithfulness and justice.
Louis IX saw sin as a disease, much like Augustine.
Louis IX did not extend his notions of charity and humility to the Jews.
Louis IX distrusted education. As St. Francis, Louis IX was satisfied with simple faith.
Louis IX saw outward dignity as vital in society. His count was elaborate and attendants were lavishly dressed to show their rank.
Feudalism was so deeply entrenched in Louis IX's society that his closest friend and biographer, Sire de Joinville would not swear an oath of allegiance to Louis' family in the event he died in Crusade because Joinville was not his liegeman.
Art and Letters
Architecture
The 12th and 13th centuries were a period of great artistic blossoming.
Vaulted circling and stained glass windows marked the new Gothic style. The abbey church of St. Denis, the Cathedral of Noyon, Enlis, Paris, Rheims and the Sainte Chapelle are perfect examples of the Gothic style. The architecture reflected Christian piety.
Painting and Poetry
Painting and poetry moved from static, unmoving depictions to depictions of living, breathing men in nature.
It focused on the world, but their was still an otherworldly element: case in point - Dante.
The chasm between the otherworld and this world was removed. The two worlds were no longer bitter hostiles at war with each other.
Science
Bartholomew the Englishmen
Bartholomew was one of the most popular science writers of the Middle Ages.
He used Aristotle only in a way to describe it in a very confusing manner.
Science was mixed with heresy and old wives tales.
Aristotle and Medieval Science
It took time to assimilate Aristotle to science.
Men in the Middle Ages were more concerned with salvation, not with accumulating the facts.
Vincent Beauvais
Bartholomew and Vincent Beauvais were very unscientific.
The Universities
Some monastic and cathedral schools popped up after Charlemagne's renaissance.
The Universities slowly arose over Europe to satisfy the new hunger for knowledge slowly awakened over the 8th-11th centuries.
Philosophy during the Medieval Interval
The cultural problem for the 13th century philosopher was to find a place for these this-worldly ends in a scheme of life that still had a basically otherworldly orientation. The success of Aquinas lies in solving this central problem.
There was virtually no philosophical development in the 8 centuries between Augustine and Aquinas, save for Boethius, Isidore of Seville and John Scotus Erigena.
John Scotus Erigena
John Scotus Erigena (ca. 810-877) was born in Ireland. He studied Greek in an Irish monastery at a time when Greek was nearly lost in all the west.
He travels to France in 847 and taught at Paris in the palace school that Charlemagne founded.
He was involved in deep theological topics like Free Will and the Eucharist. He avoided the extreme forms of predestination, but went too far and was condemned as a Pealagian. His views were condemned in 855. Then his views on the Eucharist were condemned (he denied the Doctrine of Transubstantiation)
He decided to take a safer task of translating Greek into Latin.
John Scotus Erigena was deeply concerned with synthesis. As a Christian, Erigena must have a synthesis, an overarching philosophy that fit with the Catholic dogma.
Nature
John began with the nature of reality.
He believed that things fall into two classes:
1) Things that are
2) Things that are not
Things that are not have different modes, they are modes of non-being
1) Sinful man
2) Changing particulars
3) Potential being
4) Things that are "beyond our intellect"
Things that are are those things that we can comprehend.
John Scotus Erigena's divisions are influence by Plato (most of the texts he translated were neoplatonic ones)
Like Plato and the Neoplatonists, John identified the form of the Good with God.
God
According to John, God is "beyond being" and thus, not to be. John had a problem in attempting to reconcile Neoplatonic metaphysics and Christian dogma.
John held that there were two ways for finite minds to approach God:
1) An affirmative way
2) A negative way
The affirmative way consists of stating things like God is being, God is good, etc. These assertions are neither wholly true nor wholly false.
Every positive or affirmative statement about God must be supplemented by a negative statement.
Instead of stating the negative and positive about God as "God is being and not-being" he stated then like "God is super being"
John Scotus Erigena believed that God was truly Good, but to say that God was good was misleading because it wasn't the whole truth.
Creation
John Scotus Erigena started with a paradox in dealing with creation. If God made the world He must move, but how can He who is immutable move?
John asserted that the concepts of making and creation (like the concepts of being and goodness) applied to God in only a metaphorical sense.
He also asserted that the transcendence of the the Creator and the dependence of the creature (Two vitally important Church doctrines) were contradictory.
Theophanies
John held the world to be a "theophany" of God (an appearance of God). It is not an illusion, but the chosen method of God to reveal Himself to man. Human minds are a part of this theophany and thus their understanding is a part of God's theophany.
Knowledge is Illumination
"Everything that exists is an aspect of the divine nature reflected from some perspective or other" (Jones, 179).
Knowledge is fundamentally an act of grace by God in which He illumines our mind.
Four-Fold Division of Nature
While nature is truly one and beyond being, the human mind divides and classifies as was God's intention. There are four divisions of nature:
1) God - the nature that creates and is uncreated
2) The Platonic archetypes - the nature that creates and is created
3) The Physical World - the nature that does not create and is created
4) God - The nature that does not create and is not created
"God issues into the world and returns from it to Himself" (Jones, 180).
God is not conscious until he creates His mind. The archetypes are the divine images of God. They do not exist independently. They are the divine mind.
The archetypes (primordial causes) are the sources of the essences of the particulars in the physical world.
The primordial causes are: goodness, being, life, wisdom, truth, intelligence, reason, virtue, justice, health, greatness, omnipotence, eternity and peace. While we view them as a plurality, they are really a unity.
Anything that exists in the physical world that is describable as one of these primordial causes is so because it takes part (a finite part) in them.
The physical world has being by participating in the various primordial substances.
Is John's view Christian?
There are some Neoplatonic interpretations of nature that readily fit within the framework of Catholic Christianity.
John's metaphysics is a rational system, but is in danger of collapsing into subjectivism and mysticism.
The mystic elements were too strong for a Christian standard at his time. A private mystical basis was not the solution the Church as an institution was looking for.
John's fourth level (not-created and non-creating) seems to destroy individuality. Man's eternal salvation is done through a return to God by all souls. It is not exactly Kosher with the Church. It is blasphemy and heresy.
John's neoplatonism also renders sin and evil as unreal.
John also had to interpret the Scriptures rather loosely.
He also used the writings of St. Dionysius the Areopagite as an almost canonical authority. Unfortunately, St. Dionysius the Areopagite was later shown to be a fake.
The Neoplatonic Problem
Neoplatonic metaphysics and Christian Dogma are antagonistic. The problem was to include some deeply entrenched Neoplatonic ideals of the Middle Ages into Christianity.
The Controversy over Universals
The thinkers of the 11th century were logicians, not metaphysicians. They focused their energy on two very technical problems:
1) The status of universals
2) the relation between the spheres of faith and reason
It was desirable, if only for pragmatic reasons, to prove the Christian truths.
Reason was an indispensable weapon agains infidels and heretics.
Men of the Middle Ages basically agreed there were three modes of cognition
1) Revelation
2) Reason
3) Perception
The problem of universals and the scope of faith and reason was (and is) an interrelated problem.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Chapter 14 - Franciscan Schoolmen
(Originally written July 29, 2006 in Book 5)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter 14 - Franciscan Schoolmen
The Franciscans and Dominicans were bitter rivals. The Franciscans were less orthodox. They were disinclined to accept the authority of Thomas Aquinas (a Dominican).
The Franciscans produced Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, William of Occam, Saint Bonaventura and Matthew of Aquasparta.
Roger Bacon lived from 1214-1294. Bacon was a philosopher and a man of science. Science was mixed up with black magic and alchemy at the time so Bacon was in constant danger of being labeled a heretic. He was placed under a no-publish edict by the head of the Franciscans, but commanded by the papal legate to England to write his philosophy for the benefit o the Pope. He wrote three books in a very short time:
1) Opus Majus
2) Opus Minus
3) Opus Tertium
He was imprisoned for condemning clerics for ignorance. He was imprisoned 14 years and died shortly after being released. He was experimental by nature; encyclopedic but not systematic. He was a good geographer and a good mathematician. He thought logic was useless and wrote on alchemy.
He believed there were four causes for ignorance:
1) frail and unsuitable authority
2) influence of custom
3) the opinion of the unlearned crowd
4) the concealment of ignorance by apparent wisdom
All ignorance produces the evils that plague mankind. The fourth is the worst.
He considers Aristotle to be the chief philosopher and Avicenna the price.
He sees no fault in finding truth from the heathen and quotes Avicenna, Averroes, Alfarabi and Albumazar.
He sees mathematics as the only unrivaled source of certitude.
He believed that the intellect is separate from the soul.
Modern times praise Bacon because he places experimentation as a source of knowledge in higher esteem than argumentation as a source.
He believed in magic and astrology.
He is more respected now than he was in medieval times.
St. Bonaventura (1221-1274) was the General of the Franciscan order. He believed in the ontological argument for God. He believed in Platonic Ideas and saw Aristotelianism as in opposition to Christianity. He quoted Augustine extensively but ignored Pagan and Arab philosophies.
Matthew of Aquasparta (1235-1302) was a follower of Bonaventura. He opposed Aquinas from an Augustinian point of view. He quotes Aristotle, Avicenna, Anselm, the pseudo-dionysius and chiefly, Augustine.
He believed that Plato's ideas produce wisdom, but not knowledge and Aristotle produced knowledge but not wisdom. He sought to sync the two.
Duns Scotus (1270-1308) was Scottish and joined the Franciscans at Oxford University. He fought Aquinas on the immaculate conception and won the argument. He was Augustinian but less severe than other Franciscans.
Franciscans often disagreed with Aquinas because he was Aristotelian and the Franciscans were Platonic (through Augustine).
Scouts was a moderate realist, believed in Free Will and leaned somewhat to Pelagianism.
He held that there was no difference between being and essence.
He focused on evidence, things knowable without proof. There were three kinds of evidence:
1) Principles known by themselves
2) Things known by experience
3) our own actions
Without divine illumination no one can know anything.
He held the the principle of individuation (what makes one thing not identical with another) was due to form, not matter.
William of Occam is the second most important scholastic philosopher next to Aquinas. He lived circa 1290-1350. He was a pupil, then a rival of Scotus. He was excommunicated by Pope John XXII and took refuge with Emperor Louis (who was likewise excommunicated).
Dante (1265-1321) was an influential commentator in this age. Marsiglio of Padua (1270-1342) was a friend of William of Occham and a great political force of the time (in theory, not action). Marsiglio and William sought to preserve the Catholic faith, but fought against papal absolutism.
William's political works are done in a philosophical disputation style. William is best known for Occam's razor "it is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer" (Russell, 472).
In logic, William of Occam was a homilist.
He set to free logic and theory of knowledge from the basis of metaphysics and theology.
He holds that there are six metaphysical terms:
1) being
2) thing
3) something
4) one
5) true
6) good
He holds universals are things that can be predicated to many.
William of Occam believed perception to be the definition of knowledge.
His work encouraged scientific research.
After William of Occam there were no great scholastic philosophers.
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter 14 - Franciscan Schoolmen
The Franciscans and Dominicans were bitter rivals. The Franciscans were less orthodox. They were disinclined to accept the authority of Thomas Aquinas (a Dominican).
The Franciscans produced Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, William of Occam, Saint Bonaventura and Matthew of Aquasparta.
Roger Bacon lived from 1214-1294. Bacon was a philosopher and a man of science. Science was mixed up with black magic and alchemy at the time so Bacon was in constant danger of being labeled a heretic. He was placed under a no-publish edict by the head of the Franciscans, but commanded by the papal legate to England to write his philosophy for the benefit o the Pope. He wrote three books in a very short time:
1) Opus Majus
2) Opus Minus
3) Opus Tertium
He was imprisoned for condemning clerics for ignorance. He was imprisoned 14 years and died shortly after being released. He was experimental by nature; encyclopedic but not systematic. He was a good geographer and a good mathematician. He thought logic was useless and wrote on alchemy.
He believed there were four causes for ignorance:
1) frail and unsuitable authority
2) influence of custom
3) the opinion of the unlearned crowd
4) the concealment of ignorance by apparent wisdom
All ignorance produces the evils that plague mankind. The fourth is the worst.
He considers Aristotle to be the chief philosopher and Avicenna the price.
He sees no fault in finding truth from the heathen and quotes Avicenna, Averroes, Alfarabi and Albumazar.
He sees mathematics as the only unrivaled source of certitude.
He believed that the intellect is separate from the soul.
Modern times praise Bacon because he places experimentation as a source of knowledge in higher esteem than argumentation as a source.
He believed in magic and astrology.
He is more respected now than he was in medieval times.
St. Bonaventura (1221-1274) was the General of the Franciscan order. He believed in the ontological argument for God. He believed in Platonic Ideas and saw Aristotelianism as in opposition to Christianity. He quoted Augustine extensively but ignored Pagan and Arab philosophies.
Matthew of Aquasparta (1235-1302) was a follower of Bonaventura. He opposed Aquinas from an Augustinian point of view. He quotes Aristotle, Avicenna, Anselm, the pseudo-dionysius and chiefly, Augustine.
He believed that Plato's ideas produce wisdom, but not knowledge and Aristotle produced knowledge but not wisdom. He sought to sync the two.
Duns Scotus (1270-1308) was Scottish and joined the Franciscans at Oxford University. He fought Aquinas on the immaculate conception and won the argument. He was Augustinian but less severe than other Franciscans.
Franciscans often disagreed with Aquinas because he was Aristotelian and the Franciscans were Platonic (through Augustine).
Scouts was a moderate realist, believed in Free Will and leaned somewhat to Pelagianism.
He held that there was no difference between being and essence.
He focused on evidence, things knowable without proof. There were three kinds of evidence:
1) Principles known by themselves
2) Things known by experience
3) our own actions
Without divine illumination no one can know anything.
He held the the principle of individuation (what makes one thing not identical with another) was due to form, not matter.
William of Occam is the second most important scholastic philosopher next to Aquinas. He lived circa 1290-1350. He was a pupil, then a rival of Scotus. He was excommunicated by Pope John XXII and took refuge with Emperor Louis (who was likewise excommunicated).
Dante (1265-1321) was an influential commentator in this age. Marsiglio of Padua (1270-1342) was a friend of William of Occham and a great political force of the time (in theory, not action). Marsiglio and William sought to preserve the Catholic faith, but fought against papal absolutism.
William's political works are done in a philosophical disputation style. William is best known for Occam's razor "it is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer" (Russell, 472).
In logic, William of Occam was a homilist.
He set to free logic and theory of knowledge from the basis of metaphysics and theology.
He holds that there are six metaphysical terms:
1) being
2) thing
3) something
4) one
5) true
6) good
He holds universals are things that can be predicated to many.
William of Occam believed perception to be the definition of knowledge.
His work encouraged scientific research.
After William of Occam there were no great scholastic philosophers.
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