• Medieval philosophy
The Middle Ages are a time period in history, which started around the year 476 CE when the Western
Roman Empire ended, and continued until around the time Christopher Columbus discovered the New
World in 1492.
The “Middle Ages” are called this because it is the time between the fall of Imperial Rome and the
beginning of the Early modern Europe.
This period of time in Europe is also known as the Medieval Age, the Dark Ages, or the Age of Faith
(because of the rise of Christianity).
Across Europe, the fall of the Roman Empire, after the invasions of different barbarian tribes,
devastated towns and cities and their inhabitants.
Much of the knowledge that the Romans used (science, technology, medicine, and literature) was lost.
The Dark Ages period was marked by mass migrations, wars and plagues (чума, эпидемии).
This lasted some 300 years until the development of feudalism partly diminished the continuous
violence. Emperor Charlemagne was crowned in 800, and he promoted order, education and
civilization. Europe began slowly regain what was lost during those centuries.
• Chronological framework of European medieval philosophy:
1. Beginning of the Middle Ages refer to the I-II centuries AD due to appearance of Christianity.
2. Completion of the Middle Ages is to the XII-XIII centuries AD.
However, beginning of the Middle Ages is still controversial for historians of philosophy.
Philosophy of this period had two main sources of its formation. The first is the ancient Greek
philosophy, especially in its Platonic and Aristotelian traditions.
The second source is the Holy Bible, turning this philosophy into the mainstream of Christianity.
Christianity (from the Greek word Christos – “Anointed One”, “Messiah”) originated as one of the sects
within Judaism in I cent. A.D. in Palestine.
However, in a strict religious dictatorship, supported by state power, philosophy was declared as ancilla
theologiae (“servant of theology”)
Medieval European philosophy has developed five core principles:
theocentrism,
creationism,
providentialism,
personalism,
revelationizm.
1. Theocentrism (Greek theos - God) – in the center of the universe is God.
2. Creationism is the idea that the world and mankind created by God.
3. Providentialism is the idea that destinies of the world and people are determined by God.
4. Revelationizm is a principle that there are two ways of revelation: Holy Bible and sacred tradition.
• 5. Personalism is the principle according to which human is created in image and similarity of
God, but because of the Fall human has lost his likeness, retaining only the image of God.
The Medieval European philosophy is divided into three periods:
1. Apologetic period (II-III cc.)
2. Patristic period (III-VII cc.)
3. Scholasticism (VIII-XV cc.)
The first stage of the medieval Christian philosophy is apologetic (II-III cc.).
Apologetic period, coming after the apostles, gives us a number of well-known Christian writers and
thinkers (Justin the Philosopher, Tatian, Tertullian, and others).
Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) is known for his writings defending Christianity. He first gave Christianity the
concepts of Greek philosophy and laid the foundation of theological interpretation of history.
“The First Apology”, Justin’s most well known text, passionately defends the morality of the Christian
life.
Further, he also makes the theologically-innovative suggestion that the “seeds of Christianity”
(manifestations of the Logos acting in history) actually predated Christ’s incarnation. This notion allows
him to claim many historical Greek philosophers (including Socrates and Plato), in whose works he was
well studied, as unknowing Christians.
Tertullian (160 – 225 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of
Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature.
Tertullian also was a notable early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy. Tertullian has
been called “the father of Latin Christianity” and “the founder of Western theology”.
He first expressed the concept of the Trinity. “I believe, because it is absurd” (Credo quia absurdum).
• Patristics.
At the heart of this theology was Alexandrian School (Clement of Alexandria, Origen etc).
Titus Flavius Clemens (150 –215), known as Clement of Alexandria, was a Christian theologian who
taught in Alexandria. He was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and
literature. Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy, in particular by Plato and the Stoics.
Three of Clement’s major works have survived in full, and they are collectively referred to as the trilogy:
the Protrepticus (Exhortation) –проповедь к эллинам
the Paedagogus (Tutor) – учитель
the Stromata (Miscellanies) – сборник
Origenes Adamantius (184/185 – 253/254) was an early Christian theologian who was born and spent
the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a writer in multiple branches of theology, including
textual criticism, hermeneutics, philosophical theology, preaching, and spirituality.
Origenes Adamantius was a founder of biblical philology. Created the term “God-man”. God is
Providence in action. In his doctrine, apocatastasis means reconstitution (воспроизведение) to the
primordial (к изначальному) condition (universal salvation-спасение)
Aurelius Augustinus – Saint Austin (354-430). Writing during the Patristic Era, he is viewed as one of the
most important Church Fathers. Among his most important works are City of God and Confessions,
which continue to be read widely today. The ancestor of the Christian philosophy of history.
“the City of God” can be divided into two parts.
Part I (books 1-10) is devoted to a critique of Roman cultures and of pagan philosophy. Interpreters
often take these first ten books to correspond with the Earthly City, in contrast to the City of God.
Part II (books 11-22) is where Augustine shifts from criticism to positing the relationship between the
City of God and an Earthly City subordinated to it.
“The Confessions” of St. Augustine outlines Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. It
is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written.
God created matter and endowed (наделить) it with different shapes.
Evil is the deficiency (недостаток) of good.
• Scholasticism is a systematic medieval philosophy, centered around universities and is a
synthesis of Catholic theology and Aristotelian logic.
The third period Scholasticism is characterized by two trends: the realists and nominalists.
According to realism only general concepts, or universals, have true reality (Guillaume de Champeaux).
According to nominalism, common concepts are only the names (Johannes Roscelin, Anselm of
Canterbury, William of Ockham etc.)
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis
was an Italian Dominican priest and the most influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of
scholasticism.
Thomas Aquinas linked Christian faith with the philosophy of Aristotle.
Unlike many currents in the Church of the time, Thomas attempted to combine Aristotelian
philosophy with the principles of Christianity.
The works for which he is best known are the ”Summa Theologica” and the ”Summa contra Gentiles”.
His commentaries on Aristotle are an important part of his work.
Thomas Aquinas considered that Nature ends in grace, intelligence ends in faith, philosophical
knowledge and natural theology end in a supernatural revelation.
• Five proofs of God’s existence:
• Proof through motion
• Proof through producing cause
• Proof through necessity
• Proof through degrees of being and perfection
• Proof through a target cause.
• Arab-Muslim philosophy
Islam was founded in the early 7th century by the prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe that the Qur’an
is God’s ultimate revelation to mankind.
Early Islamic philosophy or classical Islamic philosophy is a period of philosophical development is
known as the Islamic Golden Age, and the achievements of this period had a crucial influence in the
development of modern philosophy and science; for Renaissance Europe, the influence represented
“one of the largest technology transfers in world history.”
This period starts with al-Kindi in the 9th century and ends with Ibn Rushd (Averroes) at the end of 12th
century.
The death of Averroes effectively marks the end of Islamic philosophy usually called the Peripatetic
Arabic School, and philosophical activity declined in Western Islamic countries, namely in Islamic Spain
and North Africa.
Most significant achievements of early Muslim philosophers included:
- Hadith studies (the isnad or “backing”) a strict science of citation. There are 4 form of hadiths:
- Words of Muhammad (ka’ul)
- A word of encouragement, backing from Muhammad – одобрение (tahrir)
- Image of Muhammad (wasfi)
- Actions of Muhammad (fil’)
Synthesis of these principles gives Sunni Islam.
Sunnah is the way of life on the basis of the teachings and practices of the prophet Muhammad and
interpretations of the Quran.
Most significant achievements of early Muslim philosophers included:
- the ijtihad (diligence, старательность) – a method of open inquiry to disprove (опровержение)
claims;
- willingness to both accept and challenge authority within the same process;
Most significant achievements of early Muslim philosophers included:
- recognition that science and philosophy are both subordinate to morality;
- separation of theology (kalam) and law (shariah);
- distinction between religion and philosophy, marking the beginning of secular thought;
Most significant achievements of early Muslim philosophers included:
- peer review process (обзор работы коллегами);
- early ideas on evolution;
- the philosophy of science;
- introduction of modal logic and inductive logic;
Most significant achievements of early Muslim philosophers included:
- beginning of social philosophy, including the formulation of theories on social cohesion
(согласие) and social conflict;
- beginning of the philosophy of history;
- philosophical novel and the concepts of empiricism and tabula rasa;
- distinguishing between essence and existence.
The main question during the development of Islamic dogma, was the question of monotheism (Tawhid
– Reality of one God Allah). The idea of monism, the unity of existence and uniqueness of the universe
has become a central theme of philosophy.
Branches of Arab-Muslim philosophy:
- Ilm al-Kalām
- Falsafa
- Sufism
Ilm al-Kalām (the study of “speech” or “words”) is the Islamic philosophical discipline of seeking
theological principles knowledge through dialectic, debate and argument. A scholar of kalam is referred
to as a mutakallim.
Among them there were two basic directions: Ascharites (followers Ashari’s theology) and Mu'tazila.
First group developed conceptions of unity being proposed by Mutasillits (isolated): religious
rationalists-philosophers.
Ilm al-Kalām
With Kalam, questions about the al-Sira (biography of Muhammad) and Hadith, as well as science
(Islamic science) and law (shariah), this period is characterized by emergence of ijtihad and the first fiqh
(Islamic jurisprudence).
Ilm al-Kalām
Independent minds exploiting the methods of ijtihad sought to investigate the doctrines of the Qur’an,
the authority of divine revelation.
One of first debates was that between:
- the Qadarites (qadara, to have power), who affirmed free will;
- the Jabarites (jabar, constraint – ограничение свободы), who maintained the belief in fatalism.
Ilm al-Kalām
One of the Qadarites branches were Mu’tazilites (Mu’tazila – to separate oneself,). This new movement
arose in Basra, Iraq. The founder was Wasil ibn Ata (AD 700–748).
Their principal dogmas were three:
- God is an absolute unity, and no attribute can be ascribed to Him.
- Man is a free agent, “Partisans of Justice and Unity”.
Ilm al-Kalām
- All knowledge necessary for the salvation of man that emanates from his reason; humans could
acquire knowledge before, as well as after, Revelation, by the sole light of reason. This fact
makes knowledge obligatory upon all men, at all times, and in all places.
Falsafa
From the 9th century, owing to Caliph al-Ma’mun, Greek philosophy was introduced among the Arabs,
and the Peripatetic school began to find able representatives such as Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina
(Avicenna), and Ibn Rushd (Averroes). All of whose fundamental principles were considered as criticized
by the Mutakallamin.
Falsafa
Another trend, represented by the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-Safa), used Aristotelian language to
expound a fundamentally Neoplatonic world view (emanation).
Al-Kindi (801-873), (philosopher of Arabs) has formulated the main questions:
the rational-allegorical interpretation of the “sacred texts”
identification of God with the primordial cause
the interpretation of creation as granting the existence of things with a kind of causal
relationships
a process of emanation (the origin of the Universe through emergence beyond first principles);
• Abu Nasr al-Farabi (873-950)
Philosophy and religion arise after people mastered the “practical arts” and seek to understand the
causes of surrounding things.
People are attached to the truths by two ways: by using apodictic judgments and through the dialectical,
rhetorical or poetic expressions.
The need for religion related to the needs in Political Science and Law. Ideally, people should managed
by philosophers, who give the truth to “the public” through “true religion” in images and allegorical
discourses.
(“Treatise on the views of the virtuous city residents”/ “The Principles of the Opinions of the People of the
Excellent City”)
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037) was a Central Asian philosopher and physician, a representative of the
eastern Aristotelianism.
His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and
The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities
Ibn Sina proved co-eternity of the world with the Creator. Creation in eternity Ibn Sina explained by
Neoplatonic concept of emanation, thus justifying the logical progression from the initial substance to
the plurality of the created world.
According to him, absolute truth can be comprehended by intuitive vision which presents the
culmination of the thinking process.
• Ibn Bājjah (Avempace) (1070-1138) is the first major representative of the eastern peripatetism
in Muslim Spain.
In his “Farewell (прощальный) message” Ibn Bājjah considers the questions of first ‘engine, a human
goal, connection of person with an active mind.
• Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
(1126-1198) –
Western-Arab philosopher.
• Developed the doctrine of dual truth.
• The first substance is identical to world order
• Genesis of things based on their unity, relationships.
Ibn Khaldun
(1332-1406).
He almost did not interested in classical problems of cosmology and philosophy. His areas of interest
was history.
He has created a theory of social development from the lowest level (barbarism) to the highest
(civilization), through the development of productive activities of people, explaining the development of
social life through the development of production.
• A mystical form of Islam expressed in such a direction as Sufism. Fundamentals of Sufism
incorporated in the 9th century by Egyptian al-Misri and a resident of Baghdad al-Muhasibi.
However, Sufism has been developed in the esoteric concepts of al-Hallaj (I am truth) and al-Ghazali
(Sufism is the essence of Islam.)
Sufi philosophy, like all other major philosophical traditions, has several sub-branches including
metaphysics and cosmology as well as several unique concepts.
Major idea in Sufi metaphysics is Wahdat or “Unity with God”.
Two main Sufi philosophies prevail on this controversial topic:
- Wahdat-ul-Wujood (Unity of Being) – all things exist within God only;
- Wahdat-ul-Shuhud (Unity of Witness) – there is no difference between God and human being,
“One Except God”.
Thank you…
