1200 - 1500 CE Flashcards
Ibn Arabi
c. 1165 - 1240 CE
Andalusian polymath.
Extremely influential within Islamic thought.
His cosmological teachings became the dominant worldview in many parts of the Islamic world.
Sufism “Doctor Maximus”.
Albert Magnus
c. 1200 - 1280 CE
Greatest German philosopher of the middle ages.
One of the 37 doctors of the Catholic church.
Encyclopaedic knowledge of many sciences.
He digested, interpreted and systematised the whole of Aristotle’s works.
Roger Bacon
c. 1219 - 1292 CE
Placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empiricism.
Early advocate of the modern scientific method. Applied it to Aristotle’s observations.
Important linguistic work for its early exposition of universal grammar.
First to record the formula for gunpowder in Europe.
Thomas Aquinas
c. 1225 - 1274 CE
Natural theology.
Thomism.
The most influential thinker of the medieval period, particularly in ethics natural law, metaphysics and political theory.
Embraced several ideas put forth by Aristotle and attempted to synthesise it with the principles of Christianity.
Meister Eckhart
1260 - 1328 CE
German Catholic theologian, philosopher and mystic during the Holy Roman Empire era.
Well acquainted with Aristotelianism and Augustinianism. Influenced by Neoplatonism.
Ibn Taymiyyah
1263 - 1328 CE
Influenced modern militarist Islamic movements.
Duns Scotus
c. 1256 - 1308 CE
One of the four most important philosopher-theologians of western Europe in the high-middle ages.
The univocity of being - that existence is the most abstract concept we have, applicable to everything that exists.
The formal distinction - a way of distinguishing. between different aspects of the same thing.
Haecceity - the property supposed to be in each individual thing that makes it an individual.
Developed a complex argument for the existence of God.
Marsilius of Padua
c. 1270 - 1342 CE
Forerunner of the Protestant reformation.
Wrote a trenchant political treaty in critique of caesaropapism.
William of Ockham
c. 1287 - 1347
English philosopher, apologist and Catholic theologian. Thought to be a major figure in medieval thought.
Commonly known for “Ockham’s Razor” - the simplest explanation is usually the best one.
Jean Buridan
c. 1301 - 1359 CE
Taught at the university of Paris for his entire career, focusing on Aristotle.
He sewed the seeds of the Copernican revolution in Europe.
Buridan’s ass thought experiment.
John Wycliffe
c. 1328 - 1384
Important dissident within the Catholic priesthood and is considered an forerunner for Protestantism.
Questioned the privileged status of the clergy.
Scholastic philosopher.
Ibn Haldun
1332 - 1406 CE
One of the greatest social scientists of the middle ages.
Gave precedent to later thinkers such as: Niccolò Machiavelli, Giambattista Vico, David Hume, G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, and Auguste Comte as well as the economists David Ricardo and Adam Smith.
Hasdai Crescas
c. 1340 - 1410
Based in Barcelona he was a philosopher and teacher of Jewish law.
Along with Maimonides (“Rambam”), Gersonides (“Ralbag”), and Joseph Albo, he is known as one of the major practitioners of the rationalist approach to Jewish philosophy.
Gemistos Plethon
c. 1355 - 1454
Greek philosopher who pioneered the revival of Greek scholarship is Western Europe.
He privately rejected Christianity and preferred to return to the classical Hellenic Gods - mixed with ancient wisdom based on Zoroaster and the Magi.
He reintroduced Plato’s ideas to Western Europe during the council of Florence in a failed attempt to reconcile the East-West schism. But he did meet with Cosimo de’ Medici to found a new Platonic Academy.
Labelled “the last Hellene” and “the first modern Greek”.
Nicholas of Cusa
1401 - 1464 CE
One of the first German proponents of Renaissance Humanism.
Learned ignorance.
Lorenzo Valla
c. 4017 - 1457
Attacking papal power, he proved that the donation of Constantine was a forgery and was a precursor to the reformation.
Marsilo Ficino
1433 - 1499 CE
Neoplatonist philosopher and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian renaissance.
Connected with the major academics of his day.
First to provide complete translation of Plato’s extant works into Latin.
Created Florentine Academy trying to revive Plato’s academy.
Influenced the direction and tenor of the Italian renaissance and the development of European philosophy.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
1463 - 1494 CE
At the age of 23 he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers. For which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man (which has been called the manifesto of the renaissance and a key text of renaissance humanism).
The 900 Theses was the first printed book to be universally banned by the church - it anticipated many Protestant views.
Founded the tradition of the Christian Kabbalah (a key tent of early modern western esotericism).
