400 - 1200 CE Flashcards
Boethius
c. 480 - 524 CE
Helped translate the Greek classics into Latin. A big reason why Artistotle was made available in the Renaissance.
Involved in precursor to the Scholastic movement.
One of the two leading Christian scholars of the 6th century.
Wrote The Consolation of Philosophy.
Was imprisoned, tortured and killed.
John Philopnus
c. 490 - 570 CE
Christian Theologian and Aristotelian commentator.
Published a lot.
Questioned Artistotellian-Neoplatonic tradition - leading to empiricism in the natural sciences.
Later in life turned to Christian apologetics.
Was condemned as a heretic by the church in 680 because of what was interpreted as a tritheistic interpretation of the Trinity.
His works resurfaced in medieval Europe. He was discussed by Arabic philosophers such as:
- al-Farabi
- Avicenna
- al-Ghazali
- Averroes
Influenced Bonaventure and Buridan in Christian western Europe. As well as Rabbanite Jews such as Maimonides and Gersonides.
John of Damascus
c. 675 - 749 CE
Christian monk, priest, hymnographer and apologist.
Polymath interested in law, theology, philosophy and music.
A father of the Eastern Orthodox church for his strong defense of icons. A doctor of the church in Catholicism.
“The last of the Greek fathers”.
Perichoresis - the interpenetration of the divine and human natures of Christ and the relationship between the hypostases of the Trinity.
Al-Kindi
c. 801 - 873 CE
Polymath and major Islamic philosopher. Even called “the father of Arab philosophy”.
First Islamic peripatetic philosopher.
Was mandated to translate ancient Greek philosophy into Arabic and was heavily influenced by it.
Wrote hundreds of original treatises on metaphysics, ethics, logic, psychology, medicine, pharmacology, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, optics. Even things like perfumes, swords, jewels, glass, dyes, zoology, tides, mirrors, meteorology and earthquakes.
Introduced Indian numerals into the Islamic world and they were further developed into Arabic numerals (which is what we use today).
A major focus was the compatibility between philosophy and other “Orthodox” Islamic sciences such as Theology. He wrote about the nature of God, the soul and prophetic knowledge.
John Scotus Eriugena
c. 800 - 877 CE
Irish Neoplatonist and Theologian. Reinvented Neoplatonism without being influenced by pagan philosophers such as Plotinus or Iamblichus. He did it all with Christian theological texts and the Christian canon.
“The most astonishing person of the 9th century” - Russell
The outstanding philosopher of the Carolingian era and of the whole period of Latin philosophy stretching from Boethius to Anselm.
Wrote “De Divisione Naturae” which has been called “the final achievement of ancient philosophy”…
“The principal concern of De Divisione Naturae is to unfold from φύσις (physis), which John defines as “all things which are and which are not”, the entire integrated structure of reality. Eriugena achieves this through a dialectical method elaborated through exitus and reditus, that interweaves the structure of the human mind and reality as produced by the λόγος (logos) of God.”
The story goes he was stabbed to death by his students with their pens.
al-Farabi
c. 870 - 950 CE
Early Islamic philosopher and jurist who wrote in the fields of political philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and logic.
He was a polymath.
Known as “the second teacher”. Aristotle was the first.
Credited with preserving the original Greek texts during the middle ages via his commentaries and treatises.
Influenced many prominent philosophers such as Avicenna and Maimondes.
Saadia Gaon
c. 892 - 942 CE
Rabbi.
The first systematic attempt to integrate Jewish theology with components of ancient Greek philosophy.
Opposed to Karaite Judaism and in defence of Rabbinic Judaism.
Abu Bakr al-Razi
c. 864 - 935 CE
Lived during the Islamic golden age.
One of the most important figures in the history of medicine.
He wrote on logic, astronomy and grammar.
Criticised religion especially prophethood and revelation.
al-Biruni
c. 973 - 1050 CE
Polymath during the Islamic golden age.
Founder on Indology, comparative relgion, geodesy and the first anthropologist.
Influenced by the Greeks.
Avicenna
c. 980 - 1037 CE
Polymath during the Islamic golden age in Persia.
Father of early modern medicine.
Rizvi called him “arguably the most influential philosopher of the pre-modern era” but this is probably biased towards Islam.
Wrote in Arabic on Islamic philosophy in topics such as logic, ethics and metaphysics.
Ibn Hazm
c. 994 - 1064 CE
Born in the caliphate of Cordoba in present-day Spain.
Described as one of the strictest hadith intepreters.
Zahiri school of Islamic thought.
His written works amount to about 80,000 pages.
One of the fathers of comparative religion.
Solomon ibn Gabirol
c. 1021 - 1070 CE
Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher in the Neoplatonic tradition.
Hylomorphism - all things including soul and intellect are composed of matter and form.
Anselm
c. 1033 - 1109 CE
Archbishop of Canterbury. Defended the Church’s interests amid the investiture controversy.
Was exiled twice by two different kings.
Sometimes credited as the founder of Scholasticism.
Credited as the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God and the satisfaction theory of atonement.
Omar Khayyam
c. 1048 - 1131 CE
Polymath who contributed to science and even invented the Persian calendar.
al-Ghazali
c. 1058 - 1111 CE
Sunni Muslim Persian polymath during the Islamic golden age.
Mujaddid - renewer of the faith who is prophesied to appear once every 100 years.
Honorific title - “proof of Islam”.
Wrote “incoherence of the philosophers” which critiques Aristotelian science.
He was a bit of a mystic.
Ibn Tufail
c. 1105 - 1185 CE
Arab Andalusian Muslim polymath.
Wrote the first philosophical novel - “The Living Son of the Vigilant”.
Peter Abelard
c. 1079 - 1142 CE
French scholastic philosopher, and a leading logician and theologian.
Presented a logical solution to the problem of universals via nominalism and conceptualism.
Pioneering of intent in ethics. This impacted modern law with the idea of the individual subject.
“The Descartes of the 12th century”.
Forerunner of Rousseau, Kant and Spinoza.
Defended women and their education.
Development of limbo (theology) and moral influence theory of atonement.
Alongside Augustine he is considered the most significant forerunner of the modern self-reflective autobiographer.E
Peter Lombard
c. 1096 - 1160 CE
Authored “Four Books of Sentences” which became the standard textbook of theology.
Pioneered the idea of consent for marriage in the church.
Averroes
c. 1126 - 1198 CE
Andalusian polymath.
Strong proponent of Aristotelianism. Opposed the Neoplatonist teachings of earlier muslim thinkers.
Defended the pursuit of philosophy against Ashari theologians - argued that philosophy was permissible in Islam.
Argued that text should be interpreted allegorically if it didn’t make sense with reason and philosophy.
Unity of the intellect thesis - proposed that all humans share the same intellect.
Critiqued by Thomas Aquinas but Averroism continued to attract followers up to the 16th century.
Maimonides
c. 1138 - 1204 CE
Influential Torah scholar during the middle ages in Cordoba
Wrote on Jewish law and ethics and it was well received even all the way across to Iraq.
Influenced by Aristotle, Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina as well as his contemporary Ibn Rushd.
Sohrevardi
c. 1154 - 1191 CE
Philosopher and founder of the Iranian school of Illuminationism - an important school in Islamic philosophy. This holds that the “light” is the source of knowledge.
Francis of Assisi
c. 1181 - 1226 CE
Friar and mystic who founded the Franciscans.
One of the most venerated figures in Christianity.
Tried to convert the sultan in Egypt to end the 5th crusade.
