Platonism, medieval

By Moran, Dermot

Medieval Platonism includes the medieval biographical tradition, the transmission of the dialogues, a general outlook spanning commitment to extramental ideas, intellectualism in cognition, emphasis on self-knowledge as the ...

Godfrey of Fontaines (c.1250–c.1306/9)

By Wippel, John F.

Godfrey of Fontaines studied philosophy and theology at the University of Paris and subsequently taught theology there. A theologian by profession, he developed a highly interesting philosophy, especially ...

Medieval philosophy

By MacDonald, Scott; Kretzmann, Norman

Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe from about ad 400–1400, roughly the period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance. Medieval philosophers are the ...

Giles of Rome (c.1243/7–1316)

By Del Punta, Francesco; Trifogli, Cecilia

Giles of Rome was one of the most eminent theologians and commentators on the works of Aristotle at the University of Paris in the second half of the ...

Plato (427–347 BC)

By Schofield, Malcolm

Plato was an Athenian Greek of aristocratic family, active as a philosopher in the first half of the fourth century bc. He was a devoted follower of ...

Plato (427–347 BC)

Plato was an Athenian Greek of aristocratic family, active as a philosopher in the first half of the fourth century bc. He was a devoted follower of ...

Pseudo-Grosseteste (fl. c.1265–75)

By Jordan, Mark D.

‘Pseudo-Grosseteste’ is the name given to the unidentified author of a philosophic encyclopedia written in England in the third quarter of the thirteenth century. Like other encyclopedias of ...

William of Conches (fl. c.1130)

By Marenbon, John

William of Conches – whom many historians have attached to the School of Chartres – was one of the early twelfth century’s keenest commentators on Platonic texts, and ...

Metaphysics

By Craig, Edward

Metaphysics is a broad area of philosophy marked out by two types of inquiry. The first aims to be the most general investigation possible into the nature of ...

Richard of St Victor (d. 1173)

By Emery, Kent

Richard is most famous for his contemplative doctrine, which is based on a biblical anthropology that involves a philosophical psychology and noetic theory. Richard’s writings should be understood ...

Carolingian renaissance

By Marenbon, John

The ‘Carolingian renaissance’ is the name given to the cultural revival in northern Europe during the late eighth and ninth centuries, instigated by Charlemagne and his court scholars. ...

Liber de causis

By Jarka-Sellers, Hannes

The Liber de causis (Book of Causes) is a short treatise on Neoplatonist metaphysics, composed in Arabic by an unknown author probably in the ninth century in Baghdad. ...

Nemesius (fl. c.390–400 AD)

By Bussanich, John

Nemesius’ treatise De natura hominis (On the Nature of Man) is the first work by a Christian thinker dedicated to articulating a comprehensive philosophical anthropology. Like many of ...

Tauler, John (c.1300–1361)

By Bussanich, John

Tauler was a Dominican preacher and mystic, the author of seventy-nine vernacular sermons which presented the Neoplatonic speculative mysticism of his teacher Eckhart in more personal and concrete ...

Dietrich of Freiberg (c.1250–after 1310)

By Somerset, Fiona

In his work on the rainbow, De iride et radialibus impressionibus (On the Rainbow and Radial Impressions), Dietrich makes extensive use of experimental observation. He also wrote a ...

Bernard of Tours (fl. 1147, d. before 1178)

By Wetherbee, Winthrop

Bernard of Tours, better known as Bernardus Silvestris, was closely acquainted with the major developments in science and theology which took place in the mid-twelfth century. His major ...

Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni (1463–94)

By Hankins, James

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, today the best known of Renaissance philosophers, was a child prodigy and gentleman scholar who studied humanities, Aristotelianism and Platonism with the greatest teachers ...

Chatton, Walter (c.1290–1343)

By Brown, Stephen F.

Chatton was an English philosopher and theologian who developed a detailed critique of the work of William of Ockham, causing the latter to revise some of his earlier ...

Neckham, Alexander (1157–1217)

By Jordan, Mark D.

Alexander Neckham is one of the leading thinkers in the English appropriation of the new science made available during the twelfth century. His best known writings, especially De ...

Peter of Auvergne (d. 1304)

By Andrews, Robert

Peter of Auvergne, a thirteenth-century Parisian master, wrote extensively on logic, natural philosophy and theology. His thought progresses from modism in logic to an independent synthesis of Aristotelian ...

Bonaventure (c.1217–74)

By Kent, Bonnie

Bonaventure (John of Fidanza) developed a synthesis of philosophy and theology in which Neoplatonic doctrines are transformed by a Christian framework. Though often remembered for his denunciations of ...

Aquinas, Thomas (1224/6–74)

By Kretzmann, Norman; Stump, Eleonore

Aquinas lived an active, demanding academic and ecclesiastical life that ended while he was still in his forties. He nonetheless produced many works, varying in length from a ...

Simplicity, divine

By Leftow, Brian

To be complex is to have many parts. To be simple is to have few. Theists of all religious traditions have asserted that God is completely simple – ...

William of Ockham (c.1287–1347)

By Panaccio, Claude

William of Ockham is a major figure in late medieval thought. Many of his ideas were actively – sometimes passionately – discussed in universities all across Europe from ...

Francis of Meyronnes (d. after 1325)

By Hause, Jeffrey

Francis of Meyronnes, the doctor illuminatus (Enlightened Doctor), was called the ‘Prince of the Scotists’ for his work in systematizing and propagating the philosophy of Duns Scotus ...