Medieval Philosophy

Prepared by Raizza P. Corpuz

BIG QUESTION in MEDIEVAL EPOCH….

WHAT IS FAITH?

WHAT IS RELIGION?RPC2013

Faith is personal: INTERNAL, Within the power of the “I”. It is both the cognitive and the emotive. It is within the context of it and NOT bound with QUANDARY.

BASIS

Religion: EXTERNAL: bound with the choice we made. It can be change. It is structural and functional.

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FAITHFAITH RELIGIONRELIGION

MEME WEWE

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Medieval Philosophy• Medieval philosophy is the

philosophy in the era now known as medieval or the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roma Empire in the fifth century AD to the Renaissance in the sixteenth century

• Essentially “monotheistic”

• From a state of polytheism to a belief in a one and only God.

• God here is the center of man’s life Medieval philosophy is not to be

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Medieval Philosophy and the Problem of Evil

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The Dark Ages• The "Dark Ages" is a historical

period emphasizing the cultural and economic deterioration that occurred in Europe following the decline of the Roma Empire.

• The label employs traditional “light-versus darkness” imagery to contrast the "darkness" of the period with earlier and later periods of "light“ (Middle Age).

• The period is characterized by a relative scarcity of historical and other written records at least for some areas of Europe, rendering it obscure to historians.

Petrarch conceived the idea of a European "Dark Age". From Cycle of Famous Men and Women, c. 1450

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Challenged Church AuthorityChallenged Church Authority• In the 16th century, In the 16th century,

various humanists various humanists had begun to ask had begun to ask dangerous questions. dangerous questions.

• The Enlightenment The Enlightenment allowed people to allowed people to believe in progress, believe in progress, to “think outside the to “think outside the box,” and it led to the box,” and it led to the rise of individualismrise of individualism

The Ninety-Five Theses, (1517) written by Martin Luther, described his hopes and wants for reform in the Catholic Church. This effectively challenged the pope'e authority and the infallibility of the general council, and eventually led to Luther being excommunicated from the church and declared a public enemy by the state.The 95 Theses were translated into German and Luther's ideas were circulated throughout the empire.

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Medieval Philosophy• The term medieval refers to the Middle Ages, the time in

European history between classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance, from about 500 A.D. to about 1350 ( 13th)

• Medieval philosophy is theocentric in its character.• During the decline of Greco-Roman civilization, Western

philosophers turned their attention from the scientific investigation of nature and the search for happiness in this world, to the problem of salvation and life in another, better world

• The torch of civilization in Western Europe was carried mainly by the Christian Church, where thought were conducted under the context of Christian doctrines

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• By the 3rd century AD, Christianity had spread throughout the Roman Empire.

• The religious teachings of the Gospels were combined by the Fathers of the Church with many of the philosophical concepts of the Greeks and Roman schools.

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FOCUS: ON RELIGION and FAITH

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St. Augustine “You are great, O Lord, and man desires to praise you. You so excite him that

to praise you is his joy. For you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

St. Augustine (354–430 C.E) : Uses aspects of Neoplatonism to understand, explain Christianity.

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Conversion

• He regret that once he believed in

Manichaeism means taught an elaborate dualistic

cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil , material world of

darkness. • Began to study under Saint Ambrose.• Became fascinated by intellectual

nature of faith.• Was not baptized, at first, because he

didn’t want to give up life of sin.

His Philosophical Beliefs

• The man with his strength does not exceed this vicious cycle of not being able to not want what cannot get

• Only the grace of Christ save us• History is called original sinJesus says that the Holy Spirit "will convince the world

concerning sin" (Jn 16:8). As I tried to penetrate these words, I was led back to the opening pages of the Book of Genesis, to the event known as "original sin."

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• described the nature of this sin as follows: amor sui usque ad contemptum Dei—self-love to the point of contempt for God.

• It was amor sui which drove our first parents toward that initial rebellion and then gave rise to the spread of sin throughout human history.

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• The Book of Genesis speaks of this: "you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gn 3:5), in other words, you yourselves will decide what is good and what is evil.

• Man is not, in general, self-sufficient: marked by original sin, is called to communion with God, in Christ.

• This non-self-sufficiency is also seen in the field of knowledge. It's Christ truth (as interior Teacher , through the illumination).

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INFLUENTIAL BOOK

Confessions (Latin: Confessiones) •is the name of an autobiographical wok, consisting of 13 books•The work outlines Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity

•Sinful Youth: fleshly desires for women

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The City of God

• Answers profound questions of theologysuch as the suffering of the righteous, the existence

of evil, the conflict between free will and divine omniscience, and the doctrine of original sin.

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His legacy• He believed humans

cannot experience true happiness until they find God.

• His work centred around the notion that everything in the world is basically good.

• He wrote many works over his lifetime.

• He attempted to dispel heresy and blasphemous ideologies.

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St. Thomas Aquinas

Overview

• An Italian-born monk who taught at the University of Paris

• Born: January 28th, 1225 in Roccasecca, Sicily• Died: March 7th, 1274 in Fossanova, Sicily• Taught that faith came first and greatly

expanded the scope of reason• Major figure in scholasticism

The Nature of God• Aquinas developed a list of the (5)

five divine qualities:1. God is simple, without

composition of parts, such as body and soul, or matter and form.

2. God is perfect, lacking nothing. That is, God is distinguished from other beings on account of God's complete actuality. Thomas defined God as the ‘Ipse Actus Essendi subsistens,’ subsisting act of being.

3. God is infinite. That is, God is not finite in the ways that created beings are physically, intellectually, and emotionally limited. This infinity is to be distinguished from infinity of size and infinity of number.

4. God is immutable, incapable of change on the levels of God's essence and character.

5. God is one, without diversification within God's self. The unity of God is such that God's essence is the same as God's existence. In Thomas's words, "in itself the proposition 'God exists' is necessarily true, for in it subject and predicate are the same.”

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Reason • Aquinas retained the basic belief

while studying reason• He believed that:

1. Humans could – through reason alone – know much of the natural order, moral law, and the nature of God

2. All essential knowledge could be organized coherently

• Wrote a series of Summas (highest works) that employed careful logic to counter any possible objections to truth as revealed by reason and faith

Summas• Summa Theologica: Most well-known

and best work of Aquinas• Intended as a sort of introduction to

theology and the main theological points of Church doctrine

• Three parts: – Part One: God’s existence, the creation

of the world, angels, and the nature of man

– Part Two: Morality (general and specific)– Part Three: Christ, the Sacraments, and

the end of the world

Ethics• Four Cardinal Virtues: 1.Prudence2.Temperance3. Justice4.Fortitude• Three Theological Virtues: . 1.Faith2.Hope3.Charity

Four types of Law:

1. Eternal: direct word of God, governs all Creation

2. Natural: human adherence to eternal law, discovered by reason

3. Human: positive law (natural law applied to human government and society)

4. Divine: the law as defined in the scriptures

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The Existence of God can be proved in five ways.

1. Argument from Motion2. Argument from Efficient Causes3. Argument from Possibility and Necessity

(Reduction argument)4. Argument from Gradation of Being5. Argument from Design

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***EXPLANATION FROM 1st CAUSE

The Argument From MotionSt. Thomas Aquinas:

•studying the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotleconcluded from common observation: that an object that is in motion (e.g. the planets, a rolling stone) is put in motion by some other object or force.

From this, Aquinas believes that ultimately there must have been an UNMOVED MOVER (GOD) who first put things in motion.

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ST. ANSELM • Anselm's motto is “faith seeking

understanding” (fides quaerens intellectum)• St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109 CE) was

a Christian philosopher. • He was Archbishop of Canterbury from the age

of 60 until his death

The Ontological Argument

• Anselm is perhaps most famous for developing the ontological argument for the existence of God.

1.God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived.

2.It is greater to exist than to not exist.3.Therefore, God exists.

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To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is

possible.---Thomas Aquinas

MERCY and COMPASSION

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ReferencesThe Evolution of Medieval Thought (1962) by David Knowles Random House New YorkSt. Augustine (1960). The Confessions of St. Augustine. New York. by John K. Ryan.)St. Augustine (1960). The Confessions of St. Augustine. New York. by John K. Ryan.)A History of Philosophy 2: Medieval Philosophy by Frederick Charles CoplestonThe Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas by Étienne Gilson

Some Slides excerpt by Dr. Tenorio’s LectureGoogle Images

THANK YOU and GOD BLESS!!

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