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MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY |
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Select: Hunein Ibn Ishak - John of Salisbury - Raymond Lully - Thomas á Kempis |
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The Sayings of the Philosophers, written by Hunein Ibn Ishak, a Nestorian Christian who was born in Syria and wrote in Syriac and Arabic, has been translated into Hebrew, Spanish and other languages, and became a very popular book among the intellectuals of the early Middle Ages in Europe and the Middle East. This book, however, is highly significant of the deformation of Greek philosophy in the sixth and seventh centuries. Hunein was a learned man. He wrote an Introduction into the Science of Medicine, a Syriac-Arabic dictionary and grammar, and many other books. He traveled a great deal and collected Greek manuscripts, which he either translated into Syriac or Arabic, or used as sources for his own books. Without any doubt, Hunein was a careful writer and faithful translator, but the texts of the manuscripts he had at hand ere spoiled, because the copyists had been incapable of understanding what they copied, and each succeeding scribe had added new errors to those of his predecessors. Thus Hunein confounded Socrates and Diogenes, or Plato with Bias. Even his own philosophy, whether it consisted of original thoughts or of quotations, is more characteristic of the fate of certain Greek thoughts in a time of spiritual decay. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
John of Salisbury (c. 1115-1180) The first to personify the type of a cultivated Englishman who combines statesmanship with humanist learning and philosophical mind was John of Salisbury, who played a very important role in the English foreign and ecclesiastical policy of his days, and proved to be an independent thinker and a gifted writer. Numerous pages of his books strike one as most modern. His judgments on people and the state of the culture were rather liberal. His descriptions were colorful, and his manner of expression shows a rare combination of humor and dignity, of restraint and acuteness. In 1148, John became secretary to Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury, and, in 1162, he began to serve in the same capacity to Thomas à Becket. He shared Becket's exile and witnessed his murder. He was a friend of Pope Hadrian IV, the only Englishman who ever was crowned with the tiara, and he directed the diplomatic negotiations between King Henry II of England and the Holy See on the occasion of the conquest of Ireland. While secretary to Archbishop Theobald, John wrote the books Polycraticus and Metalogicus. The first is a theory of the state, defining the rights of the kind who, according to him, is limited by religious laws only, but may be killed when he breaks these laws. The second is a defense and criticism of dialectics and a refutation of exaggerated realism. John also wrote biographies of St. Anselm and of Thomas à Becket, and, in Metalogicus, he inserted his charming autobiography. From 1176 until his death, he was Bishop of Chartres, France, and was associated with the famous school of the cathedral. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
Raymond Lully [Raymondus Lullus] (1235-1315) Because of his great learning, Raymond Lully (picture) was called "Doctor Illuminatus." He was born on the island of Majorca, where Christian civilization was in close contact with Jewish and Arabic lore. Lully was the first Christian scholar to study the Cabala, which he regarded as a divine science and a true revelation for the rational soul. He also studied Arabic philosophy but became a sworn adversary of Averröism. In 1275 he published his Ars Generalis, intended to serve as a basis for all sciences and as a key to invention and discovery. This work was much admired, even several hundred years later by Giordano Bruno and Leibniz. Lully was a great linguist and in 1311 he obtained the consent of the Council of Vienna for teachers of Hebrew and Arabic to be admitted to the papal schools and the great universities. His great ambition was to convert Moslems to Christianity. He agitated for crusades and traveled alone through Islamic North Africa. Probably he suffered a martyr's death. Lully was also a prolific poet, and is considered to have been a great master of the Catalan language. In The Radical Academy
Elsewhere On The Internet
Thomas á Kempis' (picture) name was originally Thomas Hemerken and was a religious writer whose name derives from his birthplace, Kempen, in Germany. He entered the Augustinian convent of Agnietenberg near Zwolle in 1400 and was ordained in 1413, chosen sub-prior in 1429, and died as superior. A very famous spiritual work, Imitatio Christi (The Imitation of Christ) is usually attributed to him. Carlyle said about the work The Imitation of Christ, "None, except the Bible, is so universally read and loved by Christians of all tongues and sects," a statement confirmed by all lovers of devotional literature. Whether or not Thomas á Kempis was the actual author of the work is disputed, but whoever wrote the book described the trials and temptations, the joys of mystical intercourse with Christ, and the readiness to suffer with him. The debates about the author of the work began around 1420 and have continued up to the present day. For a long time, it was attributed to Thomas á Kempis, who signed a copy of his writing in 1441. But none of his other numerous books is comparable to the Imitatio, and the oldest extant manuscript was written in 1383 when Thomas á Kempis was three years old. However, he may be considered as the editor who improved the Latin phraseology. In all probability, the author was a Carthusian monk who, after many worldly experiences, composed this work, which has been described by Matthew Arnold as "the most exquisite document of Christian spirit after the New Testament." In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Book...
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Introduction & Directory |
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