Medieval Philosophy : A New History of Western Philosophy, Volume 2

Sir Anthony Kenny here continues his fascinating account of the history of philosophy, focusing on the thousand-year-long medieval period. This is the second volume of a four-book set in which Kenny will unfold a magisterial new history of Western philosophy, the first major single-author history of philosophy to appear in decades. In this volume, Kenny takes us on a fascinating tour through more than a millennium of thought from 400 AD onwards, charting the story of philosophy from the founders of Christian and Islamic thought through to the Renaissance. The Middle Ages saw a great flourishing of philosophy, and the intellectual endeavor of the era reaches its climax in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with the systems of the great schoolmen such as Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus. With Kenny as guide, we see these major philosophers through the eyes of a man who has spent a lifetime contemplating their work. Thus we do not simply get an overview of philosophy, but also a penetrating and insightful critique of it. Kenny offers an illuminating account of various thinkers and schools of thought, from Augustine to Maimonides and from Grosseteste to Pomponazzi. And he offers much insight into medieval thinking about logic and language, knowledge, physics, metaphysics, the mind, the soul, and God. Vividly written, but serious and deep enough to offer a genuine understanding of the great philosophers, Kenny's lucid and stimulating history will become the definitive work for anyone interested in the people and ideas that shaped the course of Western thought. COVER......Page 1 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS......Page 6 CONTENTS......Page 8 INTRODUCTION......Page 12 CH1.Philosophy and Faith: Augustine to Maimonides......Page 20 Augustine on History......Page 23 Augustine's Two Cities......Page 28 The Consolations of Boethius......Page 35 The Greek Philosophy of Late Antiquity......Page 42 Philosophy in the Carolingian Empire......Page 48 Muslim and Jewish Philosophers......Page 52 Avicenna and his Successors......Page 56 Anselm of Canterbury......Page 59 Abelard......Page 63 Averroes......Page 67 Maimonides......Page 69 CH2.The Schoolmen: From the Twelfth Century to the Renaissance......Page 73 Robert Grosseteste and Albert the Great......Page 76 St Bonaventure......Page 79 Thomas Aquinas......Page 82 The Afterlife of Aquinas......Page 93 Siger of Brabant and Roger Bacon......Page 98 Duns Scotus......Page 101 William Ockham......Page 108 The Reception of Ockham......Page 114 The Oxford Calculators......Page 116 John Wyclif......Page 118 Beyond Paris and Oxford......Page 121 Renaissance Platonism......Page 124 Renaissance Aristotelianism......Page 130 Augustine on Language......Page 134 The Logic of Boethius......Page 138 Abelard as Logician......Page 142 The Thirteenth-Century Logic of Terms......Page 146 Propositions and Syllogisms......Page 151 Aquinas on Thought and Language......Page 155 Analogy and Univocity......Page 158 Modistic Logic......Page 161 Ockham's Mental Language......Page 162 Truth and Inference in Ockham......Page 166 Walter Burley and John Wyclif......Page 169 Three-Valued Logic at Louvain......Page 172 Augustine on Scepticism, Faith, and Knowledge......Page 175 Augustine on Divine Illumination......Page 178 Bonaventure on Illumination......Page 181 Aquinas on Concept-Formation......Page 182 Aquinas on Faith, Knowledge, and Science......Page 185 The Epistemology of Duns Scotus......Page 190 Intuitive and Abstractive Knowledge in Ockham......Page 192 Augustine on Time......Page 195 Philoponus, Critic of Aristotle......Page 198 Natural Philosophy in the Thirteenth Century......Page 199 Actual and Potential InWnity......Page 204 Avicenna on Being, Essence, and Existence......Page 208 Aquinas on Actuality and Potentiality......Page 214 The Metaphysics of Duns Scotus......Page 220 Ockham's Reductive Programme......Page 226 Wyclif and Determinism......Page 230 Augustine on the Inner Life......Page 233 Augustine on the Will......Page 239 The Agent Intellect in Islamic Thought......Page 242 Avicenna on Intellect and Imagination......Page 244 The Psychology of Averroes......Page 249 Aquinas on the Senses and the Intellect......Page 252 Aquinas on the Will......Page 257 Scotus versus Aquinas......Page 261 Ockham versus Scotus......Page 264 Pomponazzi on the Soul......Page 266 CH8.Ethics......Page 271 The God of Augustine......Page 297 Boethius on Divine Foreknowledge......Page 302 Negative Theology in Eriugena......Page 304 Islamic Arguments for God's Existence......Page 307 Anselm's Proof of God......Page 309 Omnipotence in Damiani and Abelard......Page 314 Grosseteste on Omniscience......Page 317 Aquinas on God's Eternal Knowledge and Power......Page 318 Aquinas' Proofs of God's Existence......Page 321 Duns Scotus' Metaphysical Proof of an InWnite Being......Page 323 Scotus, Ockham, and Valla on Divine Foreknowledge......Page 326 The Informed Ignorance of Nicholas of Cusa......Page 330 Chronology......Page 332 List of Abbreviations and Conventions......Page 334 Bibliography......Page 338 List of Illustrations......Page 346 Index......Page 349 "Sir Anthony Kenny presents a fascinating guide through more than a millennium of thought from 400 AD onwards, charting the story of philosophy from the founders of Christian and Islamic thought through to the Renaissance. The middle ages saw a great flourishing of philosophy, and the intellectual endeavour of the era reaches its climax in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries with the systems of the great schoolmen such as Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus." "The fruit of a lifetime's scholarship and insight, Medieval Philosophy sets the philosophers and their thought in historical context, and explains the significance and impact of each wave of new ideas. It is the second volume in a magisterial series which brings the history of philosophy alive to anyone wanting to understand the roots of Western civilization. Book jacket."--Jacket Sir Anthony Kenny continues his magisterial new history of Western philosophy with a fascinating guide through more than a millennium of thought from 400 AD onwards, charting the story of philosophy from the founders of Christian and Islamic thought through to the Renaissance.The middle ages saw a great flourishing of philosophy, and the intellectual endeavour of the era reaches its climax in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with the systems of the great schoolmen such as Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus. Specially written for a broad popular readership, but serious and deep enough to offer a genuine understanding of the great philosophers, Kenny's lucid and stimulating history will become the definitive work for anyone interested in the people and ideas that shaped the course of Western thought. Here readers will find not only an authoritative guide to the history of philosophy, but also a compelling introduction to every major area of philosophical inquiry v. 1. Ancient philosophy v. 2. Medieval philosophy v. 3. The rise of modern philosophy v. 4. Philosophy in the modern world