Suchergebnisse

This book presents in translation writings by six medieval philosophers which bear on the subject of conscience. Conscience, which can be considered both as a topic in the philosophy of mind and a topic in ethics, has been unduly neglected in modern philosophy, where a prevailing belief in the autonomy of ethics leaves it no natural place. It was, however, a standard subject for a treatise in medieval philosophy. Three introductory translations here, from Jerome, Augustine and Peter Lombard, present the loci classici on which subsequent discussions drew; there follows the first complete treatise on conscience, by Philip the Chancellor, while the two remaining translations, from Bonaventure and Aquinas, have been chosen as outstanding examples of the two main approaches which crystallised during the thirteenth century

Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy showcases the best new scholarly work on philosophy from the end of antiquity into the Renaissance. OSMP combines historical scholarship with philosophical acuteness, and will be an essential resource for anyone working in the area.

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Part I: Plato and Aristotle -- Human Nature and Legal Norms: Antiphon the Sophist as Anonymous Target in Plato's Republic IX -- Natural Born Philosophers -- Normative Naturalism in Aristotle's Political Philosophy? -- Whose State? Whose Nature? How Aristotle's Polis is 'Natural' -- Aristotle on Freedom, Nature, and Law -- Aristotle on the Rationality of Women: Consequences for Virtue and Practical Accountability -- Part II: Hellenistic Philosophy -- Cynic Origins of the Stoic Doctrine of Natural Law? -- The Normativity of Nature in Epicurean Ethics and Politics -- Nature and Psychology in Cicero's Republic -- Unnatural Law: A Ciceronian Perspective -- Natural Law and Casuistic Reasoning in Roman Jurisprudence -- Part III: Late Antiquity -- Human Nature and Normativity in Plotinus -- On Justice in Porphyry's On Abstinence -- Early Christian Philosophers on Society and Political Norms -- Part IV: Medieval Philosophy -- Against Nature: Two Critics of Naturalism in the Islamic World -- "Like Ants in a Colony We Do Our Share": Political Animals in Medieval Philosophy -- Ockham on Human Freedom and the Nature and Origin of Lordship -- Index of Names -- Index of Subjects

Preliminary considerations -- Practical wisdom in the moral theory of Aristotle -- The moral theories of William of Auxerre and Philip the Chancellor -- The earliest medieval Latin commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics -- The early moral works of Albert the Great -- Happiness, prudence, and moral reasoning in the later works of Albert the Great -- Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure on the understanding of moral goodness -- Two commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics in the late thirteenth century

This chapter discusses the reception of the Aristotelian concept of 'political animal' in thirteenth and fourteenth century Latin philosophy. Aristotle thought that there are other political animals besides human beings, and his idea of what it means to be a political animal was partially based on biological needs and desires that lead animals to live together. By analysing what medieval philosophers thought of other political animals - such as ants, bees, and cranes - and of the biological basis of the political nature of humans, the chapter elaborates on the precise meaning of the concept of political animal. It is argued that biological aspects play a significant role in medieval views, but at the same time medieval authors tend to distance human beings from other political animals by emphasising rationality, choice, and language as central factors for the social and political life. ; peerReviewed

Abstract
With Medieval Philosophy Redefined as the Latin Age, John Deely has written a truly revolutionary book. Both medieval historians and semioticians alike will gain a new perspective on their subject matter upon reading Medieval Philosophy Redefined. In it, Deely traces the history of the sign by going to its roots in the writings of Augustine, and following it through to the time of John Poinsot. John Poinsot, a previously marginalized philosopher from the late medieval period, factors greatly in Deely's book. Poinsot makes it possible to get through the "thicket" of nominalism and see beyond Renaissance Humanism. Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact that, by using the sign as the point of departure, Deely has found a constant thread that runs through the Medieval Ages, making it, the sign, a key to understanding medieval philosophy from its start to its finish.