new ways of thinking in the central middle ages
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New Ways of Thinking in the Central Middle Ages
A central medieval Renaissance!
12th and 13th-century themes
• Bold attempts to gatherand systematize all knowledge in a field(law, theology, science)
• Certainty in a unified,closed, harmonioussystem
Medieval Cosmology: inherited from the Greeks, unified, harmonious
12th and 13th-century themes
• Transmission ofclassical learningand new ideasthrough sites ofMuslim, Jewish,and Christian contact
12th and 13th-century themes
• Renewed knowledge of and interest in classical Greek thought(especially Aristotle, 384 – 322 BCE)
Aristotle, the systematizer
12th and 13th-century themes
• Focused application ofreason and logic to theworld and to scripture
St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033 – 1109): Ontological proof of God
• By God we mean the greatest of all possible beings, the one being that it is impossible to conceive of anything else being greater than
• To exist in our minds alone, and not in reality, is a self-contradiction of the very definition of God
• Therefore such a being, since we can conceive of it, must exist in reality and not merely in our minds, for existing in reality is greater than existing only in our minds
Peter Abelard (1079 – 1142)wrote Sic et Non
Peter Lombard (1069 – 1164) Sentences (reconciles apparent contradictions in
reason/scripture)
Peter Lombard’s Sentencesinfluences 4th Lateran Council’s statement on the sacraments
The Debate over Universals:nominalism vs. realism
12th and 13th-century themes
• Focused application ofreason and logic to theworld and to scripture
• Optimistic sense ofthe attainability ofknowledge set forthby God for humanity
7 liberal artsTrivium: grammar, rhetoric, logic
Quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music
Gratian’s Decretum (c.1140)The Concordance of Discordant Canons
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)Summa Theologica
Summa Theologica masterful synthesis reconciling Aristotle and Scripture through logic
12th and 13th-century themes
• Keen, innovative explorations of diverse relation-ships between humanbeings, each other, and the sensory world
12th and 13th-century themes
12th and 13th-century themes
• Keen, innovative explorations of diverse relationships between humanbeings, each other, and the sensory world
(Literature)
What different types of literature emerged in the central Middle Ages?
What themes does Marie de France(c. 1160 - ?) explore in her lais?
12th and 13th-century themes
• Keen, innovative explorations of diverse relationships between humanbeings, each other, and the sensory world
(Music)
12th and 13th-century themes
• Keen, innovative explorations of diverse relationships between humanbeings, each other, and the sensory world
(Art)
Giotto(1266 – 1337)
12th and 13th-century themes
• Bold attempts to gatherand systematize all knowledge in a field(law, theology, science)
• Certainty in a unified,closed, harmonioussystem
Dante
12th and 13th-century themes
• Simultaneous certainty inthe ‘magic’ or miraculousnature of God’s creation…mysticism as an alternativepath to the divine
The Egg of the Universe (Hildegard of Bingen)
12th and 13th-century themes
• Tensions, stress, culturalfractures will weaken these soaring, unified intellectual structures and modes of thoughtby c. 1300
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