A Beginner's History of Philosophy, Vol. 1: Ancient and Mediæval Philosophy

by Herbert Ernest Cushman

The Two Civilizations. This is one of the periods ofthought resulting from the shiftings of distinct civilizations. We have already noted the influence of the struggles of the Orient and the Occident in the Persian wars and in the campaigns of Alexander; and we have lately seen an entirely new epoch ushered in by the invasions of the northern tribes into Rome. With the new epoch before us, we find ourselves confronted with another new ethnic situation. The civilization of the Mohammedan had grown in mighty strength in the East, had possessed itself of Asia Minor, northern Africa, and Spain, and was now facing Europe from the east, west, and south. All through the First Period of the Middle Ages the Christian and Mohammedan civilizations had been contestants for supremacy. Only as late as 732 the Mohammedan claim upon Europe had been defeated at the battle of Tours. Mohammed (570–632) converted the whole of Arabia to Islam during the ten years between his Hegira (622) and his death. His successors took Palestine (637), Syria (638), Egypt (647), Persia (710), all north Africa (by 707), invaded Spain (711), and were repulsed at Tours (732). All this occurred within a century, and for the next two hundred years (800–1000) the Mohammedans harassed Rome and the islands of the Mediterranean. With the two civilizations facing each other on the Mediterranean, only mutual religious fanaticism could stand in the way of their mutual cultural influence. In point of fact, because of fanaticism the cultures of the two civilizations during the first centuries of the Middle Ages touched each other but little. In those first centuries of the Middle Ages, when western Europe was shrouded in darkness, the schools of the Arabs at Bagdad, Basra, Kufa, and other cities were enjoying a splendid intellectuallife. From 850 to 1100 the centre of learning of the world was in the Arabian cities of the East.[58] In 1100 the fanatical faction of the Arabians crushed this intellectual movement in the East, the scholars fled to Spain, and for a century longer Saracen learning flourished in Spain, especially in Cordova. In 1200 the Arabian orthodoxy made itself felt in Spain, and the Arabian scholars there had to find refuge among the Jews or Christians.

The First Contact of the Two Civilizations. From the beginning of the Middle Ages the point of contact between the two civilizations was either war or commerce. The Jew was the globe-trotter of that day, and was constantly bringing into Europe reports of Arabian civilization. He was a philosopher, a monotheist, a Semite, like the Arab, and he had an interest in more than commercial matters. About the end of the Early Period of the Middle Ages he found it profitable to make first Hebrew and then Latin translations of Arabian learning, and to sell them in Europe. In this form, between 1000 and 1100, medical and astronomical knowledge entered Europe. Greek philosophical writings came next in translations from the Arabic, which had previously been translated from the Syriac. Thus for the two hundred years, between 1000 and 1200, the Christian schools were beginning to read portions of Greek philosophy in Latin, which had previously passed through Syriac and Arabian (and sometimes Hebrew) translations. Before 1200, there were none but these Arabic versions. A pertinent example of these was the works of Aristotle. Before 1200 all of Aristotle’s writings,except the Organon, appeared in Europe in this form, and the Organon as a whole was not known until 1150. In 1125 some of Aristotle’s physics was known by the school of Chartres; in 1200 all the physics, metaphysics, and ethics were known in translations from the Latin and Hebrew. These were accompanied by Arabian commentaries, which interpreted Aristotle as if he were a neo-Platonic pantheist. There were many churchmen interested in the work of translation, as, for example, Gerbert, and Raymond of Toledo. Roger II of Sicily (d. 1154) and Frederick II (d. 1250) had their courts filled with Arabian philosophers. Frederick had many translations made and presented to the Universities of Oxford, Paris, and Bologna.

Thus the influence of the Arabian upon the Christian culture before the Classic Period of the Middle Ages was not inconsiderable.But this must be said of Arabian culture—it was mainly borrowed. Arabia[59] acted merely as a transmitter of the materials of knowledge from the Greeks and Hindoos; and so far as philosophy was concerned, the Arab was returning to Europe, in a perverted form, the Aristotle which had been deposited with him centuries before. The Mohammedans were the world’s carriers of a considerable body of science and of many new agricultural products; and of the amount which they introduced into Europe only a small portion was their own. At the end of the twelfth century the Christian at Rome and York was richer in the principles of discovery, but poorer in the amount of traditional learning and of scientific wealth, than the Mohammedan at Bagdad and Cordova.

The Conflict between the Two Civilizations.—The Crusades.[60] The rivalry between the two civilizations became intensified into an open conflict about the year 1100. Up to the year 1000 the Mohammedan leaders were Arabians, but in the eleventh century these Arabians were conquered by tribes of Turks or Mongolians from the north of Asia. These became converted to Mohammedanism, but they had no love for culture nor reverence for the places in Palestine, which were sacred alike to the Christian and the Arab. From the fourth to the twelfth century the pilgrimages of the Christians, individually or in multitudes, largely increased, but in the eleventh century the new race of Mohammedan Turks made the access to Jerusalem more difficult. They began to subject the pilgrims to cruelties, so that the Christian was beginning to find the door of his Holy Land closed to him. Then did Platonic Christianity rush to the rescue of those sacred places that symbolized its ideals.This onslaught upon the Mohammedans came in a series of surges, traditionally spoken of as the eight Crusades.[61] The Crusades resulted quite contrary to the expectations of the church, for the Crusadersfailed in permanently recapturing Jerusalem. But the Crusades accomplished the unexpected thing—they awakened Europe. The effect of the Crusades upon Europe was far greater than upon the Orient. The results may be enumerated as follows:—

1. The dormant European intellect was shaken up by contact with the heathen, whom the Europeans had previously despised, but whom they found to be their superiors.

2. A new national rivalry was aroused among the Christian soldiers. This national spirit was helped negatively by the losses among the feudal lords.

3. Commercial activity was given an immense impulse. A new social class was formed, which allied itself with the kings against the feudal lords. Trade was opened with the East, revealing new luxuries and new needs. Venice, Pisa, and Genoa, and in a secondary way also the German, French, and English towns, became prosperous commercial centres.

4. The power of the Latin church was extended.

5. The works of Aristotle were introduced in translations direct from the original Greek. In the fourth Crusade Constantinople was captured by the Crusaders (1204), and in this way the treasures of the Greeks were opened to the western scholars. The complete works of Aristotle were introduced into western Europe at a time when Aristotle was being interpreted as a pantheist by the Arabian commentators.

The Revival of Learning. The need of learning, that had been felt in the twelfth century, was now being satisfied. The entire logic of Aristotle and his entire natural science gave the new materials for knowledge. These came into Europe within the century between 1150 and 1250, (1) through translations from the Arabic,and then (2) directly through translations from the Greek. Aristotle’s logic revived scholasticism and his science became the foundation of metaphysics. Mediæval thought was ready for this and there was a complete readjustment without the introduction of a new philosophical principle. The side of Augustine’s teachingthat emphasized the intellect rather than the will, gained by being confirmed by the systematic intellectualism of Aristotle. The founder of this was Albert of Bollstaedt; the organizer and literary codifier was Thomas Aquinas; the poetic expression was Dante. The new centres of learning were Paris and Constantinople. The centres of teaching were transferred from the monasteries to the new Universities (1100–1300). Salerno had its beginnings in the latter part of the eleventh century. Bologna in law, Oxford in general culture and theology, Paris in the same studies, show traces of general organization between 1160 and 1200. There were established seventy-nine of these universities between 1150 and 1500.They were not “founded,” but grew up as part of this movement.[62]