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

by Herbert Ernest Cushman

DIAGRAM OF DANTE’S POETIC CONCEPTION OF THE UNIVERSE

From Rossetti’s Shadow of Dante

(Showing its divisions of Hell (at centre of the earth), Purgatory, and the nine heavens. The evident plan beneath this is the Ptolemaic cosmography.)

Nevertheless, the struggle was a full century long before official recognition of Aristotle came. The name of Aristotle had been associated with pantheism for many years, on account of the Arabian versions of his teaching. The neo-Platonic doctrine of emanations, with its pantheism in the Arabian versions, was a tendency of which the church had been shy since the days of Erigena. Until the theistic character of Aristotle’s teaching became assured by the direct Latin translations from the Greek, there was a powerful reaction against the whole of the new learning. The church had condemned the Physics in 1209 and the Metaphysics in 1215. But in 1254 Aristotle was officially recognized, and fifty years later he became the guide of the church, whom no one could contradict without being accused of heresy.

The Catholic church never showed its ability to greater advantage than in its dealings with the new problems of this period. The people of a purely religious epoch now came into possession of Aristotelianism. For centuries the intellect had been starving on formal logic. An intellectual revolution was imminent. Here in Aristotle was presented a rich theory of nature that the church had never considered. Yet it is doubtful if Aristotle would have been accepted, had the Mendicant Friars—the Dominicans and Franciscans—not succeeded in establishing chairs in the University of Paris. These monks did not love philosophy in itself. They saw, however, that philosophy must be able to defend itself against infidel philosophy by the weapons of philosophy. But curiously enough, Aristotelianism, which was the spring of this renaissance, became, by its incorporation into the church, the great obstacle to the real Renaissance two hundred and fifty years later.

The Strength and Burden of Aristotle to the Church.

1. The Strength of Aristotle to the Church: (1) Aristotle elaborated for the church, with great clearness, the conception of a transcendent God. This was a weapon for the church against neo-Platonism and mysticism. (2) Aristotle gave to the church a theory of nature that supplemented its theory of grace. (3) Aristotle established a philosophical standard for the truth of things. This proved of great value to the church because it was under the control of the church. In the first two periods of the Middle Ages philosophical thought had a relative independence because it was without a recognized standard; now philosophy could be controlled by the standard of Aristotle. For example, with the coming of Aristotle there came certainstandard definitions of substance, person, nature, accident, mode, potency, and act.

2. The Burden of Aristotle to the Church: (1) Aristotle encouraged a taste for science and analysis. At first the Aristotelian influence in this direction was very small, but its growth was only a question of time. (2) Aristotle became for the church a second standard. The problem for the churchman now became a double one: (a) Is my teaching consistent with church dogma? (b) Is my teaching consistent with Aristotle? “My son,” was the reply to a youth who thought he had discovered spots on the sun, “I have read Aristotle many times and I assure you there is nothing of the kind in him.” Dogma, not now the only standard, is not infallible. The reason need not follow dogma, but its own standard. Revelation became a realm of mystery which the reason could not reach, but to which it pointed. A doctrine thus might be of such a nature that it might be philosophically true, but theologically not true.

The Predecessors of Aquinas. Many distinguished names stand at the close of the Transitional Period and the beginning of the Classic Period. These express the transitional character of the thought of the threshold of this time. They show, like Abelard, the tendency toward rationalism. Alexander of Hales (d. 1264), William of Aubergne (d. 1249), Vincent of Beauvais (d. 1246), Albert of Bollstaedt, called Albertus Magnus (d. 1280), show the influence of the new Aristotelian science. Albert was the teacher of Thomas Aquinas. The attempt of Thomas to form a theological system for the church was anticipated by the so-called Sums of the twelfth century, of which the work of Peter the Lombard was the model. The four books of Sumsof Peter were collections of opinions of the Fathers on questions of dogma. They show the influence of Aristotle and the method of Abelard. The Sums of Peter became for several centuries the text-book of the schools and the subject of innumerable commentaries. It was the core of Classic scholastic literature, and around it grew up the problems of metaphysics and psychology.