Medieval philosophy is the philosophy in the era now known as medieval
or the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the
Western Roman Empire
Western Roman Empire in the 5th century A.D. to the
Renaissance in the
Medieval philosophy, understood as a project of
independent philosophical inquiry, began in Baghdad, in the middle of
the 8th century, and in France, in the itinerant court of Charlemagne,
in the last quarter of the 8th century. It is defined partly by the
process of rediscovering the ancient culture developed in Greece and
Rome in the classical period, and partly by the need to address
theological problems and to integrate sacred doctrine with secular
The history of medieval philosophy is traditionally divided into two
main periods: the period in the
Latin West following the Early Middle
Ages until the 12th century, when the works of
Aristotle and Plato
were preserved and cultivated and the 'golden age' of the 12th, 13th
and 14th centuries in the
Latin West, which witnessed the culmination
of the recovery of ancient philosophy, along with a reception of its
Arabic commentators, and significant developments in the field of
Philosophy of religion,
Logic and Metaphysics.
The medieval era was disparagingly treated by the Renaissance
humanists, who saw it as a barbaric 'middle' period between the
classical age of Greek and Roman culture, and the 'rebirth' or
renaissance of classical culture. Modern historians consider the
medieval era to be one of philosophical development, heavily
influenced by Christian theology. One of the most notable thinkers of
the era, Thomas Aquinas, never considered himself a philosopher, and
criticized philosophers for always "falling short of the true and
The problems discussed throughout this period are the relation of
faith to reason, the existence and simplicity of God, the purpose of
theology and metaphysics, and the problems of knowledge, of
universals, and of individuation.:1
2.1 Early medieval Christian philosophy
2.2 High Middle Ages
3.3 Natural philosophy
Philosophy of mind
4 See also
6 Further reading
7 External links
Medieval philosophy is characteristically theological. With the
possible exceptions of
Avicenna and Averroes, medieval thinkers did
not consider themselves philosophers at all: for them, the
philosophers were the ancient pagan writers such as
Aristotle.:1 However, their theology used the methods and logical
techniques of the ancient philosophers to address difficult
theological questions and points of doctrine. Thomas Aquinas,
following Peter Damian, argued that philosophy is the handmaiden of
theology (ancilla theologiae).:35
The two principles that underlie all their work are:
The use of logic, dialectic, and analysis to discover the truth, known
Respect for the insights of ancient philosophers, in particular
Aristotle, and deference to their authority (auctoritas).
The obligation to co-ordinate the insights of philosophy with
theological teaching and revelation (concordia).:3–5
One of the most heavily debated topics of the period was that of faith
Averroes both leaned more on the side of
Augustine stated that he would never allow his philosophical
investigations to go beyond the authority of God.:27 Anselm
attempted to defend against what he saw as partly an assault on faith,
with an approach allowing for both faith and reason. The Augustinian
solution to the faith/reason problem is to (1) believe, and then (2)
seek to understand.
Early medieval Christian philosophy
The boundaries of the early medieval period are a matter of
controversy.:1 It is generally agreed that it begins with Augustine
(354–430) who strictly belongs to the classical period, and ends
with the lasting revival of learning in the late eleventh century, at
the beginning of the high medieval period.
After the collapse of the Roman empire, Western Europe lapsed into the
so-called Dark Ages.
Monasteries were among the limited number of
focal points of formal academic learning, which might be presumed to
be a result of a rule of St Benedict's in 525, which required monks to
read the Bible daily, and his suggestion that at the beginning of
Lent, a book be given to each monk. In later periods, monks were used
for training administrators and churchmen.:45
Early Christian thought, in particular in the patristic period, tends
to be intuitional and mystical, and is less reliant on reason and
logical argument. It also places more emphasis on the
sometimes-mystical doctrines of Plato, and less upon the systematic
thinking of Aristotle. Much of the work of
Aristotle was unknown in
the West in this period. Scholars relied on translations by Boethius
Latin of Aristotle's Categories, the logical work On
Interpretation, and his
Latin translation of Porphyry's Isagoge, a
commentary on Aristotle's Categories.
Two Roman philosophers had a great influence on the development of
Augustine and Boethius.
Augustine is regarded as
the greatest of the Church Fathers. He is primarily a theologian and a
devotional writer, but much of his writing is philosophical. His
themes are truth, God, the human soul, the meaning of history, the
state, sin, and salvation. For over a thousand years, there was hardly
Latin work of theology or philosophy that did not quote his writing,
or invoke his authority. Some of his writing had an influence on the
development of early modern philosophy, such as that of
Descartes.:15 Anicius Manlius Severinus
Boethius (480 c.–524) was
a Christian philosopher born in Rome to an ancient and influential
family. He became consul in 510 in the kingdom of the Ostrogoths. His
influence on the early medieval period was also marked (so much so
that it is sometimes called the Boethian period). He intended to
translate all the works of
Plato from the original Greek
into Latin, and translated many of Aristotle's logical works, such as
On Interpretation, and the Categories. He wrote commentaries on these
works, and on the
Isagoge by Porphyry (a commentary on the
Categories). This introduced the problem of universals to the medieval
The first significant renewal of learning in the West came when
Charlemagne, advised by Candidus,
Peter of Pisa and
Alcuin of York,
attracted the scholars of England and Ireland, and by imperial decree
in 787 AD established schools in every abbey in his empire. These
schools, from which the name
Scholasticism is derived, became centres
of medieval learning.
Abbo of Fleury
Johannes Scotus Eriugena
Johannes Scotus Eriugena (c. 815 – 877), successor of
Alcuin of York
as head of the Palace School, was an Irish theologian and Neoplatonic
philosopher. He is notable for having translated and made commentaries
upon the work of Pseudo-Dionysius, initially thought to be from the
apostolic age. Around this period several doctrinal controversies
emerged, such as the question of whether
God had predestined some for
salvation and some for damnation. Eriugena was called in to settle
this dispute. At the same time,
Paschasius Radbertus raised an
important question about the real presence of
Christ at the Eucharist.
Is the host the same as Christ's historical body? How can it be
present at many places and many times? Radbertus argued that Christ's
real body is present, veiled by the appearance of bread and wine, and
is present at all places and all times, by means of God's
This period also witnessed a revival of scholarship. At Fleury,
Theodulphus, bishop of Orléans, established a school for young
noblemen recommended there by Charlemagne. By the mid-ninth century,
its library was one of the most comprehensive ever assembled in the
West, and scholars such as
Lupus of Ferrières (d. 862) traveled there
to consult its texts. Later, under St.
Abbo of Fleury
Abbo of Fleury (abbot
988–1004), head of the reformed abbey school, Fleury enjoyed a
second golden age.:1
Remigius of Auxerre, at the beginning of the tenth century, produced
glosses or commentaries on the classical texts of Donatus, Priscian,
Boethius, and Martianus Capella. The Carolingian period was followed
by a small dark age that was followed by a lasting revival of learning
in the eleventh century, which owed much to the rediscovery of Greek
Arabic translations and Muslim contributions such as
Avicenna's On the soul.
High Middle Ages
The period from the middle of the eleventh century to the middle of
the fourteenth century is known as the 'High medieval' or 'scholastic'
period. It is generally agreed to begin with Saint Anselm of
Canterbury (1033–1109) an Italian philosopher, theologian, and
church official who is famous as the originator of the ontological
argument for the existence of God.
Plato, Seneca, and
Aristotle from Devotional and Philosophical
Writings, c. 1330
The 13th and early 14th centuries are generally regarded as the high
period of scholasticism. The early 13th century witnessed the
culmination of the recovery of Greek philosophy. Schools of
translation grew up in
Italy and Sicily, and eventually in the rest of
Europe. Scholars such as
Adelard of Bath
Adelard of Bath travelled to Sicily and the
Arab world, translating works on astronomy and mathematics, including
the first complete translation of Euclid’s Elements. Powerful
Norman kings gathered men of knowledge from
Italy and other areas into
their courts as a sign of their prestige. William of Moerbeke's
translations and editions of Greek philosophical texts in the middle
half of the thirteenth century helped in forming a clearer picture of
Greek philosophy, and in particular of Aristotle, than was given by
Arabic versions they had previously relied on, which had distorted
or obscured the relation between Platonic and Aristotelian systems of
philosophy. His work formed the basis of the major commentaries
The universities developed in the large cities of Europe during this
period, and rival clerical orders within the Church began to battle
for political and intellectual control over these centers of
educational life. The two main orders founded in this period were the
Franciscans and the Dominicans. The
Franciscans were founded by
Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi in 1209. Their leader in the middle of the century
was Bonaventure, a traditionalist who defended the theology of
Augustine and the philosophy of Plato, incorporating only a little of
Aristotle in with the more neoplatonist elements.:454 Following
Bonaventure supposed that reason can discover truth only when
philosophy is illuminated by religious faith. Other important
Franciscan writers were Duns Scotus, Peter Auriol, and William of
By contrast, the Dominican order, founded by
St Dominic in 1215 placed
more emphasis on the use of reason and made extensive use of the new
Aristotelian sources derived from the East, and Moorish Spain. The
great representatives of Dominican thinking in this period were
Albertus Magnus and (especially) Thomas Aquinas, whose artful
synthesis of Greek rationalism and Christian doctrine eventually came
to define Catholic philosophy.
Aquinas placed more emphasis on reason
and argumentation, and was one of the first to use the new translation
of Aristotle's metaphysical and epistemological writing. This was a
significant departure from the Neoplatonic and Augustinian thinking
that had dominated much of early Scholasticism.
Aquinas showed how it
was possible to incorporate much of the philosophy of Aristotle
without falling into the "errors" of the Commentator Averroes.
At the start of the 20th century, historian and philosopher Martin
Grabmann was the first scholar to work out the outlines of the ongoing
development of thought in scholasticism and to see in
Thomas Aquinas a
response and development of thought rather than a single, coherently
emerged and organic whole. Although Grabmann's works in German are
Thomas Aquinas (1928) is available in English. However,
Grabmann's thought was instrumental in the whole modern understanding
of scholasticism and the pivotal role of Aquinas.
All the main branches of philosophy today were a part of Medieval
Medieval philosophy also included most of the areas
originally established by the pagan philosophers of antiquity, in
particular Aristotle. However, the discipline now called
religion was, it is presumed, a unique development of the Medieval
era, and many of the problems that define the subject first took shape
in the Middle Ages, in forms that are still recognisable today.
Medieval philosophy is characteristically theological. Subjects
discussed in this period include:
The problem of the compatibility of the divine attributes: How are the
attributes traditionally ascribed to the Supreme Being, such as
unlimited power, knowledge of all things, infinite goodness, existence
outside time, immateriality, and so on, logically consistent with one
The problem of evil: The classical philosophers had speculated on the
nature of evil, but the problem of how an all-powerful, all-knowing,
God could create a system of things in which evil exists first
arose in the medieval period.
The problem of free will: A similar problem was to explain how 'divine
foreknowledge' – God's knowledge of what will happen in the future
– is compatible with our belief in our own free will.
Questions regarding the immortality of the intellect, the unity or
non-unity between the soul and the intellect, and the consequent
intellectual basis for believing in the immortality of the soul.
The question of whether there can be substances which are
non-material, for example, angels.
Book 7 of the Metaphysics: Ens dicitur multipliciter – the word
'being' is predicated in many ways
After the 'rediscovery' of Aristotle's
Metaphysics in the mid-twelfth
century, many scholastics wrote commentaries on this work (in
Aquinas and Scotus). The problem of universals was one of
the main problems engaged during that period. Other subjects included:
Hylomorphism – development of the Aristotelian doctrine that
individual things are a compound of material and form (the statue is a
compound of granite, and the form sculpted into it)
Existence – being qua being
Causality – Discussion of causality consisted mostly of commentaries
on Aristotle, mainly the Physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and
Corruption. The approach to this subject area was uniquely medieval,
the rational investigation of the universe being viewed as a way of
approaching God. Duns Scotus' proof of the existence of
God is based
on the notion of causality.
Individuation. The problem of individuation is to explain how we
individuate or numerically distinguish the members of any kind for
which it is given. The problem arose when it was required to explain
how individual angels of the same species differ from one another.
Angels are immaterial, and their numerical difference cannot be
explained by the different matter they are made of. The main
contributors to this discussion were
Aquinas and Scotus.
In natural philosophy and the philosophy of science, medieval
philosophers were mainly influenced by Aristotle. However, from the
fourteenth century onward, the increasing use of mathematical
reasoning in natural philosophy prepared the way for the rise of
science in the early modern period. The more mathematical reasoning
William Heytesbury and
William of Ockham
William of Ockham are indicative
of this trend. Other contributors to natural philosophy are Albert of
Saxony, John Buridan, and Nicholas of Autrecourt. See also the article
on the Continuity thesis, the hypothesis that there was no radical
discontinuity between the intellectual development of the Middle Ages
and the developments in the
Renaissance and early modern period.
The great historian of logic I. M. Bochenski regarded the Middle
Ages as one of the three great periods in the history of logic. From
the time of
Abelard until the middle of the fourteenth century,
scholastic writers refined and developed
Aristotelian logic to a
remarkable degree. In the earlier period, writers such as Peter
Abelard wrote commentaries on the works of the
Old logic (Aristotle's
Categories, On interpretation, and the
Isagoge of Porphyry). Later,
new departments of logical enquiry arose, and new logical and semantic
notions were developed. For logical developments in the Middle Ages,
see the articles on Insolubilia,
Medieval theories of modality,
Obligations, Properties of terms,
Medieval theories of singular terms,
Syllogism, and Sophismata. Other great contributors to medieval logic
include Albert of Saxony, John Buridan, John Wyclif, Paul of Venice,
Peter of Spain, Richard Kilvington, Walter Burley, William Heytesbury,
and William of Ockham.
Philosophy of mind
Medieval philosophy of mind is based on Aristotle's De Anima, another
work discovered in the
Latin West in the twelfth century. It was
regarded as a branch of the philosophy of nature. Some of the topics
discussed in this area include:
Divine illumination – The doctrine of Divine illumination was an
alternative to naturalism. It holds that humans need a special
God in their ordinary thinking. The doctrine is most
closely associated with
Augustine and his scholastic followers. It
reappeared in a different form in the early modern era.
theories of demonstration
mental representation – The idea that mental states have
'intentionality'; i.e., despite being a state of the mind, they are
able to represent things outside the mind is intrinsic to the modern
philosophy of mind. It has its origins in medieval philosophy. (The
word 'intentionality' was revived by Franz Brentano, who was intending
to reflect medieval usage). Ockham is well known for his theory
that language signifies mental states primarily by convention, real
things secondarily, whereas the corresponding mental states signify
real things of themselves and necessarily.
Writers in this area include Saint Augustine, Duns Scotus, Nicholas of
Autrecourt, Thomas Aquinas, and William of Ockham.
For details on some of the wider developments in medieval, see the
Medieval theories of conscience, practical reason,
Medieval theories of natural law.
Writers in this area include Anselm, Augustine, Peter Abelard, Scotus,
Peter of Spain, Aquinas, and Ockham. Writers on political theory
include Dante, John Wyclif, and William of Ockham.
Early Muslim philosophy
Renaissance of the 12th century
^ Pasnau, Robert (2010). "Introduction". The Cambridge
Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
p. 1. ISBN 978-0-521-76216-8.
^ Davies, Brian (2004). Aquinas. Continuum International Publishing
Group. p. 14.
^ a b c d e f g Gracia, Jorge J. E.; Noone, Timothy B. (2003). A
Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Blackwell.
^ Kretzmann, Norman (2002). Stump, Eleonore, ed. The Cambridge
Companion to Augustine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
^ a b c Hyman, J.; Walsh, J.J. (1967).
Philosophy in the Middle Ages:
The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions. New York: Harper &
Row. OCLC 370638.
^ Catarina Dutilh Novaes & Stephen Read, The Cambridge Companion
Medieval Logic, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2016,
^ Schulman, Jana K., ed. (2002). The Rise of the
500–1300: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
^ Jonathan Lyons (2007). The House of Wisdom. Bloomsbury.
^ Marshall Clagett, "
Latin Translations from the
the Elements of Euclid, with
Special Emphasis on the Versions of
Adelard of Bath," Isis 44: 16–42 (1982).
^ David C. Lindberg (ed.), Science in the Middle Ages, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1978, p. 70-72.
^ Fryde, Edmund (2000). The Early Palaeologan Renaissance
(1261-c.1360). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004117143.
^ I. M. Bochenski, A
History of Formal Logic, Notre dame University
Press, 1961, pp. 10–18
^ Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, transl. by A.C. Rancurello,
D.B. Terrell, and L. McAlister, London: Routledge, 1973. (2nd ed.,
intr. by Peter Simons, 1995), p. 88.
^ That is, our idea of a rabbit necessarily represents a rabbit. A
mental state 'is a true similitude of the external thing, on account
of which it represents (repraesentat) the external thing itself, and
stands for it from its nature, just as an utterance denotes things by
Guerizoli, Rodrigo; Hamelin, Guy, eds. (3 June 2015). "Preface:
Medieval Logic". Logica Universalis. 9 (2): 129–131.
doi:10.1007/s11787-015-0124-x. ISSN 1661-8300.
Thomson, Garrett; Kolak, Daniel (2006). The Longman Standard History
of Philosophy. New York: Pearson, Longman.
Lagerlund, Henrik, ed. (2011). Encyclopedia of
Philosophy Between 500 and 1500. Dordrecht: Springer.
Marenbon, John (2007).
Medieval Philosophy: An Historical and
Philosophical Introduction. London: Routledge.
Maurer, Armand A. (1982).
Philosophy (2nd ed.). Toronto:
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.
Pasnau, Robert; Van Dyke, Christina, eds. (2010). The Cambridge
Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 9780521762168.
Pasnau, Robert (2011). Metaphysical Themes, 1274-1689. Oxford,
England: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780191501791.
Schoedinger, Andrew B., ed. (1996). Readings in
New York: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 9780195092929.
Philosophy Study Guide offers many suggestions on what to
read, depending on the student's familiarity with the subject:
Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "
Medieval philosophy". Stanford Encyclopedia
Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Literary forms of
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Medieval philosophy". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Medieval philosophy at PhilPapers
Medieval philosophy at the Indiana
Philosophy Electronic Resources
Philosophy at The Catholic Encyclopedia
Some medieval Jewish philosophers
Philosophy and the Church by James Hannam
The Fathers, the Scholastics, and Ourselves by von Balthasar
(in German) ALCUIN – Regensburger Infothek der Scholastik – Huge
database with information on biography, text chronology, editions.
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)
Abu Rayhan Biruni
"Brethren of Purity"
Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)
Ibn Bajjah (Avempace)
Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani
Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi
Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi
Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi
Isaac Israeli ben Solomon
Solomon ibn Gabirol
Abraham ibn Daud
Augustine of Hippo
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Isidore of Seville
Johannes Scotus Eriugena
Anselm of Canterbury
Anselm of Laon
Hugh of Saint Victor
Richard of Saint Victor
Alexander of Hales
Bernard of Chartres
Gilbert de la Porrée
Alain de Lille
Siger of Brabant
Boetius of Dacia
Henry of Ghent
Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt
Giles of Rome
Godfrey of Fontaines
William of Ockham
Albert of Saxony
Paul of Venice
Lambertus de Monte
European Middle Ages
Philosophy of psychiatry
Philosophy of perception
Space and time
Schools of thought
Acintya bheda abheda
Foundationalism / Coherentism
Internalism and Externalism
Ordinary language philosophy
Rationalism / Reasonism
Philosophy by region
Women in philosophy