Medieval philosophy - Definition and Overview

Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe in the era now known as medieval or the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. Though medieval philosophy is widely varied, one defining feature which distinguishes this period, in the western world, is the degree to which competing or contradictory philosophical views and systems were brought into dialogue with each other.

From the Neoplatonic (John Scotus Eriugena, Saint Anselm) figures who dominated the early middle ages, to the Peripatetic debates of the 12th and 13th century, to the Nominalist and Voluntarist conflicts of the 14th and 15th, it is hard to find a similar period in the history of recorded thought so populated with figures who believed their ideas could be reconciled, given enough debate and inquiry. In fact, this belief is the very essence of the philosophical mode of inquiry most closely associated with the medieval period, scholastic philosophy.

List of Philosophers

• John Scotus Eriugena (810-877)
• Anselm (1034-1109)
• Pierre Abelard (1079-1142)
• Maimonides (1135-1204)
• Albertus Magnus (1193-1280)
• Alexander of Hales (C. 1200-1245)
• Henry of Ghent (1217-1293)
• Roger Bacon (1220-1292)
• St. Bonaventure (1221-1274)
• St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274)
• Duns Scotus (1266-1308)
• William of Ockham (1285-1347)
• Godfrey of Fontaines
• Giles of Rome

See: Christian philosophy, Early Muslim philosophy, Jewish philosophy, Scholastic philosophy

External links

• [1] (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12025c.htm)
• History of Western philosophy: Medieval philosophy (http://home.earthlink.net/~pdistan/howp_4.html)
• Some medieval Jewish philosophers (http://radicalacademy.com/adiphiljewish1.htm)

Further reading

• Armand Maurer, Medieval Philosophy, Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies Press. Frederick Copelston, S.J. Medieval Philosophy.
• "Readings in Medieval Philosophy" Edited by Andrew B. Schoedinger, Oxford University Press. "The most comprehensive collection of its kind, this unique anthology presents fifty-four readings--many of them not widely available--by the most important and influential Christian, Jewish, and Muslim philosophers of the Middle Ages."