A report on Scholasticism, Boethius, Middle Ages and Aristotle

14th-century image of a university lecture

Boethius teaching his students
(initial in a 1385 Italian manuscript of the Consolation of Philosophy)

The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The figure of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.

Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos, c. 330 BC, with modern alabaster mantle

Boethius imprisoned, from a 1385 manuscript of the Consolation.

A late Roman sculpture depicting the Tetrarchs, now in Venice, Italy

School of Aristotle in Mieza, Macedonia, Greece

Gravestone of Boethius, 6th century, Pavia, Musei Civici.

Barbarian kingdoms and tribes after the end of the Western Roman Empire

Roman copy of 1st or 2nd century from original bronze by Lysippos. Louvre Museum

Narius Manilas Boethius, the father of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.

A coin of the Ostrogothic leader Theoderic the Great, struck in Milan, Italy, c. AD 491–501

Plato (left) and Aristotle in Raphael's 1509 fresco, The School of Athens. Aristotle holds his Nicomachean Ethics and gestures to the earth, representing his view in immanent realism, whilst Plato gestures to the heavens, indicating his Theory of Forms, and holds his Timaeus.

Lady Philosophy and Boethius from the Consolation, (Ghent, 1485)

A mosaic showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna (Italy), bodyguards, and courtiers.

Plato's forms exist as universals, like the ideal form of an apple. For Aristotle, both matter and form belong to the individual thing (hylomorphism).

Boethius, Arithmetica Geometrica Musica (1492 first printed edition, from Hans Adler Collection)

Reconstruction of an early medieval peasant village in Bavaria

Aristotle argued that a capability like playing the flute could be acquired – the potential made actual – by learning.

The Tomb of Boethius in San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia.

An 11th-century illustration of Gregory the Great dictating to a secretary

The four classical elements (fire, air, water, earth) of Empedocles and Aristotle illustrated with a burning log. The log releases all four elements as it is destroyed.

Map showing growth of Frankish power from 481 to 814

Aristotle argued by analogy with woodwork that a thing takes its form from four causes: in the case of a table, the wood used (material cause), its design (formal cause), the tools and techniques used (efficient cause), and its decorative or practical purpose (final cause).

Charlemagne's palace chapel at Aachen, completed in 805

Aristotle noted that the ground level of the Aeolian islands changed before a volcanic eruption.

10th-century Ottonian ivory plaque depicting Christ receiving a church from Otto I

Among many pioneering zoological observations, Aristotle described the reproductive hectocotyl arm of the octopus (bottom left).

A page from the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript created in the British Isles in the late 8th or early 9th century

Aristotle inferred growth laws from his observations on animals, including that brood size decreases with body mass, whereas gestation period increases. He was correct in these predictions, at least for mammals: data are shown for mouse and elephant.

Medieval French manuscript illustration of the three classes of medieval society: those who prayed (the clergy) those who fought (the knights), and those who worked (the peasantry). The relationship between these classes was governed by feudalism and manorialism. (Li Livres dou Sante, 13th century)

Aristotle recorded that the embryo of a dogfish was attached by a cord to a kind of placenta (the yolk sac), like a higher animal; this formed an exception to the linear scale from highest to lowest.

13th-century illustration of a Jew (in pointed Jewish hat) and the Christian Petrus Alphonsi debating

Aristotle proposed a three-part structure for souls of plants, animals, and humans, making humans unique in having all three types of soul.

Europe and the Mediterranean Sea in 1190

Senses, perception, memory, dreams, action in Aristotle's psychology. Impressions are stored in the sensorium (the heart), linked by his laws of association (similarity, contrast, and contiguity).

The Bayeux Tapestry (detail) showing William the Conqueror (centre), his half-brothers Robert, Count of Mortain (right) and Odo, Bishop of Bayeux in the Duchy of Normandy (left)

Aristotle's classifications of political constitutions

Krak des Chevaliers was built during the Crusades for the Knights Hospitallers.

The Blind Oedipus Commending his Children to the Gods (1784) by Bénigne Gagneraux. In his Poetics, Aristotle uses the tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles as an example of how the perfect tragedy should be structured, with a generally good protagonist who starts the play prosperous, but loses everything through some hamartia (fault).

A medieval scholar making precise measurements in a 14th-century manuscript illustration

Frontispiece to a 1644 version of Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum, originally written around 300 BC

Portrait of Cardinal Hugh of Saint-Cher by Tommaso da Modena, 1352, the first known depiction of spectacles

The Romanesque Church of Maria Laach, Germany

Woodcut of Aristotle ridden by Phyllis by Hans Baldung, 1515

The Gothic interior of Laon Cathedral, France

William Harvey's De Motu Cordis, 1628, showed that the blood circulated, contrary to classical era thinking.

Francis of Assisi, depicted by Bonaventura Berlinghieri in 1235, founded the Franciscan Order.

"That most enduring of romantic images, Aristotle tutoring the future conqueror Alexander". Illustration by, 1866

First page of a 1566 edition of the Nicomachean Ethics in Greek and Latin

Execution of some of the ringleaders of the jacquerie, from a 14th-century manuscript of the Chroniques de France ou de St Denis

Nuremberg Chronicle anachronistically shows Aristotle in a medieval scholar's clothing. Ink and watercolour on paper, 1493

Aristotle by Justus van Gent. Oil on panel, c. 1476

Phyllis and Aristotle by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Oil on panel, 1530

Guy of Boulogne crowning Pope Gregory XI in a 15th-century miniature from Froissart's Chroniques

Aristotle by Paolo Veronese, Biblioteka Marciana. Oil on canvas, 1560s

Clerics studying astronomy and geometry, French, early 15th century

Aristotle and Campaspe,{{efn-ua | Compare the medieval tale of Phyllis and Alexander above.}} Alessandro Turchi (attrib.) Oil on canvas, 1713

Agricultural calendar, c. 1470, from a manuscript of Pietro de Crescenzi

Aristotle by Jusepe de Ribera. Oil on canvas, 1637

February scene from the 15th-century illuminated manuscript Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Aristotle with a Bust of Homer by Rembrandt. Oil on canvas, 1653

Medieval illustration of the spherical Earth in a 14th-century copy of L'Image du monde

Aristotle by Johann Jakob Dorner the Elder. Oil on canvas, by 1813

The early Muslim conquests
Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632
Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661
Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750

Aristotle by Francesco Hayez. Oil on canvas, 1811

Roman copy of 117-138 AD of Greek original. Palermo Regional Archeology Museum

Relief of Aristotle and Plato by Luca della Robbia, Florence Cathedral, 1437–1439

Stone statue in niche, Gladstone's Library, Hawarden, Wales, 1899

Bronze statue, University of Freiburg, Germany, 1915

Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories.

- Scholasticism

While jailed, Boethius composed his Consolation of Philosophy, a philosophical treatise on fortune, death, and other issues, which became one of the most popular and influential works of the Middle Ages.

- Boethius

As the author of numerous handbooks, and translator of Plato and Aristotle from Greek into Latin, he became the main intermediary between classical antiquity and the following centuries.

- Boethius

Scholasticism was initially a program conducted by medieval Christian thinkers attempting to harmonize the various authorities of their own tradition, and to reconcile Christian theology with classical and late antiquity philosophy, especially that of Aristotle but also of Neoplatonism.

- Scholasticism

The foundations of Christian scholasticism were laid by Boethius through his logical and theological essays, and later forerunners (and then companions) to scholasticism were Islamic Ilm al-Kalām, literally "science of discourse", and Jewish philosophy, especially Jewish Kalam.

- Scholasticism

He also influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800–1400) during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church.

- Aristotle

In the West, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities.

- Middle Ages

c. 585), and Boethius (d.

- Middle Ages

Lorenzo Valla described Boethius as the last of the Romans and the first of the scholastic philosophers.

- Boethius

With the loss of the study of ancient Greek in the early medieval Latin West, Aristotle was practically unknown there from c. AD 600 to c. 1100 except through the Latin translation of the Organon made by Boethius.

- Aristotle

Philosophical discourse was stimulated by the rediscovery of Aristotle and his emphasis on empiricism and rationalism.

- Middle Ages

1 related topic with Alpha

An altarpiece in Ascoli Piceno, Italy,
by Carlo Crivelli (15th century)

Thomas Aquinas

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The Castle of Monte San Giovanni Campano

Thomas is girded by angels with a mystical belt of purity after his proof of chastity. Painting by Diego Velázquez.

Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas, "Doctor Communis", between Plato and Aristotle, Benozzo Gozzoli, 1471. Louvre, Paris.

Icon of the crucifixion speaking to Thomas Aquinas is depicted on this stained glass window in Saint Patrick Church (Columbus, Ohio).

Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas, "Doctor Angelicus", with saints and angels, Andrea di Bonaiuto, 1366. Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, fresco.

The remains of Thomas Aquinas are buried in the Church of the Jacobins in Toulouse.

Detail of The Apotheosis of Saint Thomas Aquinas by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1631

Saint Thomas Aquinas by Luis Muñoz Lafuente

Super libros de generatione et corruptione

Thomas Aquinas by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1650

17th-century sculpture of Thomas Aquinas

Portrait of St. Thomas by Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra, c. 1649

A stained glass window of Thomas Aquinas in St. Joseph's Catholic Church (Central City, Kentucky)

Thomas Aquinas, OP (Tommaso d'Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest, who was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known within the scholastic tradition as the Doctor Angelicus, the Doctor Communis, and the Doctor Universalis.

He has been described as "the most influential thinker of the medieval period" and "the greatest of the medieval philosopher-theologians."

Unlike many currents in the Catholic Church of the time, Thomas embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle — whom he called "the Philosopher" — and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity.

During his tenure from 1256 to 1259, Thomas wrote numerous works, including: Questiones disputatae de veritate (Disputed Questions on Truth), a collection of twenty-nine disputed questions on aspects of faith and the human condition prepared for the public university debates he presided over on Lent and Advent; Quaestiones quodlibetales (Quodlibetal Questions), a collection of his responses to questions posed to him by the academic audience; and both Expositio super librum Boethii De trinitate (Commentary on Boethius's De trinitate) and Expositio super librum Boethii De hebdomadibus (Commentary on Boethius's De hebdomadibus), commentaries on the works of 6th-century Roman philosopher Boethius.