A report on Scholasticism and Metaphysics (Aristotle)

14th-century image of a university lecture
Book 7 of the Metaphysics: Ens dicitur multipliciter- the word 'being' is meant in many ways. From a manuscript of William of Moerbeke's translation

Endeavoring to harmonize his metaphysics and its account of a prime mover with the Latin Catholic dogmatic trinitarian theology, these monastic schools became the basis of the earliest European medieval universities, and scholasticism dominated education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700.

- Scholasticism

Its influence on the Greeks, the Muslim philosophers, the scholastic philosophers and even writers such as Dante was immense.

- Metaphysics (Aristotle)
14th-century image of a university lecture

5 related topics with Alpha

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

Aristotle

3 links

Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.

Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.

Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronze bust of Aristotle by Lysippos, c. 330 BC, with modern alabaster mantle
School of Aristotle in Mieza, Macedonia, Greece
Roman copy of 1st or 2nd century from original bronze by Lysippos. Louvre Museum
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.
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).
Aristotle argued that a capability like playing the flute could be acquired – the potential made actual – by learning.
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.
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).
Aristotle noted that the ground level of the Aeolian islands changed before a volcanic eruption.
Among many pioneering zoological observations, Aristotle described the reproductive hectocotyl arm of the octopus (bottom left).
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.
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.
Aristotle proposed a three-part structure for souls of plants, animals, and humans, making humans unique in having all three types of soul.
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).
Aristotle's classifications of political constitutions
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).
Frontispiece to a 1644 version of Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum, originally written around 300 BC
Islamic portrayal of Aristotle, c. 1220
Woodcut of Aristotle ridden by Phyllis by Hans Baldung, 1515
William Harvey's De Motu Cordis, 1628, showed that the blood circulated, contrary to classical era thinking.
"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
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
Aristotle by Paolo Veronese, Biblioteka Marciana. Oil on canvas, 1560s
Aristotle and Campaspe,{{efn-ua | Compare the medieval tale of Phyllis and Alexander above.}} Alessandro Turchi (attrib.) Oil on canvas, 1713
Aristotle by Jusepe de Ribera. Oil on canvas, 1637
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer by Rembrandt. Oil on canvas, 1653
Aristotle by Johann Jakob Dorner the Elder. Oil on canvas, by 1813
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

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.

His most important treatises include Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, On the Soul and Poetics.

Statue of Ibn Rushd in Córdoba, Spain

Averroes

3 links

An

An

Statue of Ibn Rushd in Córdoba, Spain
Averroes in a 14th-century painting by Andrea di Bonaiuto
Averroes served various official positions in the Almohad Caliphate, whose territories are depicted in this map.
Imaginary debate between Averroes and third-century philosopher Porphyry. Monfredo de Monte Imperiali Liber de herbis, 14th century
An Arabic illustration of Aristotle teaching a student, c. 1220. Aristotle's works are the subject of extensive commentaries by Averroes.
Title page from a Latin edition of Colliget, Averroes's main work in medicine
The Long Commentary on Aristotle's On the Soul, French Manuscript, third quarter of the 13th century
6th-century Byzantine depiction of Galen (top centre) among other noted physicians
The Triumph of Saint Thomas Aquinas over Averroes by Benozzo Gozzoli, depicting Aquinas (top center), a major Averroes critic, "triumphing" over Averroes (bottom), depicted at the feet of Aquinas
Averroes, detail of the fresco The School of Athens by Raphael

Only five of Aristotle's works had all three types of commentaries: Physics, Metaphysics, On the Soul, On the Heavens, and Posterior Analytics.

This explanation was used up to the seventeenth century by the European Scholastics to account for Galileo's observations of spots on the moon's surface, until the Scholastics such as Antoine Goudin in 1668 conceded that the observation was more likely caused by mountains on the moon.

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

Thomas Aquinas

2 links

An altarpiece in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, by Carlo Crivelli (15th century)
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.
St. Thomas Aquinas and the Pope
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
Super Physicam Aristotelis, 1595
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.

Thomas Aquinas wrote several important commentaries on Aristotle's works, including On the Soul, On Interpretation, Nicomachean Ethics and Metaphysics.

Roman copy of a portrait bust c. 370 BC

Plato

2 links

Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.

Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece.

Roman copy of a portrait bust c. 370 BC
Diogenes Laertius is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek philosophy.
Through his mother, Plato was related to Solon.
Speusippus was Plato's nephew.
Plato was a wrestler
Plato in his academy, drawing after a painting by Swedish painter Carl Johan Wahlbom
Bust of Pythagoras in Rome.
A detail of Spinoza monument in Amsterdam.
Bust of Socrates at the Louvre.
The "windmill proof" of the Pythagorean theorem found in Euclid's Elements.
What is justice?
A Venn diagram illustrating the classical theory of knowledge.
Oxyrhynchus Papyri, with fragment of Plato's Republic
Bust excavated at the Villa of the Papyri, possibly of Dionysus, Plato or Poseidon.
The Death of Socrates (1787), by Jacques-Louis David
Plato's Allegory of the Cave by Jan Saenredam, according to Cornelis van Haarlem, 1604, Albertina, Vienna
Painting of a scene from Plato's Symposium (Anselm Feuerbach, 1873)
Volume 3, pp. 32–33, of the 1578 Stephanus edition of Plato, showing a passage of Timaeus with the Latin translation and notes of Jean de Serres
First page of the Euthyphro, from the Clarke Plato (Codex Oxoniensis Clarkianus 39), 895 AD. The text is Greek minuscule.
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right) a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth while holding a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his Timaeus and gestures to the heavens.
"The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." (Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, 1929).

In Metaphysics he writes: "Now since the Forms are the causes of everything else, he [i.e. Plato] supposed that their elements are the elements of all things. Accordingly, the material principle is the Great and Small [i.e. the Dyad], and the essence is the One (τὸ ἕν), since the numbers are derived from the Great and Small by participation in the One".

Plato's thought is often compared with that of his most famous student, Aristotle, whose reputation during the Western Middle Ages so completely eclipsed that of Plato that the Scholastic philosophers referred to Aristotle as "the Philosopher".

Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas

Duns Scotus

0 links

John Duns Scotus (c.

John Duns Scotus (c.

Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas
Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas
Plaque commemorating Duns Scotus in the University Church, Oxford
Portrait of Duns Scotus
Colophon from the edition of Scotus's Sentences commentary edited by Thomas Penketh (died 1487) and Bartolomeo Bellati (died 1479), printed by Johannes de Colonia and Johannes Manthen, Venice in 1477. It reads Explicit Scriptum super Primum Sententiarum: editum a fratre Johanne Duns: ordinis fratrum minorum Printed versions of scholastic manuscripts became popular in the late fifteenth century.

His commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics was probably written in stages, the first version having started around 1297, with significant additions and amendments possibly after the completion of the main body of the Ordinatio.

For some today, Scotus is one of the most important Franciscan theologians and the founder of Scotism, a special form of Scholasticism.