Medieval Philosophy
In this module, we will look at philosophy from around the 4th to the 14th centuries. We will be especially concerned with how philosophers understood the basic metaphysical constituents of the material world, particularly of matter itself. Is matter necessarily extended? Is it composed of atoms? Is the doctrine of Aristotelian matter-form composition compatible with the doctrine of creation, as it was understood by medieval Jewish, Islamic, and Christian thinkers? While most of the course will be concerned primarily with metaphysical issues, we will have occasions to digress into related fields in the history of science and even in ethics.
Earlier Semesters
2024 Autumn syllabus; course site (with slides, etc.)
2022 Autumn syllabus; course site (with slides, etc.)
2020 Spring syllabus
2019 Spring syllabus
2018 Spring syllabus
Assignments, 2026 Spring
Argument reconstruction exercise
Summative paper
Class Schedule, 2026 Spring
Week 1, 16/01: Introduction; the historiography of medieval philosophy; Aristotle, hylomorphism, and the problem of change
- C.S.\ Lewis, “On the reading of old books”
- Aristotle, Physics (sel.).
- (optional:) Gill, Substance in Aristotle, ch.\ 3.
Week 2, 23/01: Augustine and the problem of
- Augustine, On Genesis (sel.); Mechthild of Magdeburg, The Flowing Light (sel.)
- (optional:) Brady, “St Augustine’s Theory of Seminal Reasons”
- (optional:) Toth, “Creation”.
Week 3, 30/01: Gregory of Nyssa’s idealism
- Gregory of Nyssa, Hexaemeron (sel.)
- (optional:) Marmodoro, “Gregory of Nyssa on Creation”
- (optional:) Greig, “The Bundle Theory”
Week 4, 6/02: Avicebron on creation from nothing
- Avicebron, Fons vitae V (sel.)
- (optional:) Laumakis, “Avicebron on Creation ex nihilo”
Week 5, 13/02: Al-Ghazali on the eternity of the world
- Al-Ghazali, Incoherence of the Philosophers (sel.)
- (optional:) Moad, “Al-Ghazali’s Position”
20/02: Reading week (no class)
Week 6, 27/02: Prime matter, potency, and actuality
- Scotus, Metaphysics commentary VII.5
- (optional:) Pasnau, Metaphysical Themes, ch.\ 3
Week 7, 6/03: The problem of seminal reasons
- Henry of Ghent and Roger Marston on seminal reasons
- (optional:) Etzkorn, “The Grades of the Form according to Roger Marston”
Week 8, 13/03: The problem of elemental mixture
- Aquinas, On the mixture of the elements
- (optional:) Wood & Weisberg, “Interpreting Aristotle on Mixture”
Week 9, 20/03: The problem of atomism
- Autrecourt, Universal Treatise (sel.)
- (optional:) Grellard, “Nicholas of Autrecourt’s Atomistic Physics’
Week 10, 27/03: Some borderline cases: celestial matter
- Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I.66.2; Auriol on the matter of the stars and planets
- (optional:) Grant, Planets, Stars, and Orbs, ch.\ 12.