-Catholic philosophy dominated European thought from Augustine to Renaissance
-the Church brought philosophic beliefs into a closer relation to social and political circumstances
-first period was dominated by Saint Augustine and Plato; second period culminates in Saint Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle
-end of Middle Ages/13th C: growth of a rich commercial class + growth of strong national monarchies in France, England and Spain
-751, the Lombards captured Ravenna, capital of Byzantine Italy. Holy Roman emperors were often destitute of real power; they only became emperors when the Pope crowned them. The emancipation of the Pope from Byzantine domination was essential both to the independence of the church and the ultimate establishment of a papal monarchy in the government of the Western Church.
- Dark Ages (600-1000) in Western Europe vs. what was happening around the world (Tang Dynasty in China, the flourishing of Islam in India to Spain)
Saint Augustine (end of 4th C)
1. Theory of time: Plato's God is an artificer / architect, rather than a Creator. The idea of creation out of nothing, as taught in the Old Testament, was foreign to Greek Philosophy. Pantheism holds that God and the world are not distinct. Augustine maintains that the world was created from nothing, of which God created substance. Time was created when the world was created. God is an eternal present; there is no before or after. Time is only an aspect of our thoughts - extreme form of subjectivism.
2. Philosophy of History: The City of God is the society of the elect. There are things that can be discovered by reason, but for all other knowledge, we must rely on Scriptures. The shamefulness in the independence of will. The implication that the State could only be part of the City of God by being submissive to the Church in all religious matters
3. Theory of Salvation: Focuses on combating Pelagic heresy. Pelagic believed in free will, questioned the doctrine of the original sin, and thought that man acted out of their own moral effort. For Augustine, it is taught that certain people are chosen to go heaven by God's grace. They do not go because they are good, but because they are saved by God.
John the Scot (9th C)
- contended that reason and revelation are both sources of truth, and therefore cannot conflict; but if they seem to conflict, reason is to be preferred
- On the Division of Nature: universals are anterior to particulars . Everything that emanates from God strives to return to Him. God does not know Himself, because He is not a what; he is incomprehensible to himself and to every intellect. The class of things that create and are created embraces the whole of the prime causes, or prototypes. The total of these prime causes is Logos. They give rise to the world of particular things, the materiality of which is illusory. Sin has its source in freedom; it arose because man turned towards himself instead of God.
- his Pantheism and view of creation as timeless is contrary to Christian doctrine (is it also because if creation is timeless, it undermines the idea of afterlife, and therefore Judgment day and being saved by the ultimate grace of God?)
Mohammedan Culture and Philosophy (7th - 8th)
- Hegira (The Islamic Prophet Muhammed's flight from Mecca to Medina, also recognised as the start of the Islamic Calendar 622) marks the start of Arab conquests
- Arab Empire: -an absolute monarchy, under the caliph, who was the successor of the Prophet; the caliphate soon became hereditary
- Arabs' main motive was wealth; the Persians were deeply religious / since the death of Muhammed's son-in-law Ali in 661, Mohammedans have been divided into 2 sects: Sunni and Shiah (Persians)
- the Arabs first acquired their knowledge of Greek philosophy through Syrians; contact with India gave them insight into astronomy; one of the best features of Arab economy was agriculture and irrigation
- Averroes: holds that the existence of God can be proven by reason independently of revelation; adheres closely to Aristotle's view that the soul is not immortal but intellect (nous) is. He regarded religion as containing philosophic truth in allegorical form, in particular, creation.
12th - 15th Century
- 12th C: the increase of papal and ecclesiastical power
--- the conflict of empire and papacy, the rise of Lombard cities, the Crusades, the growth of scholasticism
- 13th C: fall of Rome
- 14th C: the dissolution of institutions
- 15th C: the beginning of modern philosophy
Saint Thomas Aquinas
- regarded as the greatest scholastic philosopher
- most important work 'Summa contra Gentiles' was concerned with establishing the truth of the Christian religion to a non-Christian
- Wisdom per se is concerned with the end of the universe. The end of the universe is Truth. This pursuit is the most perfect, sublime and delightful of all pursuits.
- The existence of God is proved by the argument of the unmoved mover (Aristotle) - which is further expound by Aquinas : 'God is pure activity. In God, there is no composition, therefore He is not a body...God is His own essence...In God, essence and existence are identical..In God there is Will. In willing Himself, God wills other things also, for God is the end of all things.'
- The ethical question of Evil - 'Evil is unintentional, not an essence, and has an accidental cause which is good'
The Eclipse of the Papacy
- the Western Church developed from a republic into a monarchy
- contact with Constantinople and Mohammedans
- the rise of a rich commercial class and the increase of knowledge in North Italian cities, that had a spirit of independence, and soon turned against the Pope
