The Middle Ages 500-1300 C.E.

§         The beginning of school systems at convents and the first universities.

·        The Problem of Universals (an issue that questions the relationship of names and things and the classification of phenomena): The Realist thinkers vs. the Nominalist thinkers.

o       The Realists maintained that the names for things were adequate in defining the things they were for. St. Lanfranc (1000’s) who was the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1089 was a realist. He was the teacher of logic at Beck and believed that one should “leave the world” and become a hermit (see Berengar of Tours). His student St Anselm (1033-1109) followed in his footprints; he was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Abbot of Beck and the teacher of logic. He said that the proof of God lay in his name; once you had understanding of the name of God then you have proven God.

o       The Nominalists maintained that names had nothing to do with reality, some name might contain information about the things they were for, but the information was coincidental and not to be relied on. Berengar of Tours (1000-1088) had an argument with Lanfranc about the body (bread) of Christ and the blood (wine) of Christ where he accused Lanfranc of wishing to understand the eternal truths with reason and angering God.

o       Peter Abelard (1079-1143) believed that there where three key questions were used to answer the problem of universals: a) Do names or things exist incrementally or in reality? b) If they exist in reality are they material or immaterial? c) If they exist in reality and weather they are material or immaterial are they separate from things or involved in them? Not being satisfied with the conclusions from those questions Abelard made three “new” questions: a) What is there in things that enables us to give them common names? b) If there are no such things as universals, what do common names designate? c) If particular things should cease to exist, would “their” names still designate the same content or notion to us? His conclusion was that logically defined names are adequate to logic; they aren’t absolutely different from things, they are just differently conceived parts of things.

St. Augustine (354 – 430)

·        Augustine studied many religions before becoming Christian, he wasn’t to sure about Christianity, even though he started studying the Scripture and when he was 35 he discovered Neoplatonism and was very taken with it’s logic. In 386 Christianity suddenly started to make sense to Augustine, so he wrote to the bishop asking the latter to baptism him, and was in 387. While he was in Hippo, Africa the bishop there made him joint-bishop in 395 – even though Augustine didn’t think it was right – and Augustine carried on the bishop’s work after he died.

·        Augustine thought that reason and philosophy could only get you so far; they will not make your soul content or happy. One needs Christianity to content the soul.

·        Augustine believed that evil is the absence of God, (See Platinus) and that good is the presence of God. " Not only the greatest but also the smallest good things can not be, except from him from whom are all good things, that is, from God." He also believed, agreeing with the Bible, that there is a great divide between God and man. Man has no place to question God for he has created and predestined life.

·        The more famous of Augustine’s writings are The City of God and Confessions

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)

·        Aquinas thought that Aristotle’s teachings were on the right track and he took Aristotle at his word and turned it Christian, believing that both reason and faith are necessary for life. God is the “formal cause” in all things, and in nature we can see God in his glory; and we hear God in the Bible. In Aristotle’s scale of higher forms of being (plants then animals then humans) Aquinas added two more steps; above humans are angels, and above them is God.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179)

·        Hildegard was a nun, but also a preacher, author, physician, botanist, and naturalist