NUTRIX STUDIES IN LATE ANTIQUE MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE THOUGHT STUDI SUL PENSIERO TARDOANTICO MEDIEVALE E UMANISTICO Directed by Giulio d Onofrio 1 Ubi in eam deduxi oculos intuitumque defixi respicio nutricem meam cuius ab adulescentia laribus obversatus fueram Philosophiam BOETHIUS Consolatio Philosophiae,I,3
2008 Brepols Publishers n.v.,turnhout, Belgium The publication of this volume has been assisted by a grant from MIUR (Italy) within the «Progetto di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale» (PRIN/COFIN) 2003 Paradigms of Scientific-Philosophical Knowledge and Religious Thought in the Middle Ages, Research Unit of the Università degli Studi di Salerno. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. The logo of the Nutrix series is taken from Ms. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 302 (Ramsey Psalter), f. 2 v. Photographic credit: The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. D/2008/0095/60 ISBN 978-2-503-52546-4 Printed in the E.U. on acid-free paper
Giulio d Onofrio Vera Philosophia Studies in Late Antique, Early Medieval, and Renaissance Christian Thought English Text by John Gavin, S.J.
Christ Child among the Doctors in the Temple (Lc 2, 41-52) Ms. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 302 (Ramsey Psalter), f. 2 v. Photographic credit: The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 CONVERTED THOUGHT 11 1. The hidden truth 11 2. Probabilism and dialectic 20 3. The dissensiones philosophorum and the crisis of classical knowledge 31 4. The parricide of Cicero 36 5. The philosophical via of the Neoplatonists 42 6. Augustine and the Academics 44 7. Christian probabilism 55 8. The conversion of philosophy 59 9. Christian Neoplatonism 63 10. Verissima philosophia 69 CHAPTER 2 THE GARMENT OF PHILOSOPHY 77 1. The last of the ancient philosophers, the first of the new 77 2. Scientia, sapientia, philosophia 83 3. The dialogue with reason and the task of logic 90 4. Philosophy and reality 96 5. The error of the old philosophers 104 6. Neoplatonic gnoseology and the overturning of the relationships between subject and object 116 7. The simple unity of true knowledge 124 8. Beginning and end of sapientia: theological knowledge 131 CHAPTER 3 THE THEOLOGICAL MISSION OF THE SAGE 143 1. The founders of Paris 143 2. The defense of Christian truth in the Carolingian schola Christi 150 7
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3. The rules of theological method in the Carolingian age: lectio, traditio, ratio 154 4. Theology and dialectic 162 5. The noetical sources of truth 168 6. The nature of the division 176 7. Intellectus and essentia 186 8. From division to universal reunification: the reditus to the truth 194 9. Beyond the vera philosophia 197 CHAPTER 4 THE DIVINE LOGIC 209 1. Words and argumentations 209 2. The preoccupations of the teacher 217 3. Per fidem ad intellectum: the system of the truth 227 4. Ratio fidei: the affirmative way of the Monologion 231 5. Cogitari nequit: the negative way of the Proslogion 237 6. Who is the insipiens? 248 7. The topical nature of the argumentum 252 8. The new argumentative rationality 260 CHAPTER 5 THE RENAISSANCE OF VERA PHILOSOPHIA 265 1. The fleeing prey of knowledge 265 2. The conjectures of the soul 270 3. The polypartite soul in late ancient, medieval, and Renaissance Platonism 279 4. The new overturning of the relationship between subject and object of knowledge 301 5. The filiations of the truth 308 6. The humanistic reform of theology 318 7. The peace of the faith 330 8. The return of philosophical probabilism and the truths of tolerance 336 POSTFATIO 357 BIBLIOGRAPHY 361 INDEX OF NAMES 387 BIBLICAL INDEX 405 8
Obsecro te, non sit honestior philosophia gentium quam nostra christiana quae una est vera philosophia, quandoquidem studium vel amore sapientiae significatur hoc nomine AUGUSTINUS Contra Julianum, IV, 14, 72 Conficitur inde veram esse philosophiam veram religionem conversimque veram religionem esse veram philosophiam IOHANNES SCOTUS ERIUGENA De praedestinatione,1,1