History of Philosophy

Philosophy of The Middle Ages

Philosophy of the 9th–11th Centuries

From Augustine until the 9th century, Western European philosophers primarily focused on preserving the ancient heritage, expanding libraries, and developing educational systems, rather than creating original philosophical systems. It was not until the 9th century that the academic environment matured enough to enable a creative rethinking of fundamental philosophical categories. The first of the scholastic thinkers to propose an original philosophical system was John Scotus Eriugena (810—877), who in 843 moved to Paris, where he translated the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor while actively participating in contemporary philosophical debates.

• Gottschalk of Orbais held the belief that God predestined some for salvation and others for damnation, a doctrine known as double predestination, which was condemned by the Church for its inconsistency with Scripture. In response, Eriugena wrote his treatise De praedestinatione, arguing that God destined all for salvation, with sin and the rejection of salvation being consequences of human free will.
• Eriugena maintained that faith is the prerequisite for any knowledge; one cannot know something without first believing in it. The content of faith is revealed through divine revelation as expressed in Scripture, but since God created the world rationally, the content of Scripture is also rational. Therefore, in the pursuit of knowledge, one must employ reason and reject blind authority.
• In his treatise De divisione naturae (On the Division of Nature), Eriugena divided all being into four interconnected natures:

1. Natura quae non creatur et creat — nature that is uncreated yet creative, which is God. Since only essence can be defined, and God transcends all essence, He cannot be defined and thus appears as nothingness, or as being without essence.
2. Natura quae creatur et creat — created yet creative nature, representing God expressed in rational forms, containing the world's ideas, akin to Plato's forms.
3. Natura quae creatur et non creat — created but non-creative nature, corresponding to the material world, the next stage of emanation.
4. Natura quae non creatur et non creat — nature that is neither created nor creative, representing the divinized world.

In humans, as microcosms, all these natures of the world are reflected. Humanity possesses intellect to grasp the mystery of God’s transcendence, reason to understand the intelligible forms of the second nature, and senses to perceive the material world, with the ultimate goal of deification. Humanity, being the highest expression of God, gives the world meaning, for it exists to provide a place for human development.

In the 11th century, the main theme of philosophical discourse centered on the problem of universals, a debate over whether universals (general concepts) exist in reality or are merely names for classes of things. This debate gave rise to three positions:

• Nominalism, whose followers claimed that universals are merely names for classes of things, with its primary advocate being the French priest Jean Roscelin de Compiègne (1050—1120).
• Realism, which posited that universals do exist in reality, a view defended by William of Champeaux (ca. 1068—1121).
• Conceptualism, a middle position between nominalism and realism, holding that universals exist, but only as concepts dependent on things.

The most prominent philosopher of the 11th century was Anselm of Canterbury (1033—1109), an Italian who became the head of the Catholic Church in England. Anselm introduced several important concepts:

• The relationship between faith and reason. Anselm argued that faith is the precondition for knowledge. One cannot grasp anything new without first believing in it, yet this does not absolve one from the responsibility of critical thinking and intellectual inquiry.
• A posteriori proofs for the existence of God. Anselm believed that humans could know God's existence through reason and proposed three arguments based on experience:

1. In the world, many things are good, but they vary in degrees of goodness, suggesting that they are not inherently good but participate in the Highest Good, which is absolute and is God.
2. Everything that exists must have a cause; since an infinite series of causes is impossible, there must be a first and highest cause—God.
3. All things exhibit varying degrees of goodness and perfection, implying the existence of a being that is the highest and most perfect of all—God.

However, Anselm remained dissatisfied with these a posteriori arguments, considering them imperfect and unconvincing. He deemed only an argument grounded in logic, rather than experience, as truly convincing, leading to his formulation of the ontological argument for the existence of God. This argument posits that every person has a concept of God as the most perfect being, one greater than which cannot be conceived. Since this concept is not derived from experience, it must have been implanted by God, indicating that God exists.

From the ontological argument, Anselm deduced several attributes of God:

• Goodness: Since God is the source of all being, everything is good in proportion to its proximity to God.
• Indivisibility: God is neither physically nor logically divisible and is composed of nothing.
• Eternity: God has neither beginning nor end.
• Immutability: As the most perfect being, God cannot change, for there is no better state to which He could change.

Anselm also reflected on the nature of freedom. Freedom, he argued, is not the ability to choose between good and evil, for if it were, then God, who cannot choose evil, would not be free. Instead, freedom is the capacity to pursue the good. Even when one rejects the pursuit of good, they do not lose their freedom; Anselm compared freedom to sight—one retains the ability to see even when the eyes are closed and can open them again to perceive the world.

Regarding redemption, Anselm sought to explain how Christ redeemed humanity from sin. The violation of divine order required rectification: either through punishment or redemption. Since punishment would result in the destruction of humanity, redemption became the only option. However, humans could not redeem themselves because they owed God complete obedience, and no good deed they performed could exceed this obligation. Only one without sin, greater than humanity, could redeem mankind—God Himself.