History of Philosophy

Philosophy of The Middle Ages

Via Moderna

The philosophy of the 13th century was represented by four main schools: Latin Averroism, the Dominican school, the Franciscan school, and Augustinianism, which maintained a strong position during this period. These schools (with the exception of Averroism) continued into the 14th century, yet the 14th century also saw the rise of new schools. As a result, a tradition emerged: those schools that originated in the 13th century and remained active in the 14th came to be known as Via Antiqua (the old way), while the schools that appeared in the 14th century were referred to as Via Moderna (the new way). Two philosophical currents belong to Via Moderna: medieval criticism and mysticism.
The most prominent figure in medieval criticism was William of Ockham (c. 1285—1347). Ockham's thought was based on three main principles that stood in opposition to traditional philosophy:

• From Antiquity through the High Middle Ages, philosophers believed that the world created by God was the best of all possible worlds. Ockham rejected this view. God could have created any world, but He created the one He did, simply because He willed it. The question of why God created this particular world has no rational explanation—God created it because He chose to. This introduced into philosophical discourse the idea that not everything can, or should, be explained rationally.
• Ockham's predecessors held that God acted within the bounds of logical laws. Ockham, on the other hand, believed that God is bound by nothing—not even the laws of logic can limit His free will. Therefore, the laws of logic were established by God for the world and for humanity. Among these logical principles is the law of non-contradiction. Ockham asserted that God is not subject to this law. God acts as He wills, even if His actions are contradictory.
• The philosophy of the 13th century employed an expansive terminological apparatus. Ockham felt that his predecessors had multiplied unnecessary concepts. He called for the elimination of superfluous terms, advising against wasting effort on empty debates. This principle became known as "Ockham's Razor," as Ockham sought to cut away excess from philosophy, much like a razor removes unnecessary material.
  Ockham developed his own theory of universals. While realists had claimed that universals exist in reality and nominalists had argued that universals exist only in things, Ockham contended that universals exist neither in reality nor in things—they exist solely in words. Language is the medium through which symbols are created, and these symbols are the general concepts. Ockham maintained that knowledge is revealed not in concepts, but in judgments. A person knows something when they comprehend the connections between the subject and predicate of a judgment.
  Ockham believed that not everything can lay claim to the status of scientific knowledge. Unlike Thomas Aquinas, who sought to prove the existence of God, His attributes, and the immortality of the human soul, Ockham argued that theological judgments cannot be logically demonstrated. Only that which follows regular laws can be logically proven. God is absolutely free and is subject to nothing—not even His existence conforms to logical laws. Ock

Ockham did not doubt the existence of God but argued that this is a matter of faith, not science. Similarly, the immortality of the soul is also a matter of faith.

Another branch of the Via Moderna was mysticism, whose most notable representative was Johannes Eckhart von Hochheim, better known as Meister Eckhart (1260—1327/8). Eckhart's reflections primarily dealt with distinguishing between the concepts of "God" and "Divinity." He posited that the difference between them was as vast as the difference between Heaven and Earth. For Eckhart, "God" referred to the Supreme Being, whom people know, worship, and honor in religious practice, who reveals Himself to the world and humanity through creation and revelation, and to whom individuals turn in prayer. "Divinity," on the other hand, represented another aspect of God—utterly transcendent and unknowable, beyond all words and comprehension. In this Divinity reside the archetypes of all things, which Eckhart, like Plato, referred to as ideas. If God exists, then He necessarily thinks, and His thoughts or ideas constitute the Divine Mind. However, for Eckhart, Divinity and the Mind are not two separate realities. The Divinity itself is the Mind. Eckhart did not view the Mind as a characteristic of Divinity, for Divinity has no attributes; rather, the Mind is its very essence. Whereas Aquinas identified Divinity with Being, Eckhart equated Divinity with the Mind.

Each thought seeks expression in a word, and so too do God's thoughts—His ideas—manifest themselves in creation, where the immanent God reveals Himself. Thus, creation is simply the expression of God. Therefore, one cannot assert that the world "is" in the same sense that God "is." The being of God and the being of the world are distinct. In the sense that God is, the world is not, for God is true Being, and the world is merely His expression. This led Eckhart to conclude that all creation is pure nothingness. When asked whether creation had a historical moment of origin or is eternal, Eckhart responded that God is continually expressing Himself as Creator, but at the level of Divinity, time does not exist; thus, creation is instantaneous and timeless.

Just as the material world is unreal from God's perspective, so too is the human body. Meister Eckhart argued that only the soul possesses true being. He believed that the soul has two levels: the "ground of the soul," which is its essence, and the layers that form as a result of its connection to the body. These layers are illusory and temporal, while the ground of the soul is eternal and truly existent. It exists not because it contains the source of being within itself, but because it is a part of God. Therefore, the human soul is not an independent being but a fragment of God within the person. Since the soul is a part of God, it possesses a priori knowledge. The soul's connection to the body has limited its intellectual capabilities, but it has not deprived it of implicit knowledge. Humanity's immersion in the material world is an evil that makes people sinful. Thus, according to Eckhart, salvation lies in a return to one's source—that is, to God. Eckhart's mysticism verged on pantheism.