Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, Misc

During the European Renaissance, scholars and members of the bourgeoisie showed a stronginterest in practical philosophy, namely ethics and politics. This shift was expressed in works that described ideal societies, also known as utopias. Meanwhile, the Renaissance philosophy of nature, influenced by Late Ancient philosophy and mysticism, imposed a new worldview, according to which nature was seen as a living entity. Renaissance political thinkers attempted to imbue their socio-political visions with a sense of natural philosophy. A principal idea in utopian (...) literature is the strong presence of science, a key factor in the transformation of nature. In its search for the ideal political order, humanity was not content with maximising nature’s benefits but envisioned creating a new nature, one that better served the socio-political ideals of the Renaissance and the early modern era. I would like to argue that the prominent role of technocracy in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century utopias led gradually to the disruption and perversion of nature. Despite of the intentions of the utopian thinkers, their views on nature –which range from the unconditional respect to nature to its advancement through science – encouraged finally the mastery of nature, because they connected the socio-political progress with the exploitation of nature and the control of natural forces. In particular, a discussion on the relationship between humanity, nature and science in Renaissance utopian thought can shed some light on how early technocracy progressively led to the ravaging of nature. Departing from the major Renaissance philosophers’ all-encompassing perspective, political philosophers of the time, especially those who contributed to utopian literature, predominantly viewed nature as an instrument at the disposal of humanity and its science – a playground for human inventiveness and resourcefulness. With their works, they provided a new rationale, non-religious this time that defended humanity’s full exploitation of nature. (shrink)

Il volume ripercorre lo sviluppo del pensiero del giovane Nicola Cusano dalla frequentazione del maestro albertista Eimerico da Campo presso l’Università di Colonia (1425) e dal confronto con le posizioni filosofiche dei domenicani dello Studium coloniense, fino agli anni della maturità a Roma (1450). Il saggio illustra il contesto storico-culturale della genesi del De docta ignorantia, testo che suggella la presa di distanza di Cusano dal proprio passato universitario ma anche, al contempo, la sua insoddisfazione nei confronti dell’umanesimo diffuso in (...) Italia negli anni del Concilio di Ferrara-Firenze; e lo segue nella sua ‘caccia della Sapienza’, nell’incontro con differenti tradizioni e contesti, fino alla formulazione dell’ideale del ‘Socrate cristiano’ nell’Idiota. Il volume, riccamente documentato anche sul piano della storia delle interpretazioni e degli studi su Cusano, contribuisce a far luce sulla formazione del suo pensiero e sulle questioni che ne hanno segnato la vita. (shrink)

Manuel Chrysoloras was a Byzantine scholar and diplomat. He is best known as the first notable professor of Greek language in Italy. He occupied the chair of Greek at the Florentine Studium, and he also taught Greek occasionally in Pavia, Milan, and Rome. Among his students were some of the prominent early Italian humanists including Leonardo Bruni, Uberto Decembrio, Guarino of Verona, Pier Paolo Vergerio, Palla Strozzi, Roberto Rossi, Jacopo Angeli da Scarperia, Cencio de’ Rustici, and others. His method of (...) teaching Greek language and literature was innovative and was continued by some of his students. He had a significant impact on the revival of Greek studies in the West through his Erotemata, as this work became the central textbook of Greek grammar until the sixteenth century. He was a pioneer of the so-called transferre ad sententiam method for translating Greek texts into Latin, and he was the first who translated Plato’s Republic (in collaboration with his student Uberto Decembrio). His other writings are mainly rhetorical epistles; he engaged in extensive correspondence with many of his contemporaries, eminent humanists and ecclesiastical and political figures, such as the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus and Coluccio Salutati. He was appointed to a number of important diplomatic missions on behalf of Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, and he was in the service of Pisan Pope John XXIII. He spent most of his life visiting the European courts in an attempt to secure help for Byzantium and to negotiate the Union of the Churches. He was an ardent unionist, he participated in the Council of Constance, and he may have converted to Catholicism. (shrink)

Яскрава модернова обкладинка книжки, яку присвячено далеко не новій темі, обіцяє щось революційне, нестандартне. Ім’я автора, знаного науковця, живить передчуття нових джерел, нових думок, точно сформульованих і підкріплених ґрунтовною науковою аргументацією. Проте від самого початку читання виникають певні перепони, а під кінець стає зрозумілим, що нова версія життя українського філософа приховує своєрідний «гадательний» смисл, який стосується не лише Сковороди і культури XVIII ст. Мова про ставлення до традиції, пізнання й істини у ширшому сенсі. Спочатку оглянемо форму і зміст книжки. У (...) вступній частині під назвою «Prelude» на читача відразу чекають несподіванки. Розповідь про життя Григорія Сковороди, як і годиться, автор розпочинає з притчі про пустельника в «Silenus Alcibiadis», але раптом переносить нас у зовсім інший історичний світ. Тепер він розповідає про Олександра Потебню та подібність його думок і думок Сковороди. Чому книжку про філософа XVIII ст. треба починати з доведення подібності його думок до думок мислителя ХІХ ст.? Не дуже зрозуміло. Принаймні автор посилається на своє відчуття. І такий сюжетний хід мусить навіювати читачеві думки про історичну тяглість певних ідей. Серед цих ідей азначено такі: гостре відчуття богополишеності світу; панування «кривди» (с. 7); досягнення суспільної гармонії лише за умови чистоти сердець (с. 10); трактування серця як найглибшої основи людського буття (с. 10); нерозривний зв’язок пізнання речей і любові (с. 11); релігійне «підложжя» вчення обох мислителів (с.12); подібність теорії пізнання: пізнати світ можна шляхом пізнання себе і навпаки (с. 18); визнання символічності слова (с. 19); однакове розуміння структури слова і образу (с. 21); «нерівна рівність» як універсальний принцип (с. 24); «послідовний націоналізм», предтечею якого Потебня вважав Сковороду, і просвітницький пафос (с. 27). Згадка про «націоналізм» додає провокативності сюжету. А до питання про «просвітницький пафос» ми ще повернемося. Закінчує вступну частину висновок, що народ спить і його треба «розбудити». Очевидно, автор збирається пов’язати цю тему з філософією Сковороди, але не дає чітких пояснень з цього приводу. І претензій не висунеш, адже це не вступ до дисертації, а «prelude». (shrink)

Giordano Bruno e i cacciatori di "bufale". Quello delle fake news, le cosiddette “bufale” per intenderci, non è il solo problema che affligge il web, strumento potentissimo, che dà voce a tutti, ma in maniera incontrollata. C’è un fenomeno ancor più preoccupante: quello delle false citazioni (fake quotes).

У статті проаналізовано значення розуміння власної освіти для побудови ідентичності на прикладі італійських гуманістів першої половини XV ст., які позиціонували себе як автодидакти (самоучки). Автор вважає, що саме в цей час унаслідок дії цілого комплексу причин формуються передумови для виникнення явища автодидактів, яке остаточно виокремилося вже у Новому часі. Гуманісти у такий спосіб ставали в опозицію до тогочасних знання, освіти, пізнання, реалізовуючи самопрезентацію. Гуманістів приваблювали певні особливості статусу автодидакта, які давали їм змогу почуватися незалежними від усталених на той час норм, (...) поглядів, інтелектуальних традицій, водночас використовуючи як підстави для консолідації гуманістів як окремої соціальної групи. (shrink)

This paper highlights the corrective and complementary role that historically informed philosophy can play in contemporary discussions. What it takes for an experience to count as genuinely mystical has been the source of significant controversy; most current philosophical definitions of ‘mystical experience’ exclude embodied, non-unitive states -- but, in so doing, they exclude the majority of reported mystical experiences. I use a re- examination of the full range of reported medieval mystical experiences (both in the apophatic tradition, which excludes or (...) denigrates embodied states, and in the affective tradition, which treats such states as fully mystical) to demonstrate how a better understanding of the historical medieval mystic tradition can serve as a valuable complement to ongoing philosophical discussions of religious and mystical experience. (shrink)

У статті вперше здійснено інтерпретацію поетичних текстів Олега Лишеги шляхом звернення до концепції барокового коду. Проаналізовані таким чином, зокрема, «пісня 822», «Півень», «Шовковиця», «Ворон», «Пацюк» і «пісня 3». Саме крізь призму барокового коду варто розглядати ці поезії, оскільки головні світоглядні риси бароко здатні пояснити ті чи ті образи або ситуації, які читач знаходить у текстах. Варто також наголосити на непересічності образу Григорія Сковороди у творчості Олега Лишеги, адже у поезіях «Великого мосту» можна неодноразово знайти чи то сковородинські образи/символи, чи то (...) його концепти, що були близькі для поета ХХ століття. (shrink)

Cosa spinge l'Abate-bibliofilo Louis Valentin de Vougny ad intraprendere, a metà del XVIII secolo, la traduzione di un libro "maledetto", lo "Spaccio de la bestia trionfante", i cui rari esemplari vengono acquistati a cifre esorbitanti?

(From editorial:) This volume aims to refute the disparaging image of scholastic philosophy as a rather homogeneous tradition of commentaries on Aristotle lacking in originality. Although Aristotelianism was, of course, a very important philosophical paradigm among the scholastics, their works also evince many features and tenets of Platonic or Augustinian origin. Several issues characteristic for Platonism and Augustinianism are discussed in this volume – for example, the role of attention in perception, the extramissionist theory of vision, the metaphysics of light, (...) the illumination theory, the fi rst-person perspective, and self-refl ection. The topics investigated primarily in Aristotelianism include the ontology of sensibles, their causal effi cacy, the role of the medium, and the distinction between the internal senses. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung In early modernity, church historians initially showed little interest in Berthold of Moosburg. They knew him as a commentator of Proclus, but they did not recognise his importance for the history of Neoplatonism. The librarians and bibliographers who came across Berthold’s commentary on Proclus in the Balliol College Library at Oxford showed no interest in the philosophical content of this work. An article on Berthold in the monumental work Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum summarised the available information. It was Johann Albert (...) Fabricius who took notice of it. Fabricius was very interested in Proclus as well as in Neoplatonic theology and its narration in the Elements of Theology; he had started to collect all available information regarding this issue and had also come across Berthold’s commentary. However, he did not ignore him, as many had done before, but properly recognised the importance of Berthold for the history of the reception of Proclus’s philosophy. Fabricius always referred to the Dominican thinker when dealing with Proclus’s Elements of Theology, in particular in his own Bibliotheca graeca. One of the attentive readers of this work was the German philologist Friedrich Creuzer. In 1822, within the framework of publishing Neoplatonic writings, Creuzer reedited Proclus’s Elements of Theology. As a consequence of this new edition, Proclus together with his medieval commentator came into the focus of leading representatives of classical German philosophy. (shrink)

This chapter examines the imagination, its relationship to “common sense,” and its recent development in the notion of the social imaginary in Western philosophy and the contributions Miki Kiyoshi and Nakamura Yūjirō can make in this regard. I trace the historical evolution of the notion of the productive imagination from its seeds in Aristotle through Kant and into the social imagination or imaginary as bearing on our collective being-in-the-world, with semantic and ontological significance, in Paul Ricoeur, Cornelius Castoriadis, and Charles (...) Taylor. The two Japanese philosophers, when brought into dialogue with the above contemporary Western thinkers, can contribute to this recent development of the imagination’s creativity into the collective sphere. Miki shows a connection between the imagination and a certain form-formlessness dynamic he inherits from Nishida. Nakamura in turn points to a connection between imagination and place via his development of the Aristotelian notion of common sense. Both have implications on how we understand the social imaginary. (shrink)

Este artigo pretende descrever algumas características da recepção latina do Corpus Areopagiticum — o conjunto de obras atribuído a Dionísio, o Areopagita —, destacando uma invulgar tradição de leitura, tradução, interpretação e comentário destes escritos. Explicaremos a importância de um único manuscrito (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, gr. 437) no início da cadeira de transmissão desta duradoura difusão, discutindo como é que um documento do século IX influenciou todas as posteriores leituras e traduções em Latim, a fim de esboçar alguns atributos distintivos (...) da disseminação dos textos levada a cabo por autores como sejam Hilduíno, João Escoto Eriúgena, João Sarraceno e Tomás Galo. Os problemas resultantes da tradução de conceitos como sejam " para lá (hyper) " ou " beleza " serão objecto de especial atenção, e iremos inquirir de que modo estas versões são mais ou menos bem-sucedidas na sua tentativa de transmitir, ao mesmo tempo, a filosofia mesma de Dionísio e as interpretações dos autores. -/- This paper aims to describe some features of the Latin reception of the Corpus Areopagiticum — the collection of works attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite — focusing on the unusual tradition of reading, translation, interpretation, and comment of these writings. We will explain the importance of one single manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, gr. 437) in the beginning of this lasting diffusion's chain of transmission, discussing how a 9 th-century document influenced all posterior readings and translations into Latin, in order to trace out some distinctive attributes within the texts' spreading undertaken by authors such as Hilduin, John Scottus Eriugena, John Sarrazen or Thomas Gallus. Special attention will be paid to problems arising from the translation of concepts such as 'beyond (hyper)' or 'beauty', and we will enquire whether these renderings are more or less succeeded in their attempt to convey, at the same time, the very Dionysius' philosophy and the authors' interpretations. (shrink)

This is a review of the 2015 Princeton edition of The Praise of Folly.

In his short treatise De divinatione per somnum (463b12-15), Aristotle claims that dreams, though not sent by a god, are nonetheless “demonic” because “nature is demonic.” This statement has puzzled Aristotle’s commentators since the Middle Ages, being interpreted in a variety of ways even today. The present article traces interpretations of the passage from the twelfth century, when the work was translated into Latin for the first time, until the seventeenth century, when Aristotle’s works were re-translated by the humanists. The (...) aim of the study is to reconstruct how scholars over the course of 500 years dealt with the meaning of the expression “demonic.” The article takes into account not only commentaries on Aristotle, but also several translations of Aristotle’s work, different manuscripts of the work, and hand-written glosses in incunabula. In this way — taking a longue-durée-perspective — the study aims to reveal hermeneutical currents in dealing with Aristotle’s pagan and naturalist theory of dreams within a Christian context which presupposed God as a possible cause of dreams. (shrink)

Speciale V centenario "Utopia" di Tommaso Moro (1616-2016). Bruno,Moro e il vincolo dello spirito.

Nicholas of Cusa in De staticis experimentis presents his perspective on the human knowledge of the world through the concept of measurement. Cusanus thinks that humans can measure the world, because the world is constituted by the trinitarian structure “pondus”, “numerus” and “mensura”: an ontological perspective that is also seen in the biblical book of Wisdom 11:21. For this reason in De staticis experimentis Cusanus tries to measure the world through numbers and weights and using a balance. Academic research on (...) Cusanus has identified Augustine of Hippo as the source of this epistemology. In this paper, we will try to ask if Augustine of Hippo should indeed be recognized as a correct source. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 53, Issue 2-4, pp 372 - 390 This paper investigates a series of Oxford _Obligationes_ texts, all of which can be associated with Richard Billingham. My study is based on eleven of the surviving manuscripts and two early printed texts. I focus on one aspect of their discussion, namely the rule for granting the initial _positum_ of an obligational disputation of the type called _positio_, and the six restrictions that could be placed on that rule. I explain (...) these restrictions with reference to several sophismata that were meant to illustrate the problems that the restrictions were intended to solve, and in particular, I discuss the fifth restriction ‘not inconsistent with the _positum_’. I also shed light on the final restriction, which has not always been well understood, namely the restriction ‘wherever there is no _obligatio_ relevant to the _positum_’. (shrink)

C. S. Peirce introduced the term “icon” for sign-vehicles that signify their objects in virtue of some shared quality. This qualitative kinship, however, threatens to collapse the relata of the sign into one and the same thing. Accordingly, the late medieval philosopher of signs John Poinsot held that, “no matter how perfect, a concept [...] always retains a distinction, therefore, between the thing signified and itself signifying.” Poinsot is touted by his present-day advocates as a realist, but I believe that, (...) judged by realist standards, his requirement of minimal dissimilarity backfires. Poinsot thinks that, in analyzing the sign, we should stop before a full merger between sign-vehicle and object is reached. Peirce, by contrast, saw good reason to push the analysis all the way down to one isolated quality. Because such a qualitative merger can lend support to realism, I favour Peirce’s stance. (shrink)

For those familiar with Machiavelli’s texts, Foucault’s interpretation of Macchiavelli in his 1978 lecture series Sécurité, Territoire, Population1 is surprising. Although Machiavelli figures prominently in five of the thirteen lectures,2 Foucault treats Machiavelli as if he were the author of only one book—The Prince—and his reading treats this complex text as if it covered only one topic: how to guarantee the security of the Prince. Clearly Foucault did not intend his interpretation of Machiavelli as a close exegesis. Other discussions of (...) Foucault’s treatment of Machiavelli have acknowledged the role Machiavelli plays in these lectures and even note the inadequacy of the interpretation given by Foucault, but most commentators do not pursue Foucault’s reading further.3 This investigation is not concerned with whether Foucault got Machiavelli right. Rather, Foucault’s reading of Machiavelli is noteworthy because it is partial and incomplete in a way reminiscent of Foucault’s reading of Hobbes in, Il faut défendre la société. This fragmentary character of Foucault’s inscription of Machiavelli as a forerunner of the history of biopolitique allows an innovative reading of the Florentine that connects Machiavelli’s thinking, however indirectly, on a trajectory that encounters, for instance, Foucault’s analysis of populations, the police state, and even his reading of liberalism during the 1978-­‐ 1979 lectures. My argument here is that the specific way Foucault’s inscribes Machiavelli in the history of gouvernementalité, while seeming to reject him, in fact acts to resuscitate, and thereby relay, a reading of Machiavelli as a thinker who articulates encounters among political practices engaged within a horizon of radical immanence. (shrink)

At Discorsi II.20, Machiavelli defines auxiliary arms as those, “whom a prince or a republic send captained and already paid for, for your aid.” My contention is that Machiavelli’s treatment of auxiliary arms is much more nuanced than it may seem at first glance. Throughout his works, Machiavelli articulates this type of force from the standpoint of the prince but also, surprisingly, from the standpoint of the people. In their princely employment, auxiliary arms act instrumentally as means for the projection (...) of power. However, analyzed from the standpoint of the people, auxiliary force exposes the projects of the state to the radically aleatory. Acknowledging the aspectival function played by the definition of auxiliaries in Machiavelli’s texts offers a new vantage point for re-reading Machiavelli on the nature of authority, power and the conflict of the umori. (shrink)

This paper aims to explore the variety of sophistic argumentations that the Paduan philosopher and writer Sperone Speroni (1500-1588) applies in the so-called paradoxical work Dialogo della Discordia (1542), in which style as well as content factor into the author’s interest in ancient sophistic rhetoric. In analyzing the subject, the paper focuses on the influence of Erasmus’ Praise of Folly (1511) in Speroni’s dialogue. In so doing, the paper also intends to contribute to a deeper understanding of the impact of (...) Erasmus’ work in the Venetian area - in particular, the rebirth of ancient sophistic literature in the Italian Renaissance. (shrink)

Francisco Suárez Sometimes called the "Eminent Doctor" after Paul V’s designation of him as doctor eximius et pius, Francisco Suárez was the leading theological and philosophical light of Spain’s Golden Age, alongside such cultural icons as Miguel de Cervantes, Tomás Luis de Victoria, and El Greco. Although initially rejected on grounds of deficient health … Continue reading Suárez, Francisco →.

Special issue of the Journal for Early Modern Studies (4.1., Spring 2005) Guest Editor: Lucian Petrescu. -/- .

[ES]Una historia de la ontología que pretenda dar cuenta de su acontecer de manera integral y equilibrada, ha de considerar tanto los aspectos historiográficos y filosóficos de sus fuentes así como los relativos a su contexto socio-cultural y necesariamente en relación con los de la metafísica, pues sus historias están indisolublemente ligadas, aunque ello no significa que necesariamente sean las mismas. En este trabajo, se intenta de manera elemental y mínima bosquejar dichas consideraciones, a través de una breve revisión historiográfica (...) de distintas nociones y hechos que puedan configurar una base sólida para la constitución de la historia de la ontología e interpretación de su significado y naturaleza. [EN] A history of ontology that pretends to be an integral and well-balanced account of its development, must considerer the historiographical and philosophical aspects of its sources, as well as the relation with its socio-cultural context, and necessarily, the relation with the same aspects of Metaphysics, as both histories are inextricably related, without necessarily being the same. In this work, it is intended, in a minimal way, to outline such considerations, trough a brief historiographic revision of the distinctive facts and notions that can configure a solid ground for the constitution of the history of ontology and the interpretation of its significance and nature. (shrink)

This paper examines Dante’s treatment of the suicides in Canto 13 of Inferno in light of certain Platonic arguments against suicide. I argue that Dante’s presentation of the suicides in many ways illustrates a similar philosophical understanding of the body-soul relation and the subsequent concerns about the effect of suicide on the human being. Dante’s Christian position emphasizes the importance of the body and shows how it is necessary for the human body-soul composite. I focus on two of Dante’s problems (...) with suicide. First, his association of the suicides with the harpies of the Aeneid demonstrates that suicide is an act of pride whereby the human being overestimates his capacity to foresee future events and fails to trust in Divine Providence. Second, Dante presents the suicides as being still tied to, and concerned for their reputation in, the world of the living, despite their own violent severing of their bodily connection to it—a connection required for human activity. By focusing on these Neoplatonic arguments against suicide, I shed light on Dante’s Christian understanding of the body-soul relation and how this understanding contributes to the condemnation of suicide. Human nature requires the body and bodily activity in the world of finite affairs. In Dante’s depiction, suicide is violence. Although there were pagans who defended suicide for certain escapist or intellectual reasons, both they and Dante’s suicides share a common error: they fail to accept the essential nature of the human essence as having a bodily as well as a spiritual end. Returning directly to the Neoplatonic texts that influenced and resonate throughout the tradition that Dante inherits allows us to elucidate and highlight certain features of Dante’s thought and interpret his contrapasso in ways that might otherwise remain unnoticed. (shrink)

Early-modern Jesuit universities did not offer studies in medicine, and from 1586 onwards, the Jesuit Ratio studiorum prohibited digressions on medical topics in the Aristotelian curriculum. However, some sixteenth-century Jesuit text books used in philosophy classes provided detailed accounts on physiological issues such as sense perception and its organic location as discussed in Aristotle’s De anima II, 7–11. This seeming contradiction needs to be explained. In this paper, I focus on the interst in medical topics manifested in a commentary by (...) the Jesuits of Coimbra. Admittedly, the Coimbra commentary constituted an exception, as the Jesuit college that produced it was integrated in a royal university which had a strong interest in educating physicians. It will be claimed that the exclusion of medicine at Jesuit universities and colleges had its origin in rather incidental events in the course of the foundation of the first Jesuit university in Sicily. There, the lay professors of law and medicine intended to avoid subordination to the Jesuits and thereby provoked a conflict which finally led the Jesuit administration to refrain from including faculties of medicine and law in Jesuit universities. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, a veritable Jesuit animosity towards medicine emerged for philosophical and pedagogical reasons. This development reflects educational concerns within the Society as well as the role of commentaries on Aristotle for early-modern learning. (shrink)

Liberty and Law examines a previously underappreciated theme in legal history―the idea of permissive natural law. The idea is mentioned only peripherally, if at all, in modern histories of natural law. Yet it engaged the attention of jurists, philosophers, and theologians over a long period and formed an integral part of their teachings. This ensured that natural law was not conceived of as merely a set of commands and prohibitions that restricted human conduct, but also as affirming a realm of (...) human freedom, understood as both freedom from subjection and freedom of choice. Freedom can be used in many ways, and throughout the whole period from 1100 to 1800 the idea of permissive natural law was deployed for various purposes in response to different problems that arose. It was frequently invoked to explain the origin of private property and the beginnings of civil government. Several kinds of permissive natural law were identified. Permission could be positive or negative, depending on whether it was specifically conceded by a legislator or only tacitly allowed. It could free from sin or merely remit some temporal punishment that was due. It could commend some conduct without commanding it or permit some evil without condoning it. Medieval canonists used the concept of permissive natural law to harmonize the discordant texts that they found in their sources; William of Ockham found it a powerful tool in his defense of Franciscan poverty against papal criticisms; for Richard Hooker it justified both the constitutional structure and the ritual practices of the Anglican church; John Selden used it to uphold the inviolability of contracts, most importantly the contract of government; Hugo Grotius made it a central theme in his treatment of the conduct permissible in waging war; in the eighteenth century Jean Barbeyrac and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui associated the idea with the emerging doctrine of natural rights. In Liberty and Law, Tierney has presented us with a magisterial and provocative way of interpreting legal history. (shrink)

In my paper I try to reconstruct the core of Martin Luther’s and Erasmus of Rotterdam’s view on the question of free will on the basis of my analysis of Erasmus’ treatise De libero arbitrio diatribé sive collatio and Luther’s answer De servo arbitrio. I also examine the compatibility of their views, or rather the main reasons for their incompatibility. I analyse the problematic and adversarial moments of both of the great thinkers views, which I fi nd in the case (...) of Martin Luther for example in the idea of all-doing God and in the view on the creation of the fi rst human, Adam; and in the case of Erasmus of Rotterdam for example in the question of merits and in the assertion that a spreading of the truth might be scandalous. Before presenting my conclusions I also deal with the diff erences in applied terminology and methodology of these two reform thinkers, which leads me to the question of the criterion of the truth. On the basis of these observationsI search for the key reasons for the disagreement between the two protagonists of this dispute and I evaluate the whole debate. (shrink)

A scholarly annotated epic poem on the pitfalls and tribulations of “good philosophizing”. Divided into twenty-eight cantos (in medieval Italian hendecasyllabic terza rima), the poem tells of an allegorical journey through the downward spiral of the philosophers’ hell, where all sorts of thinkers are punished for their faults and mistakes, in the endeavor to reach a way out of the condition of intellectual impasse in which the narrator has found himself. The affinities with Dante’s Inferno are apparent. Whereas Dante’s poem (...) is about human sins and moral felonies, this one is about philosophical errors and fallacies; whereas Virgil takes Dante through the gluttons, the wrathful, the violent, the traitors to parties and countries, etc., here Socrates takes us through the realists, the skeptics, the dualists, the nichilists, the worshipers of language and easy mythos, etc. And yet this is not just a philosophical counterpart of Dante’s masterpiece, even less a parody. We can’t say exactly when, how, and why it was written, but this is an authentic piece of philosophy, a poem of love, a passionate testimony of militant metaphysics. It is the inspired and inspiring journey of someone, anyone, who is truly moved by the Love for Wisdom and by the grueling purification of the intellect that it demands. (shrink)

Linos G. Benakis, Byzantine Philosophy Β’, Athens 2013, pp. 544.