Medieval Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction

Description

In this book John Marenbon discusses the extraordinary breadth of medieval philosophy as written by Christians in Greek and Latin, Muslims in Arabic and by Jews in Hebrew, from c. 500 to c. 1550. He considers important factors such as where and when it took place, its social setting and its links with religion.

• Gives a comprehensive overview of the many traditions of medieval philosophy, over the full chronological range of the period
• Discusses the importance of the religious and historical contexts of medieval philosophy
• Shows how the philosophical traditions in the Middle Ages all stem from the Platonic schools of late antiquity and explains their evolution
• Looks at key phlosophical figures of the time such as the Latin writers Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Dante and Pomponazzi; the Arabic writers al-Fârâbî, Avicenna, ibn Tufayl, Averroes and Maimonides, and Gersonides, who wrote in Hebrew
• Part of the bestselling Very Short Introductions series - over seven million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

John Marenbon, Senior Research Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge and Honorary Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the University of Cambridge

John Marenbon studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where in 1978 he became, as he remains, a fellow. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy (2009) and Honorary Professor of Medieval Philosophy in the University of Cambridge (2010) . He has also taught at the Sorbonne (Paris IV) and has been a visiting fellow at the Centre for Mediaeval Studies and the Pontifical Institute at the University of Toronto, and at present holds a visiting appointment at Peking University. His books include Pagans and Philosophers. The problem of paganism from Augustine to Leibniz (Princeton University Press, 2015), and The Cambridge Companion to Boethius (Cambridge University Press, 2009).

Table of Contents

1:Introduction
2:A Map of medieval philosophy
3:Fields of medieval philosophy
4:Institutions and literary forms
5:Universals: Avicenna and Abelard
6:Mind, body and mortality: Averroes and Pomponazzi
7:Foreknowledge and freedom: Boethius and Gersonides
8:Society and the best life: ibn Tufayl and Dante
9:Why medieval philosophy?
Notes on sources for studies of individual texts
Further Reading
Index