Contrary to popular culture, medieval times had great thinkers. We discovered them.
During the centuries that this period of Western history lasted, there was a fairly varied vision of the world, emerging multiple doctrines defended by great philosophers who had elaborated them.
At that time, always within the limits of freedom of expression quite reduced, there was talk of society, the universe and, of course, religion, trying to find out the relationship between God and the human being.
In a world of social estates, feudalism and theocracy, it was necessary to give an opinion to understand, explain and, if possible, change society for the better.
- We recommend you read: “Middle Ages: 18 characteristics, stages and history of this period”
The 15 most important philosophers of the Middle Ages (and their biographies)
We will meet 15 great philosophers of the Middle Ages, both European and from other lands, their particular vision of the world and some of their works and theories that they defended.
1. Saint Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430)
Although he was not born nor did he live in the Middle Ages, this illustrious character in history has considerably influenced the history of Christianity and, in particular, the philosophical values that have shaped it.
Born in Tagaste, located in present-day Algeria, St. Augustine of Hippomaintained during his life that, contrary to what many skeptics thought, it was possible to know the truth.
Many skeptics defended the idea that one could doubt absolutely everything, and Augustine replied that one can doubt everything one wants, but what cannot be doubted is one’s own doubt, thus refuting one’s own skepticism.
As a religious man, he treated the subject of God as synonymous with truth. He also treated the concept of good as the will of God Himself.
2. Saint Isidore of Seville (560 – 636)
As is the case of St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Isidore of Sevilledid not live in the Middle Ages proper but influenced the worldview that was had during it.
This Hispano-Gothic scholar was a remarkable writer in his time. He dedicated himself to describing the reality of his time, and that is why he is considered one of the most prolific authors of his generation.
He addressed a wide variety of topics, such as history, astronomy and geography, and produced encyclopedias, biographies of illustrious people, as well as talking about liturgy and the Church.
His most remarkable work is Etymologies (circa 634) in which he captures all the knowledge and its evolution from pagan times to the seventh century, when the Christian faith already prevailed.
In this work he addressed aspects touched on all the known themes of the time, such as theology, art, literature, law, grammar, cosmology, natural sciences and much more knowledge.
However, one of the most controversial aspects of his worldview was his opinion of the Jewish community residing in Hispania at the end of the classical period.
Saint Isidore, in the midst of struggles between Judeo-Christian beliefs, considered that the Jewish population should be converted to Christianity, although it should be noted that he was in favor of doing so through the art of the word and convincing them, unlike the Visigothic king Sisebuto, who was in favor of using force.
3. John Scotus of Erigena (815-877)
Another great medieval thinker wasJohn Scotus Erigena. This philosopher, of Irish origin, is considered the creator of the first great philosophical system of the Middle Ages.
He worked for the court of the French king Charles I, who appointed him supervisor of his court school and commissioned him to make Latin translations of works by Platonic philosophers.
His particular vision of the universe was controversial in his time, given that in his work De Visione Naturae (865-870) he rejected the popularly extended idea in Christianity that the universe was created from nothing.
He considered that time and space were manifestations of ideas that were within the mind of God.
He also argued that reason should not be censored by authority, but that it was authority that should be based on reason itself.
These controversial views of the world led him to condemn the aforementioned work several centuries later, in 1225, when Pope Honorius III ordered its burning at the Council of Sens.
4. Avicenna (980 – 1037)
His original name was Ibn Sina , and he was an illustrious character born in Bukhara, present-day Uzbekistan. He was a doctor, philosopher and scientist and is considered the greatest character of the Muslim faith, after Muhammad, who has influenced world history.
He is credited with the authorship of more than 300 books in which he addressed, mainly, his two favorite topics: medicine (he is credited with having invented the tracheotomy) and philosophy.
He is credited with having made Aristotelian doctrine known to medieval European society.
He was ahead of his time, and his philosophy influenced great European philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas, Saint Bonaventure of Fidanza and Duns Scotus.
In addition, just as Descartes would do several centuries later, he stated that knowing that one exists is indubitable knowledge, that is, I think, therefore I am.
He also touched on somewhat darker disciplines, such as alchemy, being considered one of the greatest alchemists of his time.
5. San Anselmo de Canterbury (1033 – 1109)
Saint Anselm of Canterbury was born in Aosta, Italy, although throughout his life he traveled until he ended up in the British Isles. In 1070 he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by King William I of England, the Conqueror.
He considered that God was undoubtedly the supreme being, and he dedicated his life to studying his attributes.
He considered that not putting faith first was presumption, however, not appealing to reason was negligence. This came to him to debate throughout his life about the relationship between faith and reason, without finding an answer to the many questions that this caused him.
He based his teaching on meditation, and considered that this was the action by which he could justify the existence of God.
6. Peter Abelard (1079 – 1142)
Pedro Abelardo (Pierre Abélard, in his native French) was a French theologian who became one of the most famous and memorable figures of the 12th century and, by extension, of the Middle Ages.
He dedicated his life to music, poetry, debate and teaching. He focused on reconciling realism and nominalism and controversially argued that faith was limited by principles of reason. Much of his thoughts and postulates are known thanks to his autobiography. He was a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict.
Given how advanced his philosophy was, he was the object of persecution, censorship and destruction of his writings, as is the case of a treatise on the Trinity, written in 1121, which was burned by a Catholic council of the time for considering it a heretical work.
One of his most celebrated pupils was John of Salisbury, Bishop of Chartres and global thinker.
7. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – 1153)
The next thinker in our selection isSaint Bernard of Clairvaux. This French monk is known not only for his influence within the Catholic Church, but also for having been a key figure in the expansion of Gothic architecture and having contributed to the shaping of Gregorian chant.
His view of mysticism was that it was the spiritual body of the Catholic Church.
8. Peter Lombard (1100 – 1160)
Although he is considered a rather mysterious author, and knowing practically nothing about his first thirty years of life, the truth is that the work ofPedro Lombardohas had repercussions throughout the Middle Ages.
His best-known work is the Book of Sentences, which served as a theological text in medieval universities from 1220.
This book is a complication of biblical texts, which at first may seem different points of view but which Lombard tries to reconcile.
Within his doctrine, he considered that marriage should be something consensual and that it did not need to be consumed to consider it as perfect.
This vision of marriage had repercussions a posteriori, being assumed by Pope Alexander III.
9. Averroës (1126 – 1198)
Abū l-WalīdʾAḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Rušd, known asAverroes, is another of the great illustrious medieval characters of Islamic origin.
Born in Spain under Muslim rule, this Andalusian philosopher and doctor was a great teacher of philosophy, sciences such as mathematics, astronomy and medicine, as well as being a great student of Islamic laws.
Throughout his life he studied how the human being thinks. He tried to figure out how people came to formulate universal truths.
Like many Islamic thinkers, Averroes had knowledge of Aristotle’s doctrines and based his philosophy and science on them.
He analyzed Aristotelian work, and helped to define what were the differences between properly human knowledge and that which was proper to God.
10. Roger Bacon (1214 – 1292)
He is not to be confused with Francis Bacon.
Roger Bacon, also known under the name Doctor Mirabilis, has contributed significantly to empiricist doctrine.
In his time, physical science had a problem, and that was that it was not experimented in the Aristotelian way, but on the basis of traditional arguments.
That is, experiments were not really done to obtain new information that refuted a theory, but it was assumed that what was known was what best described reality.
Bason was a troubled character, who had no qualms about attacking those who did not think like him and, in addition, seriously criticized the immoralities and hypocrisy of the medieval clergy.
It is for this reason that he came to be imprisoned by the Franciscan order, isolated in a monastery for about ten years, in which he could only communicate with the outside through letters and with the permission of those who kept him locked up.
Because he tried to uncover some abuses of the Church, it accused him of witchcraft, which was fueled by the fact that Roger Bacon had researched Arab alchemy.
In his works he called for a reform of theological studies, asking for less emphasis to be given to less transcendental philosophical questions and for the focus on the Bible and the learning of the languages in which it was originally written.
It should be said that the fact that he gave importance to languages such as Greek, Latin or Aramaic, was due to the fact that at the time it was uncommon, if not almost impossible, to find theologians who mastered these languages and could read sacred texts in their original language.
This meant that theological scholars were forced to resort to translations that, in many cases, were freely interpreted or had some poorly translated place.
11. Saint Bonaventure of Fidanza (1221 – 1274)
St. Bonaventure of Fidanzaconsidered that the fundamental pillar of religious life was, without a doubt, prayer. He believed that, like St. Paul, only the Spirit of God could penetrate the hearts of his believers through prayer.
He was a faithful defender of Franciscan doctrine, this caused him some problems while living in Paris, since a university movement arose very contrary to the vision that the sons of St. Francis had regarding the faith and the world.
12. Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)
Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the greatest representatives of scholasticism, if not the main one. He was a theologian, metaphysician and one of the first philosophers to link Aristotelianism with the Christian faith.
He considered that human reason was very limited, already in itself, to be able to one day know God, however, this did not mean that true knowledge could not be known through philosophy.
He tried to prove the existence of God through a system in which he spoke of five ways. This complex theory starts from the simplest, which were the movements of objects, what were their causes until reaching the ‘highest path, which was order.
13. Ramon Llull (1232 – 1316)
Another Franciscan philosopher, in this case born on the island of Mallorca, is Ramon Llull . His main merit is incorporating the moral thought of chivalry in the world of philosophy and theology.
He was a firm defender of mystical thought and contrary to rationalism. He defended the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, a point of view contrary to Thomas Aquinas.
Although he was a Christian missionary in Arab lands, he understood Muslim thought with great interest, and even used it to write one of his main works, the Llibre d’amic e amat, where he explains the relationship between the believer and God as that of a lover to his beloved.
He defended the conversion of the infidels to Christianity through affection, love and without any use of violence or religious imposition.
14. Guillermo Ockham (1285 – 1347)
William Ockhamdedicated his life to extreme poverty. Because he studied whether the papacy really applied the doctrine of poverty that it advocated, it came to be persecuted.
One of the most remarkable events of his life was to accuse Pope John Paul XXII of being a heretic.
He believed that, when trying to explain the world or a natural phenomenon, one should choose to resort to the minimum number of variables, causes and factors.
His thought has been of great influence on Western thought, not only medieval, but also to this day, since it has influenced the creation of modern constitutions of developed countries.
15. Erasmus of Rotterdam
Erasmus of Rotterdamwas a humanist, philosopher, philologist and theologian born in the Netherlands.
He wanted, through the opportunities offered by universities, to convey his ideas about Catholicism and to ask that the Church allow greater freedom of thought.
He considered that the Church had been paralyzed in the thinking of several centuries ago, and since the Renaissance was just around the corner, it was an ideal time to promote a certain religious and scientific renewal.
For Erasmus, theology should be a useful tool for discovering Christ and he was critical of traditional scholasticism, seeing it as a set of meaningless discussions that serve nothing to convert a man to the faith.
He argued that the gospel should be accessible to all people and in all languages.
References
- Chávez, P. (2004). History of philosophical doctrines. National Autonomous University of Mexico: Mexico.
- Leaman , O. ( 1988 ). Averroes and his Philosophy. Routledge: USA.
- Copleston, F. (1960). St. Thomas Aquinas. History of Philosophy Volume II. Retrieved August 31, 2019. Available in https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/33784667/2_Copleston-Tomas.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1522832718&Signature=aiA9XmknZWf1QycxeUsnYwFi54A%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3D2_Copleston-Tomas.pdf
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.