Moran, Platonism Medieval

7/29/2019 Moran, Platonism Medieval

1/10


2/10

PLATONISM, MEDIEVALMedieval Platonism includes the medieval biographicaltradition. the transmission a/the dialogues. a generalau/look JpalllllnlS commitment (0 extramental ideas.intelleclllalism in c o ~ n i t i o n , emphasis on s e l J ~ k n o w l e d . g eas the Wiurce o/philosophizing, and employment of thedialogue [orm. Platonism permeated the philu:iup/zy 0/the Church Fathers, the writings 0/ Anselm andAbelard, the Iwefjih-celltury renuissfllll'f.'. Ihe ItalianRenaissance and the northern renaissance. Indeed themathematical Ireacment of nalllre. which inspired thebirth of modern science in Ihe works oj Kepler andGalileo. stems in part from late medit'val PythagoreanPlatonism.The term 'Plalonism' is of seventeenlh-centuryorigin. Medieval authors spoke not of Plalonism butrather of Plato and of Platonists (platonici i. applyingthe term 'Platonist' 10 an extreme extramenIaI realismabout universals. or a commilment to the extramenlalexistence of the Ideas. Thus John of Salisburycharacterized Bernard of Chartres as 'the foremostPlatonist %ur time' in regard to his theory of ideas.For Aquinas. Plalonisls hold an overly inlellectualistaccount o[ human knowledge. ignoring the mediation ofthe senses. In general. medieval writers agreed withCassiodorus' maxim. Plato theologus. Aristoteleslogicus. Plato was primarily a theologian. an experton the divine. eternal, immaterial and intelligible realm.a classifier of Ihe orders ofangelic and demonic beings.whereas Arislorle was primarily a logician a nd classifierof the forms of argument.Medieval Platonism combines elements drawn fromMiddle Platonism and NeopialOnism. It generallyassumes a dualistic opposition of Ihe divine andtemporal \Vorlds. with the sensible world parterned onunchanging immaterial forms. often expressed asnumbers, It also affirms the soul's immortality anddirect knowledge of intelligible truths. combined with asuspicion of the mortal body and a disrrusr of theevidence of the senses. Neop/atonists sympathized withPorphyry's aim (in his lost De harmonia Platonis etAristotelis) of harmonizing Plato with Aristotle. APlatonic outlook (largely inspired by rhe Timaeus)dominates the early Middle Ages from the sixth rotwelfth centuries. whereas the thirreenth and fourteenthcenturies. Ihe age of scholasticism, witnessed anexplosion in the knowledge of Aristotelian texts. oftentransmitted through Arabic intermediaries. The newinterest in Aristotle was such that. although theTimaeus was widely lectured on during the twelfthand ear(y rhirteenth centuries. by 1255 it \Vas no longerrequired reading at the University of Paris. Interest inPlato re-emerged in the Italian Renaissance with theavailability of genuine works of Plato, Plotinus and

PLATONISM. MEDIEVAL

Proclus. Nevertheless, through Pseudo-Dionysius inparticular, Platonism reverberates in many Ihirteenthcentury authors. especia/(Y in theologyPlatonism and Christianity

l The suurC!!S of mMicval. Platonism3 Platonism in tbe debates about universals'1 TWl'lfIh-


3/10

PLATONISM. MEDIEVAL

nus's doctrine of the various levels of reality (seeMARIUS VICTORINUS). Also according to Augustine.Plato's understanding of Go d as true being mirroredthe Biblical definition of God as '1 Am Who Am'(Exodus 3:14).

Among the most important Augustinian texts formedieval readers were the De Kenesi ad litteram(Literal Commentary on Genesis) and De doctrinaChristiana (On Christian Doctrine) which providedthe medieval world with a semiotics and scripturalhermeneutics. innuencing Cassiodorus. RhabanusMaurus, HUGH OF ST VICTOR.. Peter LUMtlARD,BONAVENTURE, GROSSETESTE an d ERASMUS. Dedoctrina Christiana offered a formidable scnpturaljustification for Christian appropriation of paganthought: just as the Jews neeing captivity had borneof f the spoils of the Egyptians. so too the Christianscould make use of the pagan heritage to teachmorality and religion. The work reiterates Ambrose'sclaim that Plato's wisdom came directly from theProphet Jeremiah. Augustine later recognized thatPlato lived about a century after Jeremiah, bu t hecontinued to entertain the notIOn that Plato couldhave learned about the Bible from contact with holymen in Egypt, and medieval philosophers. includingAbelard an d FICINO, carried on this tradition.However, the Christian Fathers often suspected Platobecause of his commitment to the soul's pre-existenceand transmigration, his polytheism and his silence onthe incarnation (interpreted as an innocent ignoranceby Petrarch and Ficino).

Platonism persisted in theological discussions onthe nature of the divinity. Neoplatonic writers fromEriugena to NICHOLAS OF CUSA thought of Go d asboth beyond being (superessentialis) and yet the formof all created beings (forma omnium). Eriugena callsGo d the 'form of forms' (forma formarum); forTHIERRY OF CHARTRES. God is 'the form of being'(forma essendi). Following the condemnations ofAmaury of Bene and DAVID OF DINANT in 1210,neo-Aristotelian philosophers criticized these formulations as leading to pantheism. Thus AQUINASdeveloped his distinction between the divine beingand the individual being of each thing. However, bothMEISTER ECKHART an d Nicholas of Cusa laterreapplied the formula forma omnium to God.Aside from theology and cosmology. Platonismwas evident in medieval epistemology, ethics andsocial an d political thought. The Platonic emphasison certain knowledge over opinion, on intellectualknowledge as opposed to the unreliable offerings ofthe senses, entered into the Middle Ages throughAugustine. The Platonic doctrine of recollectioncontinued in the Augustinian form of illuminationism(for example, in Bonaventure), whereby the mind is43 2

said to know by being illuminated from within (eitherby a natural or a divine light or by a combination ofboth) (see AUGUSTINIANISM). Plotinus' identificationof evil with privation and non-being was repeated byAugustine and Aquinas. In the medieval penod.Platonism in mathematics. the view that mathematicalentities (such as numbers and classes) exist separa telyin their own right, took the lorm of a defence of thereality of universals as real things (res) against thenominalist position that universals were merely words(voces) (see BURlDAN, J.: UNIVERSALS).2 The sources of medieval PlatonismUntil the fifteenth century. the only Platomc textsavailable in the Latin west were part of the Timaeus(17a-53b) and, from the mid-twelfth century, the,\.feno an d Phaedo. Medieval Platonism was largelyindirect, filtered through the writings of the ChristianFathers, especially Augustine. Gregory of Nyssa'sPlatonism innuenced Eriugena. Aspects of Platonism(for example, the theory of ideas) were also transmitted through Latin writers including CICERO.SENECA, Martianus Capella. Aulus Gellius. Macrobius, BOETHIUS, Cassiodorus and Isidore (see EN-CYCLOPEDISTS, MEDtEVAL). Medieval discussions ofPlatonic ideas were based nOlon Platonic dialogues(for example, Aquinas shows no evidence of havingread the Meno), but primarily on Augustine's d i s c u s ~sion of ideas in his De diversis quaestionibus LXXXIII(On Eighty-Three Different Questions), Question 46.which itself drew on Cicero's Academics 1.\ 9. ForAugustine, the Platonic Ideas (ideae) were reallydivine paradigms in the mind of God. Augustinedistinguished the divine ideas from the logoi orrationes of things, created forms which guaranteedthe continuity of the species through time, a version ofthe Stoic seminal reasons discussed chieny in his Degenesi ad Iilteram. Similarly, medieval people learnedof Platonic arguments for the immortality of the soulfrom Cicero's Tusculan Disputations.

The Timaeus was the only Platonic dialogue widelycirculating through the whole medieval period, available in the fourth-century Latin translation ofCALCIDIUS. Cicero's earlier translation (De universo)was almost unknown in the early Middle Ages(although Augustine expressly cites it in De civitareDei XIII.l6). Also in wide circulation in the MiddleAges was Calcidius' extensive. eclectic Commentary onrhe Timaeus, mingling elements of Middle P l a t o ~ i s m(inspired by NUMENIUS) and Porphyrian Neoplatonism. It popularized a Middle Platonist view of Platofor the Middle Ages, in which the cosmos isconstructed from three principles: God (deus), form(exemplum) and matter (silva). Th e first principle,


4/10

God. is the Supreme Good. cause of all and end or all.beyond substance and nature an d above ail Intellect.God is also charactenzed as free will an d asprovidence. The second pnnciple is matter. understood as neither sensible nor mtelligible. lacking alltorm. The divine mind informs matter as soul vlvitiesbodv. The third principle is form. the intelligible worldof the Ideas. understood as God's thoughts. Theworld soul. understood as made by God. IS a kind ofsecond mind. Calcidius was frequently glossed in thetwelfth century in particular: of interest to medievalwriters was his discussion of the lour elements an d hisnumber speculation. Interest in numbers was Justifiedby Scripture. and buttressed by Augusllne in Demusica and by Boethius' De arilhmelica. an d by othertexts that communicated Pythagorean Platonism tothe West (for example, Martianus Capella's De nl/pllisPhil%giae el Mercurii (The Marriage of Philologyan d Mercury)). Calcldius' Commeman' includesreferences to the argument in Phaecirus that the soulis self-moving, the companson in TheaelelUS of themind with a wax tablet and the Republic's comparisonof the Form of the Good with the sun.

Macrobius' Commenlaril/s in sommum Scipionis(Commentary on the Dream of Scipio) was anotherinfluential source of Porphyrian Neoplatomsm. especially important for twelfth-century philosophers suchas WILLIAM OF CONCHES. Macrobius focuses on thefinal section of Cicero's On the Repub/ic. his version ofPlato's Republic. which is known as 'Scipio's Dream'(somnium Scipionis). Here a dream is recounted whichis reminiscent of the Myth of Er. providing an accountof the destiny of human souls emphasizing the need tolive a life of virtue and hold the body in contempt.Macrobius' allegorical interpretation offers a typicallyNeoplatonic cosmology including the three hypostases. One. Mind and Soul. The account of the worldsoul includes a discussion of the nature of the self

m o v ~ r . Macrobius gives an account of the processionof the soul from God down through the Homenc'golden chain' of beings (see ENCYCLOPEDISTS.MEDIEVAL ~ 3 ) . Martianus Capella's fourth-centuryallegorical compendium of the Liberal Arts. the Denupliis Phil%giae el Mercurii. also conveyed Platonicsentiments (see ENCYCLOPEDISTS. MEDIEVAL 4). asdid Cassiodorus' lnsliluliones (Institutions) an dIsidore of Seville's Elym%giae (Etymologies) (seeENCYCLOPEDISTS. MEDIEVAL ~ 6 - 7 ) . These workswere influential from the ninth century to the twelfthcentury m particular.

The most influential work of BOETHIUS was his Deconso/atione phllosophiae (Consolation of Philosophy). which transmitted a Stoicized Platonism tothe medieval world. This work presents the Platonicview that the soul can become forgetful of itself

PLATONISM, MEDIEVAL

through immerSIOn in the affairs of the body. but thatit can recover ItS essenllal rational nature an d attainto the vision of God. Several poems m the Deconso/alione phi/osophiae transmit in condensed forma Platonic cosmology. especially II I metrum 9. '0 quiperpelua mundum ratione gubernas' (You. who inperpetual order. govern the universe). which waswidely commented on from the mnth centuryonwards (for example. by Remigius of Auxerre).Also from the mnth century. medieval authors wereexposed to another blend of Platonism deriving fromPROCLUS and emphasizing the transcendence of thedivine. to the extent that the divine is better describedas non-being than as being. These Christian texts.purporting to be written by Dionysius. St Paul'sconvert at Athens. and thus as ancient and authenticas the Gospels themselves, were in reality piousforgeries produced by a sixth-century Christianfollower of Proclus. Pseudo-Dionysius' De divinisnomimbl/s (The Divine Names) examines scripturaland philosophical appellations for the divine andargues that they all fail to fully express the nature ofthe highest being. who is nameless an d beyond allnames. Names are really processions from the divinityand do not reach the divinity itself. Negations. in fact.express the nature of the divine more accurately thanaffirmations. This theme is expressed even moreradically in the De mySlica lhe%gia (MysticalTheology). which had enormous influence on thelater medieval mystical tradition, transmitting to theLatin West the Platonism of the Parmenides in theform of negative theology. Pseudo-Dionysius had anenormous intluence on ALBERT THE GREAT.AQUINAS. BONAVENTURE an d GROSSETF.STE amongothers. particularly through his concept of the selfdiffusion of the good (bonum diffusivum sui), hisprinciple that all things have being through being one,an d his notion that the being of all things is the 'abovebeing' of the divinity (esse omnium eSI superesseltvinitacls) (see PSEUDO-DION"SIUS).Both Boethius and Pseudo-Diony.sius contributedto the development of medieval Platonism bycontinuing to emphasize the primacy, transcendenceand unspeakability of the one. good God. PseudoDionysius. however, following Proclus. formalized thesystem of hierarchical levels postulated to existbetween the divine One and the formless nothing,chiefly in two books: De cae/esti hierarchia (TheCelestial Hierarchy) and De ecciesiaslica hierarchia(The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy ). Influenced by PseudoDionysius' Proclean tormulations, medieval Platoniststhought of reality as a senes of ontological levelswhich proceed from the One right down to thenebulous realm of formless matter.10hannes Scott us ERI UGEN A, an Irishman who

433


5/10

PLATONISM. MEDIEVAL

resided at the Carolingian court. produced in theninth century the tirst syntheSIS of the Platonism ofAugustine an d Pseudo-Dionyslus. Eriugena's Platonism is indirect. through Greek Christian Platonists.Basil and Gregory of Nyssa as well as PseudoDionyslus. Though aware of the theological dilTerences between the AugustInian and Dionysian traditions. he regarded them as dilTerent expressions of theone truth. Eriugena's dialogue Periphvseon (On theDivision of Nature) developed a Neoplatonic cosmological system which syntheSIzed Dionysian an dAugustinian Platonism. All thIngs proceed from an dreturn to the One in an eternal cosmic cycle (exitus-reditus). which IS at the same time God's selfarticulation. The spatio-temporal world which appears solid and corporeal IS really an incorporealworld of qualities which emanates from the primordial causes. which are eternal but created ideas in themind of God. Eriugena boldlv identifies Augustine'sprimary causes with Pseudo-Dionysius' divine willings. thus synthesizing eastern and western interpretations of the Platonic ideas.All things must return to their source. and thedivine ideas will be reunited in God. Human souls areoriginally one with the One. but In their outgoing theybecome shrouded in appearances. generating thecorporeal body. Each will also return to be one inthe Logos. though each soul will remain at the leveldictated by the level of its intellectual contemplation.Eriugena follows Gregory of Nyssa in claiming thatcorporeal body is merely an illusion produced by thecommingling of incorporeal qualities. an d that thedivision of the sexes is a consequence of the Fall. Th euntormed matter trom whIch Go d creates IS reallyGod's own hidden. transcendent nature. AlthoughEriugena refers to the world soul (Pf'riphyseon 1.476c),drawing on Macrobius an d Virgil. it does no t playasignificant part in his system bu t perhaps is to beidentified with the Holy Spirit. ill latel twdflhcentury Platonism.

3 Platonism in the debates about universalsThe medieval debate over the ontological status ofuniversals (signified by general terms such as 'animal'or 'man') re-enacts the dispute between PLATO an dARISTOTLE over the nature of forms. This problememerges in Porphyry's lsagoge (Introduction) where.introducing Aristotle's Categories. he raises a numberof questions while commenting on Aristotle's Deinterpretatione (Peri hermeneias) I 16a 3-18, including whether universals had rea l e:'


6/10

proposition. the dictum (what is said). which is neitheridentical with the words no r with the thing bu t isjomethmg intermediate.

4 Twelfth-century PlatonismIn the eleventh century. Platonism. mediated throughAugustine's works. is evident in ANSELM. mostnotably in the Monologion an d particularly in thiswork's acceptance of the existence of the forms andthe self-existent highest good. Th e twelfth century sawa Platonic renaissance. centred mainly in the cathedralschools of Chartres and 5t Victor (see CHARTRES.SCHOOL OF; HUGH OF ST VICTOR). an d wascharacterized by cosmological speculation inspiredby the Timaeus. combined with Boethius. Macrobiusand Martianus Capella. Th e challenge was to producea complete scientific picture in conformity withGenesis from the fragment of Plato's natural philosophy which was known.

From Philo an d the Middle Platonists onwards. theparallels between Plato's cosmology in the Timaeusand the account of creation in Genesis provided theopportunity for Platonic commentaries on the workof the six days (the Hexaemera). Timaeus 4lc wasinterpreted as teaching that the world is created by thewill of Go d who is . Father of all'. ABELARD deducedfrom the Timaeus that God - the most perfect being -had created the most perfect world. a doctrine whichwas revived by LEIBNIZ in the seventeenth century.For twelfth-century authors, Plato's literary methodof exposition was similar to Christian parable; Platotaught using fables an d symbols (integumenw, or'coverings') which the commentator must interpret.Using Calcidius' commentary on the Timaeus (see2). twelfth-century Platonists developed an accountof the world in terms of the four elements and interms of complex num ber symbolisms. Amongcommentators on the Timaeus. perhaps the mostPlatonic were Bernard of Chartres. Thierry ofChartres an d William of Conches. These writersstress the relation between macrocosm and microcosmo and harmony between the divine and createdspheres. WILLIAM OF CONCHES. who probably taughtat Chartres. is the most important of the twelfthcentury Platonists. and his Timaeus commentary isthe most extensive medieval commentary on thatdialogue. For William, the Timaeus is a unifiedtheological work displaying the beneficence of thecreator. He also commented on Boethius' De conso/alione philosophiae an d on Macrobius, as well ascomposing two systematic works. Philosophia mundiand a revised version entitled the Dragmaticon, set inthe form of a dialogue between the Duke ofNormandy an d the Philosopher. Many Pythagorean

PLATONISM. MEDIEVAL

clements and much number symbolism was associatedwith the articulation of cosmology in the twelfthcentury. THIERRY OF CHARTRES in his De sex dierumoperihus (Concerning the Works of the Six Days) seescreatIOn as an articulation of unity into plurality.follOWIng the suggestion of CALCLDIUS.William. also following Calcidius. sees the Timaeusas a work of natural justice showing how God createsand governs the world. God has established anunvaryIng natural law which is discoverable at theheart of thIngs. For him. God creates the intellectualrealm and allows other causes (such as stars) togovern the lower world. thus proposing a doctrine ofmediated creation at variance with Augustine's singleact view (see NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. MEDIEVAL). Th eChartres school followed Bernard of Chartres inpositing a level of created forms between Go d an dsensible reality. influenced by Eriugena's primordialcauses and Augustine's seminal reasons (see 2).Seeking to reconcile Plato and Aristotle, as John ofSalisburv reports. Bernard of Chartres posited intermediarIes between God and created things. Thesenative forms (jormae nacivae) link the eternal archetypes to passive matter (hyle) (see CHARTRES.SCHOOL OF).

William's account of creation discusses the role ofthe four elements in detail. Like others (for example,Adelard of Bath). William saw himself as expandingon the teaching of Plato: 'I t is not my intention toexpound here the words of Plato. but to set down herethe view of natural scientists [physictl concerningsubstances: but even if I have not expounded Plato'swords. I have said all that he said about elements, an dmore' (Dragmaticon. quoted in Dronke 1988: 309). Heattempts to define the elements an d addresses thequestion as to whether they are perceptible by thesenses and corporeal an d whether the division ofmatter ends with these indivisibles (atoms). Williamtakes the view that the four elements are corporeal,unchanging substances which. however, are onlyfound in combination. The elements then ar ecorporeal but are actually grasped by intellect sincethey are to o small to be perceived by the senses ontheir own. Though they are unchangeable. they arecreated. God first made the four elements fromnothmg an d then everything else ou t of the fourelements. except the soul of man. which God madedirectly.A major challenge to Christianizing Plato's cosmology was to interpret the role played by thePlatonic Demiurge (see PLATO 16). Christian Platonists were initially quick to identify the Demiurgewith the Logos. the Second Person of th e Trinity. Thisallowed them to make a further identification betweenthe Holy Spirit and th e world soul (anima mundt),

43 5


7/10

PLATON[SM. MED[EVAL

which in the Timaeus enlivens the material cosmos.William of Conches initially. in his commentary onMacrobius. quite boldly identified the world soul ofthe Timaeus with the Holy Spirit. as Abelard wasalleged to have done. The Council of Sens hadcondemned the identification. attributing it to Abelard. William then appears to have grown morecautious. simply offering a number of different viewsin his Philosophla Book One (the world soul is theHoly Spirit. or a natural force implanted in things byGod. or a certain incorporeal substance in bodies)an d making no reference to the world soul in hisDragmaticon.

Bernard Silvestris. in his partly versified. allegoricalaccount of the creation. the Cosmographia, makes useof many Platonic ideas from the Timaeus. includingthat of a world soul personified as Endelichia (whoalso appears in Martianus Capella an d Cicero), but ina manner quite different from William of Conches.Bernard has a world of ideas (Noys) and a domain ofunformed matter (personified as Silva - Calcidius'term for matter). Gradually Noys imposes order onSilva until the whole world has been made. Thesensible world imitates the intelligible: man is amicrocosm of the macrocosm. Bernard also saw Platoas beginning with two principles: unilaS et diversum.unity and diversity (see BERNARD OF TOURS). Williamof Conches explicitly connects Plato with Pythagoras.an d argues that since number possesses the highestperfection, nothing can exist without number. Another Platonic cosmology in versified form was Alanof Lillc's DI.' planCfr! nalUrae (The Lament of Nature),a dialogue between the poet and Nature, which wasinfluenced by Bernard Silvestris.5 Platonism in the thirteenth centuryThirteenth-century knowledge of Plato drew on theusual sources in Augustine and Latin writers. but alsogained new insights into Plato from criticismscontained in the rediscovered works of Aristotle an dhis Arabic commentators, especially Averroes (see [BNRUSHD). Rather stiff literal translations of the Menoan d Phaedo were produced by Henricus Aristippus inthe 11505; although listed in the library of theSorbonne after 1271, these texts were not muchstudied and had little influence. Similarly, William ofMoerbeke's translation of part of the Parmenides withProclus' commentary also had little influence untilpopularized by Nicholas of Cusa. Moerbeke alsotranslated Produs' Elements 0/ Theology which wasavailable to Thomas Aquinas. Moerbeke's follower.the Flemish encyclopedist Henry Bate, was one of thefirst to be able to discern the difference betweenPlato's own texts and the later Platonism of Prod us.43 6

[n general. however. Platonism in the thirteenthcentury survived mainly in the universities' theologyfaculties, as the arts faculty syllabuses were graduallyreorganized to accommodate the new Aristotelianism.

One of the most inlluential texts for thirteenthcentury philosophers was the Sentences of PeterLOMBARD. Lombard stated that Plato had threeprinciples to explain the cosmos: matter. forms andthe divine artificer. whereas Aristotle had only two:matter and species. This passage was regularlycommented on to clarify whether Plato and Aristotleaccepted the doctrine of creation. and whether theythought that creation was compatible with thebeginninglessness of the world (as Aquinas held). Inhis commentary on the Sentences, ALBERT THEGREAT acknowledged that Plato had posited a worldof forms that existed independently of the mind ofGod. Albert's outlook was strongly influenced byNeoplatonism and no doubt helped to shape thePlatonism in the thought of his student. ThomasAquinas.

Though AQUINAS is the great exponent of the newAristotelianism. adopting Aristotle's criticisms of theunivocal understanding of the good in Plato an dother criticisms of the existence of the Ideas. yet heremains quite Platonic in other domains. for example,in his account of participation (how created thingsparticipate in being and receive the gift of esse fromthe divine being) which was strongly influenced byPseudo-Dionysius. AqUinas sides with Aristotleagainst Platonism. which he sees as a doctrine thatoverstressed the mlnd's intellectual capacities.. claiming that humans could know immaterial formsdirectly without mediation of the senses. In Summacontra gentiles \.13.10. in his discussion of theargument for the existence of Go d from motion.Aquinas explicitly discusses the difference between thePlatonic an d Aristotelian conceptions of the nature ofmotion, drawing on Phaedrus 245c. His source.however, is no t directly Plato but more probably thetradition stemming from Calcidius an d Macrobius.

Robert GROSSETESTE translated and commentedon Pseudo-Dionysius. His De luce (On Light) offers atypically Neoplatonic cosmology and metaphysics oflight. Grosseteste's account of the soul weds Aristotelian naturalism with a Neoplatonic account of thehigher prinCiples of intellect and reason.

Platonism in the thirteenth century is oftenassociated with members of the Franciscan orderand with a mathematical approach to the understanding of nature. RICHARD RUFUS OF CORNWALLdefended Plato's theory of ideas against Aristotle'scriticisms. and Bonaventure's Itinerarium mentis inDeum (Journey of the Mind to God) is thoroughlyPlatonic (see BONAVENTURE). Bonaventure accepted

t

a form of Augu,nized version ofNIANISM). For B,of divine things. It ure's sixth stepGod refers to the

The later thinlan Averroist Piathe knowledgeBRABANT. for c'than Aquinas halknowledge of SCIof Ghent's doctn(esse essenciae)HENRY OF GHF.tonic. Proclean-usoul. and hiS amsoul parallels thethe soul in pagNISM). The GemFREIBERG andopenly favourablwriting a comlTheology.

NICHOLAS 01William of MlParmenides to afamiliar with PreNicholas develoof the nature 01and reconciles'coincidence of Iechoing Eriugenopposites' (oPP(twelfth-century IFour Philosoph,infinite sphere \\circumference isDe Ii non aliudimmanence andignorantia (Onpresses the Plat,separately fromforms. rejectinmisunderstandiand Thierry of(forma omnium)'form of forms'forms exist as 01things.See also: ARIS'[CHARTRES. SoGROSSETESTE, INEOPLATONISM


8/10

a form of Augustinian illumlnationism. a Chnstiaoized version of Platonic recollection (see AUGUSTI'NIANISM). Fo r Bonaventure. sensIble things are tracesof divine things. In typically PlatonIc terms. Bonaventure's sixth step in the mind's advancement towardsGod refers to the Good beyond being.

Th e later thirteenth century saw a re-emergence ofan Averroist Platonism. particularly with regard tothe knowledge of separate substances. SIGER OFBRABANT, for example. took a more Platonic linethan Aquinas had done in arguing for the soul's directknowledge of separate intelligible substances. Henryof Ghent's doctrine of the separate being of essences(esse essentiael was also considered Platonist (seeHENRY OF GHENT). Meister Eckhart held Neoplatonic, Proclean-inspired theories of the nature of thesoul, and his affirmation of an uncreated part of thesoul parallels the doctrine of the undescended part ofthe soul in pagan Neoplatonism (see NEOPLA TO'NI5M). Th e German Dominican wnters DIETRICH OFFREIBERG an d Berthold of Moosburg are moreopenly favourable to Plato an d Proclus. with Bertholdwriting a commentary on Proclus' Elements 0/Theology.

NICHOLAS OF CUSA appears to have introducedWilliam of Moerbeke's Latin translation of theParmenides to a medieval audience. an d he was alsofamiliar with Proclus' Commentarv on che Parmenides.Nicholas developed a strongly Ncoplatonic accountof the nature of the divine being who so transcendsand reconciles all oppositions as to be called the'coincidence of opposites' (coincidencia OpposilOrum) ,echoing Eriugena's view of Go d as 'the opposite ofopposites' (opposiCio OpposilOrum). Drawing on thetwelfth-century hermetic text The Book o f he Twenty.Four Philosophers. Nicholas represents God as aninfinite sphere whose centre is everywhere an d whosecircumference is nowhere. E l s e w h e ~ e , fo r example inpe Ii non aliud (On the Not-Other>. he develops thettnmanence and transcendence of God. In De dOClaignorantia (On Learned Ignorance), Nicholas ex presses the Platonic view that forms or notions existseparately from the things of which they are theforms, rejecting Aristotle's criticisms as shallowmisunderstandings, Here Nicholas follows Eriugena, and Thierry of Chartres in calling God 'form of all'(forma omnium), 'form of being' (forma essendi) an d'form of forms' (forma /ormarum). For Nicholas, allforms exist as one in Go d but 'contractedly' in createdthings.

See also: ARISTOTELIAN ISM, MEDIEVAL; AVERROISM: CHARTRES, SCHOOL OF; GILBERT OF POITIERS'GIlOSSETESTE, R.: MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY; ,NEOPLATONISM; PLATONISM IN ISLAMIC

PLATONISM. MEDIEVAL

PHILOSOPHY; PLATONISM, EARLY AND MIDDLE:PLATONISM, RENAISSANCE; PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS

References and further readingAertsen, 1. (1992) 'The Platonic Tendency of Tho

mism an d the Foundations of Aquinas' Philosophy', Medioevo 18: 53-70. (A recent criticalassessment of the impact of Platonism on Thomas.)* Alain of Lille (c. I 120-1203) De planctu naturae (TheLament of Nature), ed. N. Haring, Scudi Medievaliser. 3, 19, 1978: 797-879. (Critical edition of Latintext only.)

* Augustine (401-14) De Genesi ad Ii((eram (The LiteralCommentary on Genesis), trans. 1. Taylor. NewYork: Newman Press, 1982, 2 vols. (First fulllength English translation of this hugely influentialcommentary on Genesis. An indispensable sourcebook of Augustinian ideas on creation, the seminalprinciples an d the nature of man,)

- (413-27) De civiwce Dei (The City of God),trans. H. Bettenson, Harmondsworth: Penguin,1984. (English translation of Augustine's maturediscussion of the Christian goal of creating aheavenly kingdom in the light of the difficulties ofthe earthly kingdom of the Roman Empire.)

Beierwaltes, W. (ed.) (1969) PlalOnismus in derPhilosophie des Mi((elallers (Platonism in MedievalPhilosophy), Darmstadt: Wissenschaftl icheBuchgesellschaft. (A collection of important articlesin German on the influence of Platonism in theMiddle Ages, including the ground-breaking 1916article by Clemens Baeumker. 'Der Platonismus imMittelalter'. )

. (1990) 'Eriugena's Platonism', Hermachena 149:53-72. (Authoritative article seeking to defineEriugena's Platonism, arguing that Eriugena's Platonism is indirect, transmitted through theologicalauthorities.)

Bernard of Chartres (c.lllO--c.1125) Glosae superPlaconem (Glosses on Plato), ed. P.E. Dutton. TheGlosae super Platonem of Bernard 0/ Charcres,Toronto, Ont.: Pontifical Institute of MedievalStudies, 1991. (Contains critical text of the commentary on Timaeus with an excellent introductionin English on the nature of the commentary, with adiscussion of Bernard's concept of native forms(formae nacivae).)

Chenu, M.-D. (1968) Nature. Man and Society in cheTwelfch Century. trans. 1. Taylor an d L. K: Little,Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Scholarlybu t readable account of the twelfth-century renaissance.)

Cherniss. H.F. (1930) The Platonism 0/ Gregory 0/Nyssa. Berkeley, CA: University of CalifornIa Press.437


9/10

PLATONISM. MEDIEVAL

(The standard account of the Platonism of theCappadocian Father who strongly intluenced theformation of Christian Platonism.)

Copenhaver. RP. an d Schmitt. C.R (1992) Platonism. in BP. Copenhaver (ed.) Renaissance Philosophv. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 127-95.(Excellent survey of the nature of Platonism in theRenaissance. )

Dronke. P. (1974) Fabula: Explora tions into the Usesof Myth in Medieval Platonism. Leiden: Brill.(Good discussion of medieval understanding ofPlatonic allegory. the world soul an d the cosmicegg.)

- - (ed.) (1988) A Historv of Twelfth-Cenrurl'Weslern Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Indispensable. Contains detailedaccounts of philosophical developments in thetwelfth century. especially the chapters 'The Platonic Inheritance' by T. Gregory, 'Philosophy.Cosmology an d the Twelfth-century Renaissance'by W. Wetherbee an d 'Thierry of Chartres' byDronke.)

Dutton. PE. (1984) 'The Uncovering of the G/osaesuper Platonem of Bernard of Chartres'. Medin'alStudies 46: 192-221. (Discusses Dutton's reasonsfor attributing the twelfth-century commentary onthe Timaeus to Bernard of Chartres.) Eriugena. Johannes Scottus (c.867) Periphyseofl (Onthe Division of Nature). trans. I.-P. SheldonWilliams. revised by 1.1. O'Meara, Montreal:Bellarmin: Washington. DC: Dumbarton Oaks.1987. (Complete English translation of the Periphyseon.)

Garin. E. (1955) 'Ricerche sulle traduzioni di Platonenella prima meta del sec. XV ' (Research on thePlatonic Tradition in the First Half of the FifteenthCentury), in Medioevo e Rinascimento: Studi inonore di Bruno Nardi. Florence. (Garin is the classicsource for the study of the intluence of Plato in thelate medieval an d Renaissance period.)

- - (1958) Studi suI platonismo medievale (Studies inMedieval Platonisml. Florence: Le Monnier. (important scholarly research on Platonism.)

Gersh. S. (1986) Middle Platonism and Neop la IOnism.The Latin Tradition. Notre Dame, IN: University ofNotre Dame Press. 2 vols. (Well-documented.authoritative survey of the Latin Platonic traditionincluding Cicero. Apuleius. Ca\Cidius, Macrobius.Martlanus Capella an d Boethius.)

Gibson, M. (1969) "The Study of the Timaeus in theEleventh and Twelfth Centuries', PensiamenlO 25:183-94. (Useful critical discussion on the influenceof Calcidius on twelfth-century writers.)

Gregory,' T (/955) Amlna Mundi (World Sou/),4]H

Florence. (Definitive study in Italian ofmedieval tradition of the world soul.)

- (1958) PlalOniSmO medievale: studi e ricerchi(Medieval PlatonIsm: Studies an d Research), RomCl.Instltuto Stonco Itahano per tI Medio Evo. (One ofthe most Important scholarly studies of medievalPlatonism.)r(1974) 'Abelard et Platon' (Abelard an d PI;l(o), iIiE.M. Buytaert (ed.) Peter Abelard, Louvain. (Astudy of Abelard's Platonism.) ).

Hankins, 1. (1990) Platonism in the Italian Rena/}..lance, Leiden: Brill. 2 :'015. (Well-documented,to-date cntlcal study at Renaissance Platonism.)Haren, M. (1992) Medieval Thought: The W e s t ~Intellectual Tradition from Antiquity LO the Thir-teenth Century, 2nd edn, London: Macmillan:(Excellent, extremely readable survey of medievalintellectual history.)Henle. R.1. (1956) SI. Thomas Aquinas and Platonism'Th e Hague: Nijhoff. (Collects together with usefui

c ~ m m e n t s Thomas' references to Plato throughouthiS works. Texts are given in Latin only.): .

Klibansky, R. (1982) The Continuin' 0/ the PlatonicTradition during the Middle Ages, London: TheWarburg Institute: Millwood, NY: Kraus International Publications. (Re-issue of 1939 edition withsupplementary chapters. Th e classic study on thellamlllissiull of Plalonism in Middle Agesfocusmg on the knowledge of the original textsan d the history of their translation.) ~ : ' \

Knowles, D. (1988) The Evolution 0/ MedievaiThought, 2nd edn. London: Longman. (Reliablehistorical survey of medieval thoughL) !

Little, A. (1950) The Platonic Heritage o f Thomism,Dublin: Golden Eagle Press. (Survey of Platonicintluence on Thomas. ! ~

Macrobius (probably c.430) Commentary on theDream of Scipio, trans. WHo Stahl. New York:Columbia University Press, 1952. (Edition with.introduction an d notes. Extremely important sourceof Platonic ideas, especially from ninth totwelfth centuries_)Martianus Capella (perhaps c.470) De nuptiislogiae et Mercurii (The Marriage of PhilologyMercury), trans. W. H. Stahl, R. Johnson an dBurge in Martianus Capella and Ihe Seven . 'Arts, vol. 2, New York: Columbia University P r e s ~1977. (Complete English translation of this sprawl . :ing commentary on all aspects of knowledge;divided into the seven liberal arts. Th e section on,'Dialectic' is an important compendium of p h i l ~ :sophical ideas from diverse sources.) . ' ~ ~ .McEvoy, 1. (1982) The Philosophy oj Robert Grosse,'rteste, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Comprehensive, ..study of the philosophy ofGrosseteste, emphasiSiDl


10/10

continuity between his sCientifIc an d theologicalwith an excellent discussIOn of light

CS. )of Cusa (IMO) [)c donora 19noranlw (On

Ignorance!. cd. an d trans. J Horkins.0/ Cusa on Lcarned Ignorance: A Translaand Appraisal oj Dc [)oc{(J Ignorantia. 2nd edn.s. MN: Banning. 1985. (English transla-

with commentilry of an lillpOrlant rifteenthtext which develors a negative theological.)

R.W (1970) 'Ilurnarllsrn an d the School of'. in R.W. Southern (cd) Medieval Hllmanand Other Studies. Oxford: Blackwell. 61-85.

979) Platonism. ScholasliC .i/cthod ([lid Ihco/Charrres. Reading: University of Reading.t study which urdates and revises Southearlier account of twelfth-century hurnantsm.

issue with the traditional view of a Chartres.)

1982) 'The Schools of Pam an d the School of. in R. L. Benson. G. Constable an d C. D.(eds). Rcnaissance lIlid RCIIClml ill IheCenturv. Cambridge. \1A: Harvard Unl

Press, t'l ] - ]7 . (Critical reconSideration ()fof the so-called School of Charlres.!

.v. (ed.) (1994) Fl,'c TeXIS on Ihe MedlCl'{{1of Universals: Porphrry. Socthius. Abelard.

SCOIUS, Ockham. Indianapolis. IN: Hacket!.. t selection of the key texts in thedebate on universals.)

(1990) 'Plato latinus. In J Hamesse and M(eds) RenCOnlfl'S de cilliures d([ns 1([ plllloso

vale. Traduc/[ons CI IraducteufS detardive au Xlfe sihle. ACies du Co!!oquede Cassino. Louvain-La-Neuve: Instl

Medievales. 301-16. ( Up-to-date,ve survey of the Latin tradition of Plato.)

W (1972) Pla/onism and POe/f!' in tlzeCentury, Princeton, NJ: Princeton' Univer(Excellent on Intellectual an d literaryto twelfth-century poetry. especially)

Conches (e. II ]()) Glo.\'{Jc super PlalOncmon Plato!. cd. E. Jeauneau, Paris:(William's glosses on the Timaeus.)

DERMOT M O RA N

P L A T O N I S M . R E N A I S S A N C E

PLATONISM, RENAISSANCEThough it never successfully challenged Ihe dominance0/ Aristotelian school philosophy, the revival of Platoand Platonism was an important phenomenon in Ihephilosophical life of the Renaissance and cO!llribUiedmuch to the new, more pluralistiC philosophical climale0/ the /iftee!llh and sixteenth cenll/ries. Medievalphilosophers had had access only to a few works bvPlato himself. and. while the indirect influence of th'ePlatonic tradition ll'as pervasive. few if any Westernmedieval philosophers identified themselves as Platonists. In the Renaissance. by contrast. Weslern thinkershad access to Ihe complete corpus of Plalo's works aswell as 10 Ihe works of Plotinus and many late ancientPlatonists; there ll'as also a small bUi influential groupof thinkers who identified themselves as ChrislianPlatonists. In the fifteenth cenll/ry, Ihe most important0/ these were to be found in the circles 0/ CardinalBessarion (1403-72) in Rome and of Marsilio Ficino(1433-99) in Florence. Platonic themes were alsocentral to the philosophies 0/ Nicholas 0/ Cusa( 1401-64) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola( 1463-94), the two most powerful and original thinkersof the QuatlrocenlO. While the dominant interpretationof the Plalonic dialogues throughout the Renaissanceremained NeoplulOllic, there lVas also a minoritvtradition that revived the sceptical inlerprelation ; fthe dialogues that had been characterislic of the earlyHellenistic Academy.

In the sixtee!llh century Platonism became a kind 0/'counterculturaf' phenomenon, and Plato came to be animpor tant aUlhoritI' lo r scientists and cosmologists whowished to challenge Ihe Aristotelian mainstream: menlike Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Francesco Patrizi andGalileo. Nevertheless, the Platonic dialogues wererarely taught in the humanistic schools 0/ fifteenthcentury Italy. Plato was first established as animportant school aUlhor in the sixteenth century, firstat the University of Paris and later in Germanuniversities. In Itazv chairs 0/ Platonic philosophybegan to be established for the first time in the 1570s.Though the hegemony 0/ ArislOtelianism was in the endbroken by the new philosophy of Ihe seventeenthcentury, Plato's aUlhority did much to loosen the gripof A ristotle on the leaching 0/ natural philosophy in theuniversities of late Renaissance Europe.I The revival of Plato2 Renaissance anti-Platonism3 Cardinal Bessarion and the Roman academy4 The Platonism of the Florentine school5 Plato in humanist schools and in universities6 Pla to and the new cosmologies

439

Moran, Platonism Medieval

Documents

Transcript of Moran, Platonism Medieval