Copyright © 1998 R.J. Kilcullen
Coordinator: John Kilcullen, W6A 127, 850-8810, fax (not for essays) 850-8892.
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. V.E. Watts (Penguin, 1969)
Course materials: volume 1, Readings, and volume 2, Lectures and Supplementary Readings, from the Universities Coop Bookshop.
Since you will get the lectures on audio cassette, there will be only one class, a discussion class, each week. It will be held on Thursdays, 10 am, in the Philosophy Seminar Room, W6A707. Please come well prepared, with the week's reading done and tutorial paper written, ready to ask and answer questions. If you are enrolled as an external student come to the weekly discussion class if you can; otherwise feel free to phone (9850-8810 day, or 9144-2322 evening) when you want to talk about the work. There is no vacation school.
(1) Nine tutorial papers, each of about 250 words, in answer to one of the 'Questions for Discussion' for each of any nine weeks. At the end of the course these will be graded; value 10%. Internal students must hand in each paper at the tutorial at which the question will be discussed. External students may send them in batches, on March 27, May 8 and June 18.
(2) A draft essay of about 2,500 words, worth 10%, on any topic from the list below, due on April 20.
(3) A final essay, worth 40%, either a thorough revision of the draft or a new essay on another of the topics below. The final essay is due on June 18. The draft must be handed in again with the final essay.
(4) A final examination, worth 40%.
1. If God knows what we will do, do we have free choice?
2. Does Anselm's Prosologion argument succeed in proving God's existence?
3. Does Thomas Aquinas succeed in reconciling God's immutability with the religious beliefs of Christians?
4. What is the case (including answers to objections) for the eternity of the world?
5. What is the problem of universals, and what is the solution?
Three hours, three questions to be done. Question 1 (compulsory) will be to discuss the significant aspects of any two passages from about eight drawn from the required reading (i.e. Boethius' Consolation and the Readings); the other two questions will be drawn from questions to be announced early in June.
March 5, first meeting
March 12, Stoicism in Boethius' Consolation
* Why, according to Philosophy, is not wealth/power/glory/pleasure
needed for happiness?
March 19, The overall argument of Boethius' Consolation
* What is Philosophy's argument to prove that there is a substance
which is the Good itself?
* Why does God's providence allow exile and death to be inflicted on
the good?
* Is any future event contingent?
March 26, Anselm's Monologion
* Analyse some of the arguments of Monologion chapters 15-17.
April 2, Anselm's Proslogion
* Explain and evaluate some part of Gaunilon's criticism of Anselm's
argument in the Proslogion for the existence of God.
April 9, Anselm's Why God became Man
* What are the noteworthy premisses of Anselm's explanation of why
God became man?
Short vacation, April 10 to May 3.
Draft essay due April 20.
May 7, Abelard's Ethics
* What is Abelard's account of moral merit and demerit?
May 14, The Abbreviatio Montana
* In 10b(vi), on syllogisms of the third figure, write out the
resolutions of some of the syllogisms, including mood 5.
May 21, Averroes' Tahafut al-Tahafut
* On which points does Averroes dissociate himself from Avicenna? or
* What is God like and what does he do, according to Averroes? Where
necessary explain key terms.
May 28, Thomas Aquinas on God
* What are the resemblances and differences between Thomas Aquinas
and Anselm concerning God? or
* What is Thomas Aquinas's theory of the language used to describe God?
June 4, Thomas Aquinas on human knowledge and will
* What is Thomas Aquinas's critique of Plato? or
* How des his theory of knowledge compare with that of other
Christian thinkers?
June 11, Bonaventure and Aquinas on the eternity of the world
* What might Thomas Aquinas have said to Bonaventure's proofs that
the world cannot be eternal? or
* What is the argument for the eternity of the world?
June 18, Giles of Rome, 'The errors of the philosophers'
* What were the main philosophical disagreements between Christians
and Muslim philosophers?
Final essay due June 18. Draft essay to be handed in again with it.
John Kilcullen.
October 27, 1997.
The course materials are probably about as much as you can use in this course. The main thing is to read the Readings and think. However, you may profit from some further reading, or you may like to browse; hence the following list.
Library call numbers are given in brackets. 'SR' means that the item is in special reserve. External students living outside the metropolitan area can get the library to mail photocopy of a chapter from a book in SR; phone (02)-9850-7540 between 11-12 or 4-5 Mon-Fri.
J. Wippel and A.B. Wolter (eds.), Medieval Philosophy (B720.W5)
A. Hyman and J. Walsh (eds.), Philosophy in the Middle Ages
R. Lerner and M. Mahdi (eds.), Medieval Political Philosophy
E. Gilson, History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages
(B72.G48) (SR)
Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy
(B171.A72) (SR)
Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy (B721.C35)
Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought (JA82.C27)
J. Marenbon, Early Medieval Philosophy (B721.M338)
P. Dronke (ed.), A History of Twelfth Century Western Philosophy (B721.H58)
F.E. Peters, Greek Philosophical Terms: an Historical Lexicon
(B49.P4) (SR)
Dictionary of the Middle Ages (Ref.D114.D5)
New Catholic Encyclopedia (Ref.BX841.N44)
J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina (BR60.M4) (contains complete
works of Christian Latin writers up to about the 12th century; anyone
with 25,000 to spare can donate a CD-ROM version of it to the library)
Texts: PA6156.B7
H.R. Patch, The Tradition of Boethius: a Study of his Influence
in Medieval Culture (B659.Z7.P3)
P.P. Courcelle, La Consolation de philosophie dans la tradition litteraire (B659.C3.C6)
P.P. Courcelle, Late Latin Writers and their Greek Sources (PA3081.C753).
H. Chadwick, Boethius (B659.Z7.C815)
M. Gibson (ed.), Boethius: His Life, Thought and Influence (B659.Z7.B63)
Fischer, J.M., 'Freedom and Foreknowledge', Philosophical Review
92 (1983), 67-99 (B1.P5)
Hebblethwaite, B., 'Some Reflections on Predestination, Providence
and Divine Foreknowledge', Religious Studies 15 (1979),
433-48 (BL1.R43)
J. Malcolm, 'Some Consolation for Boethius', New Scholasticism
60 (1986), pp. 35-45 (B1.N4) (Not on Consolation, but on universals)
Texts: B765.A82.E54; BT264.A63.66
R. Brecher, Anselm's Argument (B765.A84.B7) (SR)
J. Hick and A.C. McGill (eds.), The Many-Faced Argument
(especially chapter 3, pp. 33-110) (B765.A84.H5) (SR)
R.W. Southern, St Anselm and his Biographer (BX4700.A58.S6)
M.J. Charlesworth, St Anselm's Proslogion (B765.A83.P7)
J. McIntyre, St Anselm and His Critics: A Re-interpretation of
Cur deus homo (BT264.A63.M3)
Texts: B765.A23.E82, BT70.M23, PA8201.H4
D. Luscombe, Peter Abelard (B765.A24.L87)
R.E. Weingart, The Logic of Divine Love: A Critical Analysis of
the Soteriology of Peter Abelard (BT751.2.W4)
M.M. Tweedale, Abailard on Universals (B765.A24.T86)
Wippel and Wolter, p.227ff; Hyman and Walsh, p.203ff; Lerner and Mahdi
De Lacy O'Leary, Arabic Thought and its Place in History (B741.O4)
F.E. Peters, Aristotle and the Arabs (B744.3.P43) (SR)
Averroes, Tahafut al-Tahafut (B749.T213)
W. Montgomery Watt, Muslim Intellectual: A Study of Al-Ghazali (B753.G34.W3)
C. Sirat, A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages (B755.S572)
C.H. Haskins, The Renaissance of the 12th Century (PA8035.H3)
Hill, K., 'Robert Grosseteste and his Work of Greek Translation', in
D. Baker (ed.), The Orthodox Church and the West (BR141.S84 vol.13)
R.L. Benson and G. Constable (eds.), Renaissance and Renewal in
the 12th Century (CB354.6.R4) (see also .B7, .H6, .W57)
A. Cobban, The Medieval English Universities: Oxford and
Cambridge to c. 1500 (LF111.C62)
J.I Catto, The History of the University of Oxford, vol. 1 (LF508.H57)
D.R. Leader, A History of the University of Cambridge (LF109.H57)
L. Thorndike, University Records and Life in the Middle Ages (LA627.T45)
C.H. Haskins, The Rise of the Universities (LA177.H3)
C.H. Haskins, Studies in Medieval Culture, Essay I (CB.351.H3)
H. Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (LA177.R25)
G. Leff, Paris and Oxford Universities in the 13th and 14th Centuries (LA91.L4)
F. van Steenberghen, Aristotle in the West (B725.S753)
F. van Steenberghen, Thomas Aquinas and Radical Aristotelianism (B765.T54.S72)
Thomas Aquinas, On the Unity of the Intellect (B749.Z7.T53).
Texts: BX1749.T5, BS491.2.T5, Q151.A74.T53, B765.T53.D43, JC121.T43
M.D. Chenu, Toward Understanding St Thomas (B765.T54.C513)
J. Weisheipl, Friar Thomas D'Aquino (B765.T54.W35)
E. Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas (B765.T54.G52)
Kenny, A., The Five Ways (BT98.K4)
Kenny, A., (ed.), Aquinas (B765.T54.K43), p.157-36
Kelly, C., 'The Third Way and the Possible Eternity of the World', New
Scholasticism 56 (1982), pp. 273-91 (B1.N4)
J. Knasas, 'Aquinas: Prayer to an Immutable God', New Scholasticism
57 (1983), pp. 196-221(B1.N4)
For more advanced work in philosophy you may wish to use The Philosopher's Index, a quarterly bibliography of philosophy that covers books and articles in several languages published in many countries. It covers ancient, medieval and modern philosophy.
The library has a CD-ROM version, readable by computer. To use it make a booking at the library Information Desk. The library staff will set it up and show you how to use it. Bring your library photocopy card to pay for printout, and/or a 5.25" floppy disk formatted for MS-Dos to which you can transfer the items you want.
Use the 'Easy Menu Search', search the 'Word/Phrase Index'. Type the
word to search for, e.g. 'Anselm', then
'Search X, Y, F10, limit A, B, C, F10' selects records that contain both X and Y and any of A, B or C. To find exactly what you want you may need to put some thought into defining your search. You can 'display' before 'limiting' ('esc' takes you out of display back to the 'limit' menu); look at a few records and then impose limits.
Return to Medieval Philosophy