The First Medieval Philosophers

Article 3. The First Medieval Philosophers

a) Erigena; b) Gerbert; c) Eric of Auxerre; d) Remi of Auxerre;

e) Remarks. The philosophers here considered were all masters or famous students in the Schools of the Revival of Learning. With Erigena, first of these, medieval philosophy proper begins, for he was the first to attempt to formulate an independent system of philosophical doctrine.

a) John Scotus Er igena (about 810-878).

Life: Erigena (known also in history as Eriugena, lerugena, John the Scot, Joannes Scottigena) was born in Ireland. In 845 he went to France, where he was well received by Charles the Bald and placed in charge of the Palace School. Erigena was the outstanding scholar of his age. It is not known whether he was a priest or a layman.

Works: Erigena’s great work is his On the Division of Nature. He also wrote a Commentary on the Pseudo-Dionysius, and a treatise on Predestination, a subject much agitated during the 9 century.

Doctrine: Philosophy is the science of reason. Now the noblest task that reason can perform is the task of investigating and explaining Divine Revelation, and for this task reason must have an illumination from God, a supernatural light. Thus Erigena identifies the fields of philosophy and scientific theology. There is one God. All things are necessarily contained in God, and proceed from Him by substantial emanation or outpouring (pantheism). All things, God included, come together to constitute Nature. Now Nature is fourfold, and the four divisions may be called Four Natures. The Four Natures are : i. Uncreated Nature that Creates (i. e., God, the Source) ; ii. Created Nature that Creates (i. e., Primordial Causes) ; iii. Created Nature that Creates Not (i. e., the creatural universe) ; iv. Uncreated Nature that Creates Not (i. e., God, the Goal). These Four Natures of Erigena require a further word of explanation : i. The First Nature (Uncreated Nature that Creates) is God, the all-perfect, who transcends all knowledge. God is so perfect that He does not even know Himself : for if He knew Himself, His knowledge would be determinate, and in so far limited, and the idea of limit connotes imperfection. All things are from eternity substantially contained in God. God does not produce things by pure creative act: if He did, the things produced would be new even to God, and to know them would mean an increase in the perfection of God’s knowledge —an obvious impossibility. For the same reason, it must be asserted that God did not produce things in time. When we say that God “creates,” we mean that He subsists in all things as their essence. Thus creation is eternal. ii. The Second Nature (Created Nature that Creates) consists of certain eternal conditions in and of the Divine Essence. We may call these Genera and Species (or Universals) in the Divine Essence ; or we may call them Primordial Causes. These are called “created” because they have no independent existence apart from the Divine Essence; and we say that they “create” because the world of individual things exists by reason of the Primordial Causes : these causes are the forms that constitute the essence of individual things. iii. The Third Nature (Created Nature that Creates Not) is the universe of what are usually called creatures—bodily and spiritual individuals constituted in being by the Primordial Causes. iv. The Fourth Nature (Uncreated Nature that Creates Not) is God considered as the Term or Goal of the universe, the end for and in which all things have their being. As to man, Erigena teaches that there is one universal human nature existing in God (Ultra-Realism) and of this individual men are the participants or determinations. Man (the individual) has body and soul. Soul and body together have the knowing faculty called sensation, a single faculty served by five instruments commonly called the five senses. To the soul alone belong the faculties of internal sensation (by which individual things are known), reason (which apprehends Primordial Causes), and intellect (which knows God in His changelessness). The three soul-faculties make up a kind of trinity, so that the individual soul is the image of the Blessed Trinity. As to the future lot of the soul, Erigena inclines to the doctrine that all souls will ultimately reach felicity and attain to God the Goal; he even holds that some souls will be especially blessed in such wise as to bring them “deification.”

Remarks: Erigena’s pantheism is wholly realistic. It gives existence to Genera and Species (Ultra-Realism) and makes individuals part and parcel of the Divine Essence. Erigena insists that God is immutable ; but his doctrine contradicts this thesis ; for individuals (which are ultimately one with the Divine Essence) are constantly changed. Erigena tried to avoid this contradiction by introducing Primordial Causes (and not God directly) as constituting causes of individuals : but the difficulty remains, for the Primordial Causes are identified with the Divine Essence. Hence, Erigena’s doctrine is reduced to real-istic pantheism, a pantheism of real outpourings (emanations) of God.—Erigena is right in asserting a distinction between sense and intellect; and in asserting the unity of body and soul as the subject of sense-knowledge. But his doctrine of a universal human substance is as absurd as that of the Four Natures itself. His error is one of principle, not of logic; for his conclusions are logical in view of his assumption—which, as has been noticed, is realistic pantheism.

b) Ger ber t (about 945-1003).

Life: Gerbert was born at Aurillac, Auvergne, France, of humble parents. He was educated at the Benedictine Monastery of his native place and became a monk there. He was sent to Spain to study mathematics and physical science under Arab teachers. He is said to have been the first to introduce Arabic numeration into Christian Europe. In 982 he was made Abbot of the Monastery at Bobbio; in 991 he was made Archbishop of Rheims; he was transferred in 997 to the Archbishopric of Ravenna ; and in 999 he was elected Pope, taking the name Sylvester II. In his mild and pleasant manner he remarked, “Rheims, Ravenna, Rome—I always mount by the letter R.” Gerbert was a versatile, almost a universal, genius. What Erigena was to the 9 century, Gerbert was to the 10-—the one outstanding figure of the time. He filled the great office of Supreme Pontiff for four years; his death occurred in May, 1003.

Works: Gerbert wrote mathematical treatises and commentaries on the dialectical works of Aristotle. The only work of his in our possession is a little book on The Reasonable and Using Reason. In this book Gerbert exemplifies the Scholastic Method for the first time : he defines his terms, proposes objections to his thesis, proves his proposition, and then answers the objections in the light of his proof.

Doctrine: Philosophy means knowledge—the whole body of truth, human and divine. This great world of truth is investi-gated by the philosopher and the results of his findings gives us two kinds of sciences, viz., theoretical (metaphysics, mathematics, dogmatic theology) and practical (logic, ethics, economics, civics). Gerbert’s book on Reasoning is ultra-realistic in expression, but he did not discuss the nature of Universals, but only their use in logic. Therefore his language is not to be taken as evidence that he professed a doctrine to which he probably never gave any direct thought.

Remarks: There is nothing in the doctrine of Gerbert to entitle him to a prominent place in the History of Philosophy. But in the Period of the Beginnings of Medieval Philosophy we must consider more than doctrine. Gerbert stressed the importance of logical reasoning, and he developed the Scholastic Method. The dialectic movement (attention to fine logical reasoning) and the use of the Scholastic Method was a strong characteristic of the philosophy of the two centuries that followed Gerbert’s time, and had much to do with the splendid achievement of Scholasticism in the 13 century.

c) Er ic of Auxer r e (about 840-881) was a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Auxerre, a town in France, about one hundred miles southeast of Paris. He studied at Fulda. Elected Abbot of Auxerre, he brought its monastic School into great prominence. His writings include glosses on the works of Aristotle, Porphyry, and St. Augustine. His doctrine is a reaction against the Ultra-Realism of Erigena. He is called simply an “Anti-Realist” ; perhaps he is most accurately classified as a Nominalist.

d) Remi of Auxer r e (about 841-908) was a pupil of Eric, and, like his teacher, a monk of the Benedictine Order. He had some fame as a professor of grammar, music, and dialectic in the Schools of Rheims and Paris. He wrote a theological treatise on the Psalms and certain dialectical glosses and commentaries. In doctrine he held a middle stand between the Ultra-Realism of Erigena and the Nominalism of Eric, but he did not give the question of Universals thorough study.

e) Remar ks : The Period of the Beginnings of Medieval Philosophy presents the following points for notice and remembrance : i. The most important philosopher of this age is Erigena. He alone of the first medieval masters originated a system of speculation. Although this system is false, and essentially antiScholastic, it gave impetus to speculation and so contributed to the Scholastic movement. ii. The masters of the age were all at one in their unwavering conviction that there can be no contradiction between Faith and Philosophy. They all believed that reason and rational science should be used in the exposition of matters of Faith. Hence the age developed what is called theological reasoning. iii. The age inaugurated the use of the Scholastic Method. iv. This age presents—not expressly, but implicitly—the beginnings of the disagreement on the nature of Universals which developed into a raging controversy in the late 11 and in the 12 century, and was not thoroughly composed until the 13 century. Thus we notice Ultra-Realism in Erigena, and probably in Gerbert; Nominalism is implied in the writings of Eric, and a sort of compromise stand is made by Remi.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY (IO5O-I2OO) The famous Controversy on the Nature of Universals was the most notable feature of the Period of Development in Medieval Philosophy. Out of this lengthy dispute emerged the clarified and perfected doctrine of Moderate Realism held by the latest and greatest of the Schoolmen. During this Period Realists and Anti-Realists wrangled on the question of Universals; Eclectics proposed diluted compromise doctrines ; Mystics minimized the value of philosophical study and made the culture of the spiritual life the end of all education; Pantheists, whose debased doctrine originated in the extravagances of both Ultra-Realism and Mysticism, propounded their world-old folly as the true philosophy. During this time there were notable developments also in Arabian and Jewish Philosophy. Among the philosophers of the Period of Development must be numbered those authors who wrote systematic treatises or compilations of theology and tried to show the place of philosophy in the sacred science. These writers are known as the Summarists. The present Chapter treats of all these matters in the following articles: Article I. Realism and Anti-Realism. Article 2. Eclecticism, Mysticism, Pantheism ; the Summarists. Article 3. Arabian and Jewish Philosophy of the Period. 190