WEMSK45:Philosophy in the Middle Ages
 

               WEMSK45 --Philosophy in the Middle Ages

1. Bibliography:

a. Hans E. Bynagle, Philosophy: A Guide to the Reference
Literature, 2d ed. (Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1997).

b. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta:
http://plato.stanford.edu/. Useful.

c.  First port of call: Die patristische und scholastische
Philosophie, ed. Bernhard Geyer, 11th ed.  Friedrich Ueberwegs
Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie, Teil II (Berlin: Mittler,
1927; repr., Graz: Akademische Verlagsanstalt, 1951).  Excellent in
every way; not just a bibliography, but also with discussions.

d.  To bring Geyer up to date: Wilhelm Totok, Handbuch der
Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. 1 "Altertum" (Frankfurt:
Klostermann, 1964), vol. 2 "Mittelalter" (Frankfurt: Klostermann,
1973). A new edition is appearing, with vol. 1 published in 1997.
An excellent work.

e.  To bring Totok up to date and to keep up:

1. Repertoire bibliographique de la philosophie (Louvain: Ed. de
l'Inst. Superieur de la Philosophie, 1949-). Name changed in 1991:
International Philosophical Bibliography.

2. Bibliographie de la philosophie (Paris: Vrin, 1954-).

2. Guides:

a.  An excellent set of small guides is the Bibliographische
Einfuehrungen in das Studium der Philosophie, ed. by Innocentius M.
Bochenski (Bern: Francke).  Let me just mention a few:  6.
Arabische Philosophie, P. J. de Menasce; 8. Aristoteles, M-D.
Philippe; 10. Augustinus, Michele Federico Sciacca; 13/14. Thomas
von Aquin, Paul Wyser; 15/16. Der Thomismus, Paul Wyser; 17.
Philosophie des Mittelalters, Fernand van Steenberghen; 18.
Patristische Philosophie, Othmar Peeler.

b. Each philosopher and each movement is likely to have an
introduction, such as that by Artur M. Landgraf, Introduction a
l'histoire de la litterature theologique de la scolastique
naissante, tr. Albert-M. Landry. Universite de Montreal,
Publications de l'Institut d'Etudes Medievales, 22 (Montreal,
1973).  This is a much augmented and rearranged translation of the
German of 1948, which also appeared, e.g. in a Spanish edition.

c. For something strange and marvelous, see Fernand van
Steenberghen, Introduction a l'etude de la philosophie medievale,
Recueil de travaux offert a l'auteur par ses collegues, ses
etudiants et ses amis.  Philosophes medievaux 18 (Louvain:
Publications Universitaires, 1974).  Although it looks like a
Festschrift, this is a collection of van Steenberghen's own
writings and forms as such an excellent introduction.

3. Histories:

a. Etienne Gilson, A History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle
Ages (NY: Random House, 1955).  Outstanding, with good
bibliographies.  You ought to own this.

b.  Armand A. Maurer, Medieval Philosophy (NY: Random House, 1962).
Not up to the standards of Gilson, who is the general editor of the
series.

c.  Emile Brehier, The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, transl.
Wade Baskin (Chicago: Phoenix, 1965).  Kind of out of date, but an
excellent thin volume. The French Brehier: Histoire de la
philosophie: Tome I. L'antiquite et le moyen age, vol. 3 Moyen age
et renaissance, 7th ed (Paris: PUF, 1967), with good bibliographic
notes, mise a jour par Maurice de Gandillac.

d.  M. de Wulf, History of Medieval Philosophy, 3d ed., transl.
Ernest C. Messenger (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1935, 37).  The
third volume was not translated.  Maurice de Wulf, Histoire de la
philosophie medievale, 3 vols., 6th ed. (Paris: Vrin, 1934-47).  A
fine work.

e. The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval
Philosophy, ed. Arthur H. Armstrong (Cambridge University Press,
1970).

f. Peter Dronke, ed. A History of Twelfth-Century Western
Philosophy (Cambridge: CUP, 1988).

g. Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny, and Jan Pinborg, eds. The
Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy: From the
Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of Scholasticism
1100-1600 (Cambridge: CUP, 1982).

h. Isaac Husik, A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy, 2d ed.
(NY: Meridian, 1958).

i. Oliver Leaman, An Introduction to Medieval Islamic Philosophy
(Cambridge: CUP, 1985).

j. The standard histories of philosophy will naturally treat our
period, e.g. Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, vol. 2
(Westminster: Newman, 1950; republished many times).

k. Vol. 3 of the Routledge History of Philosophy, Medieval
Philosophy, ed. John Marenbom (London: Routledge, 1998) presents a
series of studies by various authors on aspects of medieval
philosophy.

l. Peter Schulthess & Ruedi Imbach, Die Philosophie im lateinischen
Mittelalter. Ein Handbuch mit einem bio-bibliographischen
Repertorium (Zurich: Artemis & Winkler, 1996).  The "Repertorium"
is particularly useful for an overview.

4. Selected specialized works:

a.  As in the case of van Steenberghen, the collected works of
Martin Grabmann are worth looking at: Mittelalterliches
Geistesleben, 3 vols. (Munich: Hueber, 1926-56).  His "Die
Entwicklung der mittelalterlichen Sprachlogik," reprinted in vol.
1, is a classic.

b.  For those who are into scholasticism, Artur M. Landgraf,
Dogmengeschichte der Fruehscholastik, 8 vols. (Regensburg:
Gregorius, 1952-56), especially if you have to deal with things
such as "facere quod in se est" and need to see actual primary
texts instead of opinions on them.  Of course, the grand old
standard, Martin Grabmann, Geschichte der scholastischen Methode,
2 vols. (Freiburg: Herder, 1909-1911; repr. Graz, 1957), is always
to be used, as is also: Karl Werner, Die Scholastik des spaeteren
Mittelalters, 4 vols. in 5 (1881-87; repr. by Burt Franklin, 1971).

c.  Also of great value for its texts: Odon Lottin, Psychologie et
morale aux xiie et xiiie siecles, 4 vols. (Louvain: Abbaye de Mont
Cesar, 1942-54), vols. 5-6 (Gembloux: J. Duculot, 1959-60).

d.  This could continue on, but a quoi bon.  I did want to mention
Edgar de Bruyne's justifiably well-known Etudes d'esthetique
medievale, which I bought in Spanish, Estudios de estetica
medieval.  Biblioteca Hispanica de Filosofia 17, 3 vols. (Madrid:
Gredos, 1958-59), because Spanish books used to be cheap and I
couldn't afford the French.

5.  If you need a dictionary, there is not a good one.  You might
find Andre Lalande, Vocabulaire technique et critique de la
philosophie, 6th ed. (Paris: PUF, 1951) useful.  There are, of
course, the inevitable small dictionaries of particular areas, e.g.
Bernard Wuellner, Dictionary of Scholastic Philosophy (Milwaukee:
Bruce, 1956), useful for the complete tyro.  On the other hand, the
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Paul Edwards, 8 vols (NY:
Macmillan, 1967) is not for beginners.  It has mostly articles on
various subjects with good bibliographies, e.g. Norm Kretzmann's
article on "History of Semantics," which is really a short history
of linguistics.  There is a paperback edition, and there is a
Supplement, published in 1996, which helps with the organization.
Look at it, though it is old, having been for the most part
superseded by: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward
Craig, 10 vols. (NY: Routledge, 1998), which is now the work to go
to. As an example of the sort of thing we need more of: F. E.
Peters, Greek Philosophical Terms (NY: University Press, 1967).  Of
course, such grand aids as Hasting's Encyclopedia of Religion and
Ethics, the Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Neuen Testament and the
Theologisches Woerterbuch zum Alten Testament (both now available
in English [I think the TWAT is finished]) must not be overlooked.
As you go along, you will appreciate such articles as M. Hubert,
"Quelques apects du latin philosophique au xiie et xiiie siecles,"
REL 27 (1949), 211- 233, or Leclerq's "Latin" in DACL 8.1 (1928),
cols. 1422-1528.

6. There are great tools for individual philosophers.  For St.
Thomas, for example, we have a concordance, the Index Thomisticus,
the outstanding Thomas-Lexikon by Ludwig Schuetz, 2d ed (NY: Ungar,
1957), W. Farrell's A Companion to the Summa, 4 vols. (NY,
1939-42), the Lexicon of St. Thomas Aquinas of R. J. Deferrari, I.
Barry and I. McGuiness (Washington: Catholic UP, 1948-53), and as
well as M. D. Chenu's fine Toward Understanding St. Thomas, tr.
Albert M. Landry and Dominic Hughes (Chicago: Regnery, 1964).  If
you deal with St. Thomas, start with this.  Deferrari and Barry
have also A Complete Index of the Summa theologica (Washington:
Catholic UP, 1956), and Deferrari has A Latin-English Dictionary of
St. Thomas Aquinas (Boston, 1960).  The Leonine edition (the
standard) has an excellent index.  There is an inexpensive Spanish
edition in the BAC. And, finally, there is an edition with all
kinds of aids on CD-ROM: Thomae Aquinatis opera omnia cum
hypertextibus in CD-ROM, auctore Roberto Busa S.J. (Milan: Editoria
Elettronica Editel, 1992), not to mention online aids.

7.  Be guided by Gilson in which edition to chose.

8. Readings:

a.  There are all kinds of marvelous series and editions of most of
the philosophers of the Middle Ages, such as Textes Philosophiques
du Moyen Age (Paris: Vrin), Beitraege zur Geschichte der
Philosophie ... [Baeumkers Beitraege] (Muenster: Aschendorff),
Bibliotheque Thomiste (Paris: Vrin), Studies and Texts (Pontifical
Institute, Toronto), Marquette University's Medieval Philosophical
Texts in Translation (1942-), etc.  One ought to look particularly
at the Sources chretiennes, which usually have a facing page
translation, e.g. of Quodvultdeus.

b.  For good small books containing good readings: Selections from
Medieval Philosophers, ed. Richard McKeon, 2 vols. (NY: Scribner's,
1929-30); now in two small paperbacks and inexpensive.  For my
money this is the best.

c. Medieval Philosophy, ed. John F. Wippel and Allan B. Wolter.
Readings in the History of Philosophy (NY: Free Press, 1969).

d. Medieval Philosophy, ed. Herman Shapiro. Modern Library (NY,
1964).

e. Philosophy in the Middle Ages, ed. Arthur Hyman and James J.
Walsh (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1973).  A wider selection than most.

f. A Scholastic Miscellany.  Anselm to Ockam, ed. Eugene R.
Fairweather (NY: Macmillan, 1970).

g. The largest of all: Andrew B. Schoedinger, ed., Readings in
Medieval Philosophy (NY: Oxford University Press, 1996).

h. Norman Kretzmann and Eleonore Stump, eds. The Cambridge
Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts, vol. 1: Logic and the
Philosophy of Language (Cambridge: CUP, 1989).

9. A good net source: Alexander Dey, Philosophy in Cyberspace. A
Guide to Philosophy-Related Resources on the Internet: http:/www.-
personal.monash.edu.au/~dey/phil/section1.htm.