Medieval Philosophy Course

Lesson 1 • Carolingian and Early Scholastic Beginnings

Covers the revival of learning in cathedral schools and early monastic contexts. Introduces the scholastic method as a pedagogical and philosophical tool.

Lesson 2 • Defining Medieval Philosophy

Clarifies the chronological and conceptual boundaries of medieval philosophy. Grounds subsequent study in a shared understanding of the field's scope and methods.

Lesson 3 • Late Antique Inheritance

Examines the Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic legacies transmitted to medieval thinkers. Shows how ancient texts were filtered through commentary traditions.

Lesson 1 • Later Nominalism and Its Consequences

Covers Ockham's razor and the nominalist reduction of universals to mental terms. Traces consequences for science, theology, and political thought.

Lesson 2 • Abelard's Conceptualism

Analyzes Peter Abelard's critique of realism and his alternative account of universals as mental concepts. Demonstrates how logical analysis reshaped metaphysical debate.

Lesson 3 • Early Medieval Realism

Examines the view that universals exist as real entities prior to or within particulars. Connects realist commitments to theological doctrines of divine ideas.

Lesson 1 • Maimonides and Jewish Rationalism

Covers Moses Maimonides's reconciliation of Aristotelian philosophy with Jewish scripture. Introduces negative theology and the limits of human knowledge of God.

Lesson 2 • Avicenna's Philosophical System

Analyzes Ibn Sina's comprehensive synthesis of logic, metaphysics, and psychology. Highlights the floating man argument and essence-existence distinction.

Lesson 3 • Averroes and the Aristotle Commentary Tradition

Examines Ibn Rushd's rigorous commentaries on Aristotle and his defense of philosophical rationalism. Explains why Latin Averroism became controversial in Christian universities.

Lesson 1 • The Aristotelian Revolution

Examines the recovery of Aristotle's full corpus and its disruptive impact on Christian thought. Explains the condemnations of 1210 and 1277 as institutional responses.

Lesson 2 • University Culture and Curriculum

Describes the founding of medieval universities and the organization of philosophical study within them. Connects institutional structures to the production of philosophical texts.

Lesson 3 • Scholastic Disputation Techniques

Teaches the formal structure of the quaestio disputata and its logical components. Equips students to read and reconstruct scholastic arguments accurately.

Lesson 1 • Aquinas on Human Nature and Soul

Analyzes the hylomorphic account of the human person as a composite of matter and form. Addresses the soul's immateriality and its relation to intellectual cognition.

Lesson 2 • Aquinas on Being and Essence

Examines the real distinction between essence and existence as the cornerstone of Thomistic metaphysics. Connects this distinction to Aquinas's account of God as pure act.

Lesson 3 • The Five Ways

Reconstructs Aquinas's five cosmological arguments for God's existence from Summa Theologiae. Evaluates each argument's logical structure and philosophical presuppositions.

Lesson 4 • Natural Law and Moral Theory

Presents Aquinas's hierarchical account of eternal, natural, and human law. Grounds moral norms in rational human nature and divine governance.

Lesson 1 • Terminist Logic and Supposition Theory

Introduces the 13th- and 14th-century development of terminist logic and its semantic tools. Explains how supposition theory analyzed reference and predication.

Lesson 2 • Skepticism and Certainty in Late Scholasticism

Analyzes late medieval skeptical challenges and responses concerning the reliability of sense perception. Connects these debates to early modern epistemology.

Lesson 3 • Language, Signs, and Mental Concepts

Examines Augustine's sign theory and its scholastic development through Ockham's mental language. Connects semiotics to debates about meaning and reference.

Lesson 1 • Ockham's Epistemology and Theology

Covers Ockham's intuitive cognition theory and its implications for natural theology. Shows how his epistemology dismantles classical proofs for God's existence.

Lesson 2 • Duns Scotus on Individuation

Presents Scotus's haecceity doctrine as a solution to the problem of individuation. Connects formal distinction to his broader metaphysical system.

Lesson 3 • Bonaventure's Augustinian Synthesis

Analyzes Bonaventure's integration of Augustinian illumination theory with Franciscan spirituality. Contrasts his exemplarism with Aquinas's Aristotelian epistemology.

Lesson 1 • Aristotelian Political Theory Adapted

Examines how medieval thinkers adapted Aristotle's Politics to Christian political contexts. Covers the common good, natural sociability, and legitimate authority.

Lesson 2 • Marsilius of Padua and Conciliarism

Presents Marsilius's Defensor Pacis as a radical separation of ecclesiastical and civil power. Connects his populist sovereignty theory to later constitutional thought.

Lesson 3 • Natural Rights and Early Rights Theory

Traces the emergence of subjective rights language in Ockham and Franciscan poverty debates. Connects medieval rights discourse to modern natural rights theory.

Lesson 4 • Virtue Ethics and the Moral Life

Synthesizes medieval accounts of virtue, happiness, and the moral life from Aquinas and Scotus. Evaluates how theological commitments shaped ethical theory.