Bochumer Philosophisches Jahrbuch für Antike und Mittelalter - Volume 1, Issue 1, 1996

AbstractIn his later thought, Martin Heidegger disclaimed the possibility of a philosophical history of philosophy. In his view, the history of philosophy tends to remain bound to a specißc philosophical orientation and offer merely a philosophical position, not philosophy itself, presenting at best nothing more than an assemblage of doctrinal positions. In contrast, Heidegger developed in his early Freiburg lectures of 1919-1923 an historical-phenomenological program of philosophical history directed against the historical school of Dilthey, whose objekthi-storisch perspective he meant to replace with his own vollzugshistorisch method. For Heidegger, there is no perfected subject at the basis of historical investigation, but rather it is the temporality of the observer which makes possible historical knowledge in the ßrst place. Heidegger's later abandonment of this notion is a significant reason for the lack of a philosophical approach to writing the history of philosophy after 1945 in Germany.

AbstractIn his commentary on the Platonic dialogue Philebus, the Neoplatonic philosopher Damascius investigates the ontological question of the relation between the One as the highest principle and the many sensible beings produced through it. Three points are emphasized: 1. Damascius attempts to situate movement in the metaphysical realm and avoid a static metaphysical model by propounding a connection between sensible beings and their productive archetype through what he conceives as metaphysical amplification. 2. His explication of the relation between the physical and the metaphysical indicates that he is not concerned with just a general description, but instead intends to specify the forms of their mutual communication. To a certain degree, physical beings are presented as developments of metaphysical states in terms of the relation of "appearance" to "being," in the sense that the appearance teleologically portrays that which is ontologically complete. 3. Because Damascius sets logic in analytic relation to ontology and defines the conditions of this coordination, it gains no independent status, even as its propriety becomes explicit, for he shows its principal determination by ontology. Hence, Damascius remains within the framework of a consistent ontological realism.

AbstractIn studying the attitude of medieval philosophers towards the act of writing, scholars have tended to concentrate on their esoteric tendencies and their reluctance to commit philosophy to writing. The basic attitude of medieval philosophers to the decision to commit something to writing, whether it be that made by the prophets, the sages or the medieval philosophers themselves, however, is on the whole positive. This article examines the sources - both religious and philosophical - from which this positive attitude stems and then discusses its manifestations in the work of three medieval thinkers: Abu Nasr al-Farabi, Abu al-Barakat al-Baghdadl and Moses Maimonides.

AbstractLu Jiuyuan (1139-1193) is one of the most prominent philosophers of the Song dynasty. He belonged to the School of Mind (Xin-Xue), one of the two main schools of Neo-Confucianism - the other being the School of Principle (Li Xue), of which Zhu Xi (1130-1200) is the outstanding figure. This essay investigates the onto-logical and epistemological teachings of Lu Jiuyuan and compares them with the thought of other Neo-Confucian thinkers such as Zhu Xi. The most important term in Zhu Xi's philosophy is li (universal principle). Lu Jiuyuan equated li with the mind of man. He developed his philosophy on the basis of li- present in and apprehended by the mind - as the moral criterion of human conduct. For him, the purpose of study is to recognize li and return to the originally pure condition of the mind. Every man, he said, is responsible for the condition of his mind and must strive to attain knowledge of the truth. Lu refused to consider as important the acquisition of factual knowledge by external investigation, emphasizing instead that li is to be known intuitively. The realization of li is the result of inner, subjective self-examination.

AbstractThis essay outlines the history of Alexandrism in the Middle Ages, focusing on the reception of Alexander of Aphrodisias in the late-medieval universities. Alexander of Aphrodisias met with severe criticism in the 13th century from William of Auvergne, Albert the Great and Thomas of Aquinas among others, but in the 14th century this attitude changed completely with John Buridan, giving way to a positive and productive adoption of his theories. The centerpiece of the controversy was Alexander's doctrine that the human soul is similar to the animal soul and hence mortal "like the soul of a dog or a donkey." Previously condemned as the absurd thesis of an outsider - wrongly so, because Alexander was perfectly in line with a long peripatetic tradition beginning with Dikaiarch of Messene and Straton of Lampsakos -, this doctrine was now considered philosophically superior to and sounder than the competing theories of Averroes and the Roman Catholic faith. In connection with this doctrine, Buridan stated that some higher species of animals have the ability to think like a man or an ape (sicut homo vel simia) and that an ape can even be said to have some reason. Buridan's interpretation of Alexander was disseminated at the universities of the 14th and 15th centuries by his many followers, including Lawrence of Lindores, Marsilius of Inghen (who defended Alexander against Albert the Great), Nicholas of Amsterdam, Biagio Pelacani of Parma and Benedikt Hesse of Kraków.

AbstractThis essay provides an analysis of Marsilio Ficino's doctrine of the heavens, especially as this is developed in his commentary on Plotinus' Enneads with reference to contemporary debates in Florence concerning the legitimacy of astrology and in view of new interpretations of attendant problematic issues. Particular attention is given to Ficino's early works, such as the Disputatio contra iudicium astrologorum, as well as to his commentary on Enn. 4, 4-42 and his De vita. The leading interest of the essay consists in the attempt to clarify Ficino's reception of the medieval doctrine of the heavens, most pointedly the theory propounded by Peter of Abano in his Lucidator dubitabilium astronomiae of 1310.

AbstractThis essay explores the interconnections among the humanistic epistemological theories of Ficino, Pomponazzi and Cusanus apparent in the context of their reception of ancient Greek and medieval philosophy, especially Plato's Theaetetus and Aristotle's De anima. It shows that preceding the opposition between the (Neo-)Platonic scheme of knowledge favored by Ficino and the Aristotelian account of the intellect championed by Pomponazzi, Cusanus attempted to articulate the nature of the mind (mens) as such which all modes of knowledge presuppose. Central to this project is his work De coniecturis with its theory of the unity of the divine, reason, the understanding and the body, by means of which Cusanus undertook to show how all modes of knowledge are immanent in the mind even as knowledge itself is a process. Concluding critical remarks expound upon the principal significance for knowledge of the thought of nothing, which fundamentally defines the relation to self and other and therewith the horizon of the possible truth of knowledge.

AbstractHeidegger's many observations about the philosophical thought of the Middle Ages, while often controversial, are deserving of attention. One of the lesser-known of these observations reflects his interest in hermetic philosophy, as found in his posthumously published treatise Die Negativität (1938/39), a critical engagement with Hegel with regard to the nature and ontological status of negation. Therein, Heidegger associates the acpoupa of Parmenides with the sphaera intelligibi-lis of Hermes Trismegistus and the absolute Idee of Hegel and therewith Plato's doctrine of the ideas in its absolute-idealist modification. Heidegger weaves these various strands of the tradition into a web of manifold significations representative of different yet related philosophical intentions.