Bochumer Philosophisches Jahrbuch für Antike und Mittelalter - Current Issue

Abstract

There is much ancient material about the biographical tradition concerning Aristotle. The analysis in this article is limited to two very different, but representive Vitae, the Vita of Diogenes Laertius and the so called Vita Marciana. Both Vitae are also representatives of a certain sight on Aristotle.

Abstract

Albertus Magnus is known for his rational approach to explaining various phenomena; a method that would be acquired and applied by his pupil Thomas Aquinas as well. In this paper, I focus on the concept of freedom, i. e., on the question of what it is that constitutes the freedom of free will in the account of Albert the Great. I investigate this question from the perspective of natural philosophy, a field that Albert was particularly interested in. In the first part of the paper, I study Albert’s definition of free will and its implications as they are tackled in De homine, De anima, and Ethica. Albert regards free will as a capacity of the rational soul, capable of choosing from opposites. Albert confronts the definitions of free will presented by Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Anselm of Canterbury, and in each of these cases he advances his argument from the perspective of psychology. In the second part of the paper, I identify the topics in which the general definition of free will is applied in a naturalistic context. Those are the debates on fate and free will, on the question whether animals have free will and, finally, on natural circumstances such as age or gender, limiting the freedom of free will. Subsequently, I aim at expounding Albert’s balanced, yet not tension-free position in the debate between determinism and free action. Although several extensive studies on fate in Albert have been produced, the problem of free choice in Albert’s works remains surprisingly understudied. The present paper intends to open a path for further research and debates on this relevant topic.

Abstract

In this paper, I will primarily argue for the consistency of Aquinas’ conception, according to which the human soul, uniquely in God’s creation, is both the inherent, material, substantial form of the human body, and the subsistent immaterial substance underlying the immaterial operations of its immaterial, rational powers, namely, intellect and will. In this discussion, I will point out that typical challenges to Aquinas’ conception usually rely on semantic or ontological assumptions that can plausibly be denied in Aquinas’ own conceptual framework. Since the issue of consistency merely assumes the less than self-evident claim of the immateriality of the human intellect, I will also provide a brief sketch of what I take to be Aquinas’ most promising proof of this claim.

Abstract

At the centre of the philosophical tradition of Armenia is a thinker who in the Western tradition carries the Latin names ‘David Armenius philosophus’ or ‘David invincibilis’. Today, international philosophical-historical research is increasingly concerned with the enigmatic corpus of the works that have been handed down under the name of David. The historical-critical exploration of early Armenian philosophy and its specific achievements, as well as its intense relationship to late antique Byzantine thought, were, however, initiated by important scholars of Western Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. Before this time, there were few reliable references to ‘David’ in Western European research literature. It was the orientalist Carl Friedrich Neumann (1798–1870) who brought about the turnaround. He studied in Heidelberg with Creuzer and Hegel, learned the Armenian language from the Mechitarists in Venice, and found inspiration in Paris. Then he examined the available Armenian and Greek sources of the Corpus Davidis and collected his findings in a monograph in 1829. Neumann’s deeply philosophical mind is clearly revealed in this treatise, entitled Mémoire sur la vie et les ouvrages de David. With great certitude, he traced down the pieces of information from David’s writings, as well as from the related ancient Armenian sources, which had great relevance for further research. These findings included communications on the biography of David and his own works, as well as on Aristotle, late antique Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. Almost inevitably, Neumann also fell victim to errors, which, however, does not diminish his importance as a pioneer of research into late antique Armenian philosophy. Neumann put David on the map for Western scholars, thus prompting a wider interest in the hitherto isolated Armenian philosophical thought for the first time.

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