1. Introduction

Author(s):  
John Marenbon

For many, Thomas Aquinas is almost a synonym for medieval philosophy, locating it in Western Europe and principally from the early 13th to the mid-14th century. Medieval philosophy is also seen as a monolithic Church doctrine. The Introduction attempts to clarify three common misconceptions concerning medieval philosophy. First, medieval philosophy was practised all over the world. Second, considering the continuity of traditions, medieval philosophy can be seen to stretch from ad 200 to 1700. Finally, medieval philosophy is not theology in disguise. The four main branches of medieval philosophy are Latin Christian philosophy, as practised throughout Western Europe; Greek Christian philosophy, as developed in the Byzantine Empire; Arabic philosophy; and Jewish philosophy.

The Merovingian era is one of the best studied yet least known periods of European history. From the fifth to the eighth centuries, the inhabitants of Gaul (what now comprises France, southern Belgium, Luxembourg, Rhineland Germany and part of modern Switzerland), a mix of Gallo-Romans and Germanic arrivals under the political control of the Merovingian dynasty, sought to preserve, use, and reimagine the political, cultural, and religious power of ancient Rome while simultaneously forging the beginnings of what would become medieval European culture and identity. As a result, the Merovingian era is at the heart of historical debates about what happened to western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet in these centuries, the inhabitants of the Merovingian kingdoms created a culture that was the product of these traditions and achieved a balance between the world they inherited and the imaginative solutions that they bequeathed to Europe. Situated at the crossroads of Europe, connecting northern Europe with the Mediterranean and the British Isles with the Byzantine empire, Merovingian Gaul also benefitted from the global reach of the late Roman Empire. In this collection of 46 essays by scholars of Merovingian history, archaeology, and art history, we encounter the new perspectives and scientific approaches that shape our changing view of this extraordinary era.


1998 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-169
Author(s):  
Majid Fakhry

In the context of the world-wide celebrations of the eight-hundrthanniversary of Abu al-Walid Ibn Rushd, known to Western scholars asAverroes (1126-1198), the Tunisian Cultural Foundation (Bayt al-Hikmah) held an International Averroes Symposium, sponsored jointlywith UNESCO, in Carthage, Tunis, on February 16 to February 22,1998. The symposium was hosted by Abd al-Wahab Buhdiba, Directorof Bayt al-Hikmah, and was inaugurated by the President of Tunisia,Zayn al-Abidin Ali, who declared 1998 Ibn Rushd’s year. This symposiumwas attended by a large number of scholars from France, England,Spain, the United States, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Libya, andTunisia.It was my good fortune to open the symposium with a lecture titled“Averroes, Aquinas and the Rise of Latin Scholasticism in WesternEurope,” in which I tried to highlight the decisive role Ibn Rushd‘sCommentaries on Aristotle played in the rediscovery of Aristotle inWestern Europe, the resurgence of interest in Greek-Arabic philosophy,and the consequent rise of Latin Scholasticism. Through translations bysuch eminent scholars as Michael the Scot and Heman the German duringthe first decades of the thirteenth century, Ibn Rushd’s work triggereda genuine intellectual revolution in leamed circles. Before long, Latinphilosophers and theologians had split into two rival groups, the pro-Averroists, with Siger of Bradbant (d. 1281) at their head, and the anti-Averroists, with St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) at their head. ”he principalissues around which the controversy tumed were the unity of theintellect, the eternity of the world, the immortality of the soul and thedenial of divine providence. The confrontaton between the two rivalgroups became so acute that in 1270, the Bishop of Paris, Etienne ...


Author(s):  
Christopher I. Beckwith

This chapter examines the essential elements that produced a full scientific culture in Western Europe by comparing the constituent elements in the one culture in which it developed with other cultures that had the same constitutive elements but did not develop science. These are the control cases, which include India, Tibet, China, and the Byzantine Empire. The first civilization in the world to develop a full scientific culture was medieval Western Europe. It led directly to the scientific revolution—during which some changes to the details of the constituent elements took place—and continued on down to modern science. The essential elements of medieval science were introduced to Western Europe via Classical Arabic civilization. The chapter describes the appearance of science in Medieval Latin Europe and the decline of science in the medieval Islamic world.


2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 111-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radisa Antic

Being conceived in the name of Christianity, the Church quickly mastered all of Western Europe, including medicine, which was developed in monasteries at first and at universities later on. The first hospitals were built within monasteries, and were used to treat monks and the general population in later times. With the founding of the first universities, medicine claimed its place in the world next to law, philosophy, and theology. In its early days, it was studied only as a theoretical science, but soon practical classes on cadavers were added. Universities were completely ruled by the Church, which meant that the curriculum had to be pre-approved by the Church, even the diplomas were presented by a bishop in a religious ceremony. Development of Serbian medieval medicine was under the influence of Byzantine and Italian (mainly Salernian) medicine. The greatest role in transfer of medical knowledge from the Byzantine Empire belonged to Serbian and Byzantine monks, while Italian doctors working in Serbia were responsible for the transfer of the Western medical knowledge. Serbian monarchs quickly started founding hospitals, both in and out of their domains, with the most famous ones being within monasteries such as Hilandar, Studenica, Pantokrator, Visoki Decani, Sveti Arhangel, etc. In addition to those, there were two more hospitals not related to monasteries in Kotor and Belgrade, named after Stefan Lazarevic. This contribution of Christianity to European medicine created a basis for a sudden development of medical science in the Renaissance.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (04) ◽  
pp. 245-250
Author(s):  
A. Speckhard

SummaryAs a terror tactic, suicide terrorism is one of the most lethal as it relies on a human being to deliver and detonate the device. Suicide terrorism is not confined to a single region or religion. On the contrary, it has a global appeal, and in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan it has come to represent an almost daily reality as it has become the weapon of choice for some of the most dreaded terrorist organizations in the world, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda. Drawing on over two decades of extensive field research in five distinct world regions, specifically the Middle East, Western Europe, North America, Russia, and the Balkans, the author discusses the origins of modern day suicide terrorism, motivational factors behind suicide terrorism, its global migration, and its appeal to modern-day terrorist groups to embrace it as a tactic.


2015 ◽  
pp. 30-53
Author(s):  
V. Popov

This paper examines the trajectory of growth in the Global South. Before the 1500s all countries were roughly at the same level of development, but from the 1500s Western countries started to grow faster than the rest of the world and PPP GDP per capita by 1950 in the US, the richest Western nation, was nearly 5 times higher than the world average and 2 times higher than in Western Europe. Since 1950 this ratio stabilized - not only Western Europe and Japan improved their relative standing in per capita income versus the US, but also East Asia, South Asia and some developing countries in other regions started to bridge the gap with the West. After nearly half of the millennium of growing economic divergence, the world seems to have entered the era of convergence. The factors behind these trends are analyzed; implications for the future and possible scenarios are considered.


Author(s):  
R. Khasbulatov

The author examines Russia’s economic position in the world in the XXI century, China’s economic and political infl uence on other countries, and analyzes the economy of the European Union, classifi es the experience of Western Europe as the most successful, while taking into account miscalculations and mistakes.


Author(s):  
Detlef Pollack ◽  
Gergely Rosta

In recantation of his earlier approach, Peter L. Berger now claims: ‘The world today, with some exceptions […], is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more so than ever.’ The most important exception that Berger refers to is Western Europe. The introduction to Part II provides an overview of the religious landscape in Western Europe. The data show that the current religious situation in the countries of Western Europe is in fact subject to considerable variation. It would therefore be erroneous to describe Western Europe as secularized. At the same time, the data reveal that there have been clear secularization tendencies over the last few decades. To grasp the diversity of religious tendencies, Part II deals with three cases: West Germany with moderate downward tendencies, Italy with a considerably high degree of stability, and the Netherlands displaying disproportionately strong secularizing tendencies.


Author(s):  
T. M. Rudavsky

Medieval Jewish philosophy, like Islamic and Christian philosophy, is fundamentally focused on the relationship between “faith and reason.” Arising as an effort toward harmonizing the tenets of Judaism with current philosophic teachings, medieval Jewish philosophy deals with problems in which there appears to be a conflict between philosophical speculation and acceptance of dogmas of the Judaic faith. This chapter reviews the nature of Jewish philosophy as well as the tension between Judaism and Science. It positions Jewish philosophy within the broader context of Western thought, and distinguishes philosophy from the world of the Rabbis. It then provides an overview of the major themes of the work, which include issues of omniscience, providence, reason, and moral theory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Cédric Chény ◽  
Elvis Guillam ◽  
André Nel ◽  
Vincent Perrichot

Embolemidae is a cosmopolitan but species-poor group of chrysidoid wasps with a scarce fossil record, despite a long evolutionary history since at least the Early Cretaceous. Here, the new species, Ampulicomorpha quesnoyensis sp. nov., is illustrated and described based on a single female found in Early Eocene amber of Oise (France). The new species is compared with the three other known fossil species of the genus, and a key to all fossil species of Ampulicomorpha is provided. This is the third European fossil species of Ampulicomorpha, which suggests that the genus was once well established in Western Europe while it is more widely distributed in the Eastern Palaearctic region today. A list of all fossil and extant Embolemidae of the world, as well as a map of their geographical distribution map, are provided.


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