Alexander of Aphrodisias and his Doctrine of the Soul 1400 Years of Lasting Significance

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eckhard Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Philosophy Of Nature ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Alexander Of Aphrodisias ◽  
History Of ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThis piece of work intends to shed light on Alexander of Aphrodisias from the second-century Aristotle commentator through the history of Aristotelian psychology up to the sixteenth century's clandestine prompter of the new philosophy of nature. In the millennium after his death the head of the Peripatetic school in Athens served as the authority on Aristotle in the Neo-Platonic school, survived the Arabic centuries of philosophy as Averroes' exemplary exponent of the mortality of the soul and as such was not considered worthy of translation by the Latin Scholastics. This attitude changed only in the Late Middle Ages, when the resistance against Averroes grew fierce and Alexander emerged as the only Aristotelian alternative to him. In 1495 his account of Aristotle's psychology was translated and published and the underlying principles of a natural philosophy, based on sense perception and exempt from metaphysics, became accessible. The prompt reception and widespread endorsement of Alexander's teaching testify to his impact throughout the sixteenth century.

Violence and Masculinity

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Eibach
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Violent Crimes ◽  
Grand Theory ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Violence ◽  
Shed Light

A consistent overrepresentation of men in recorded violent crimes and thus a certain disposition of male aggressiveness has been evident from the late Middle Ages to today. However, we can also detect several major shifts in the history of interpersonal male violence from the eighteenth century onward. From a cultural historical perspective, violent actions by men or women cannot be interpreted as contingent, individual acts, but rather must be seen as practices embedded in sociocultural contexts and accompanied by informal norms. Because one grand theory cannot account convincingly for the history of violence and masculinity, an array of approaches is more likely to shed light on the issue. Interestingly, shifts in the history of violence have often corresponded with changes to prevailing notions of masculinity. This essay delineates the relevant historical shifts from the early modern “culture of dispute” to the different paths of interpersonal violence over the twentieth century.

A Singular Example of the Wrath of God: The Use of Sodom in Sixteenth-Century Exegesis

2005 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Elwood
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Wrath Of God

What did the Reformation do for sodomy? The more or less established view, developed by social and cultural historians and contributors to the history of sexuality, is that it did relatively little. The evidence of the normative discourses of theology and law suggests that definitions and understandings of sodomy after the Reformation movements of the early and middle sixteenth century differed little from what had been proffered in the legal and moral writings of the medieval period. According to these defi nitions, which varied in their particulars, sodomy was a sin of unnatural lust which included, but was often not limited to, sexual contact between persons of the same sex. It was a sin whose origins could be traced to the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, whose inhabitants' penchant for unnatural sex led directly to their destruction in a hail of sulfur and fire—a dramatic event that was to stand as a warning both to those tempted to indulge in this vice and to those innocent of that particular sin who would nonetheless tolerate it in their neighbors. This view is found reflected in a wide range of writings from homiletic, exegetical, and penitential productions of late antiquity and the early, high, and late Middle Ages. And, indeed, while Protestant reforming ideas and practices changed many things in Europe of the sixteenth century, they seem to have left untouched this conception of the sin of the Sodomites. Confessions divided on many theological issues appear to have had no quarrel over what sodomy was, where it had come from, and what ought to be done about it. Definitions, then, remained more or less the same through the course of the Reformations; what changed was the capacity of local and regional jurisdictions to enforce legal proscriptions. And so, if the Reformation movements had any impact on the public discourse on sodomy, that impact was limited to the contribution the reforms made to the development of instruments of moral discipline and their facilitation (in some instances) of harsher responses to persons accused and convicted of the crime of sodomy.

scholarly journals Questioning Nature in Late Middle Ages. A History of Method, Praxis and Innovation

Medievalia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-29
Author(s):  
Giovanni Patriarca ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Cultural Framework ◽  
European Science ◽  
Transformative Action ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common

This essay traces the interconnections between method, praxis and innovation with their epistemological consequences at the end of the Middle Ages. In the wake of scholastic natural philosophy, this vibrant process marks a milestone in the history of science. During the Thirteenth and Fourteenth centuries a profound transformation takes place in the way of observing nature through a meticulous data collection, experiments and subsequent analysis. In this cultural framework, the Franciscans analyze the realities of the world with an extremely original pragmatic dynamism. This approach gives priority to a practical sense of thinking through a transformative action which opens the doors to a pioneering scientific method and contributes to a long series of innovations. A positive result is an advanced didactics—especially developed by Buridan, Oresme and their followers —that will have a great impact on a continental level, changing the common ground of European science.

Forma Dat Esse

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 423-446
Author(s):  
Sylvain Roudaut
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Progressive Decline ◽  
De Trinitate ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Middle Ages

Abstract This paper offers an overview of the history of the axiom forma dat esse, which was commonly quoted during the Middle Ages to describe formal causality. The first part of the paper studies the origin of this principle, and recalls how the ambiguity of Boethius’s first formulation of it in the De Trinitate was variously interpreted by the members of the School of Chartres. Then, the paper examines the various declensions of the axiom that existed in the late Middle Ages, and shows how its evolution significantly follows the progressive decline of the Aristotelian model of formal causality.

Enclosed Gardens of Mechelen

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Central Section ◽  
Unique Type ◽  
Charles V ◽  
Religious Women ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Southern Netherlands

During the Late Middle Ages a unique type of ‘mixed media’ recycled and remnant art arose in houses of religious women in the Low Countries: enclosed gardens. They date from the time of Emperor Charles V and are unique examples of ‘anonymous’ female art, devotion and spirituality. A hortus conclusus (or enclosed garden) represents an ideal, paradisiacal world. Enclosed Gardens are retables, sometimes with painted side panels, the central section filled not only with narrative sculpture, but also with all sorts of trinkets and hand-worked textiles.Adornments include relics, wax medallions, gemstones set in silver, pilgrimage souvenirs, parchment banderoles, flowers made from textiles with silk thread, semi-precious stones, pearls and quilling (a decorative technique using rolled paper). The ensemble is an impressive and one-of-a-kind display and presents as an intoxicating garden. The sixteenth-century horti conclusi of the Mechelen Hospital sisters are recognized Masterpieces and are extremely rare, not alone at a Belgian but even at a global level. They are of international significance as they provide evidence of devotion and spirituality in convent communities in the Southern Netherlands in the sixteenth century. They are an extraordinary tangible expression of a devotional tradition. The highly individual visual language of the enclosed gardens contributes to our understanding of what life was like in cloistered communities. They testify to a cultural identity closely linked with mystical traditions allowing us to enter a lost world very much part of the culture of the Southern Netherlands. This book is the first full survey of the enclosed gardens and is the result of year-long academic research.

The Virtues of Economy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Political Society ◽  
Future Role ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Distinct Role

The humanist perception of fourteenth-century Rome as a slumbering ruin awaiting the Renaissance and the return of papal power has cast a long shadow on the historiography of the city. Challenging the view, this book argues that Roman political culture underwent dramatic changes in the late Middle Ages, with profound and lasting implications for the city's subsequent development. The book examines the transformation of Rome's governing elites as a result of changes in the city's economic, political, and spiritual landscape. It explores this shift through the history of Roman political society, its identity as an urban commune, and its once-and-future role as the spiritual capital of Latin Christendom. Tracing the contours of everyday Roman politics, the book reframes the reestablishment of papal sovereignty in Rome as the product of synergy between papal ambitions and local political culture. More broadly, it emphasizes Rome's distinct role in evolution of medieval Italy's city-communes.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document