PHIL 307: Medieval Philosophy

Course Description

This course is an introduction to Medieval Philosophy and is structured around the ideas and works of key philosophers in the Christian, Islamic and Jewish religious traditions. It attempts to answer the question of what ‘Medieval Philosophy’ is and how it fits into the larger context of the Western philosophical tradition. The course is roughly divided into four sections based on the chronological development of philosophy through the Middle Ages – (I) Early Medieval Christian Philosophy, (II) Islamic Philosophy, (III) Jewish Philosophy and (IV) Latin Christian Philosophy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. We will look at what some famous Christian, Muslim and Jewish philosophers, such as Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Peter Abelard, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd, Saadia, Maimonides, Aquinas, Scotus and Ockham had to say about a diverse range of philosophical issues and topics, including the existence and nature of God, free will, morality, reason and revelation, human nature and the problem of universals. (YR)