School · 24 thinkers
Medieval & Scholastic
24 thinkers of Medieval & Scholastic on the Agora star map, from Boethius to Francisco Suárez, in chronological order.
- c. 477–524Boethius
Fortune gives and takes at random, so true happiness lies only in what cannot be lost – the good itself, which is God.
- c. 480–530Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
God is beyond anything we can say or think, so we approach him best by denying every description of him.
- c. 815–877John Scotus Eriugena
All of nature flows out of God and will return to him – and reason, not mere authority, should guide how we understand this.
- 1033–1109Anselm of Canterbury
Faith seeks understanding – and God, as the greatest conceivable being, must exist, because existing is greater than being only imagined.
- 1079–1142Peter Abelard
General concepts are words we use for things that resemble each other – and an act is good or bad by the intention behind it.
- 1098–1179Hildegard of Bingen
A divine life-giving power, which she called greenness, binds body, soul and all creation together, and the human being mirrors the whole cosmos.
- c. 1100–1164Héloïse
What makes an act right or wrong is the intention behind it, not the deed itself – and real love seeks nothing for itself, not even marriage.
- c. 1200–1280Albertus Magnus
Faith and the study of nature do not conflict, so Christians should learn everything Aristotle and his Arabic commentators discovered.
- c. 1219–1292Roger Bacon
Knowledge of nature must rest on experiment and mathematics, not just on books – and scholars should read texts in their original languages.
- c. 1221–1274Bonaventure
Everything we know, from the stones of the world to our own minds, is a trace or image of God – so knowing rightly means ascending, step by step, towards God.
- c. 1225–1274Thomas Aquinas
For Aquinas, reason and faith agree: reason can prove that God exists from features of the world such as motion, causation and order, and natural law tells everyone what is right.
- c. 1232–1316Ramon Llull
Truth, including the truth of Christianity, could be demonstrated by mechanically combining basic concepts – an early idea of logic as a machine.
- c. 1240–1284Siger of Brabant
A philosopher should set out what Aristotle held and what his reasons imply, even where this departs from the faith Siger professed – and read with Averroes, they point to one intellect shared by all humans.
- c. 1250–1310Marguerite Porete
A soul that has given up its own will entirely lives in God directly and no longer needs rules or virtues to guide it.
- c. 1260–1328Meister Eckhart
Let go of everything, even your wishes about God, and God will be born in the deepest ground of your soul.
- c. 1266–1308John Duns Scotus
Being means the same whether said of God or creatures, every individual has its own unique thisness, and will ranks above intellect.
- c. 1275–1342Marsilius of Padua
The authority to make laws belongs to the community of citizens, and the Church may teach and admonish but has no power to coerce anyone.
- c. 1287–1347William of Ockham
General terms like “humanity” are only signs in our minds, not real things – and nothing should be assumed without a reason, unless it is self-evident, known by experience or vouched for by Scripture.
- c. 1300–1360John Buridan
Words and concepts refer to individual things, not to universal entities; and a thrown body keeps moving because it has received an impetus, which only resistance and gravity use up.
- c. 1343–1416Julian of Norwich
Her visions taught her that God is pure love, as much mother as father, and that in the end all shall be well.
- c. 1370–1435Paulus Vladimiri (Paweł Włodkowic)
Dominion and property belong by natural law to non-Christians too (“unbelievers” in the language of the time); neither pope nor emperor may make war on peaceful non-Christians or convert them by force, since faith must be freely accepted.
- c. 1483–1546Francisco de Vitoria
For Vitoria, the peoples of the Americas were true owners and rulers before the Spaniards came; discovery, pope and emperor give no title over them, and war is just only to redress a grave wrong under the law of nations.
- 1515–1582Teresa of Ávila
Inner prayer is nothing but friendship with the God who loves us; the soul is a castle with many dwellings, and the way inward begins with self-knowledge and humility and ends in union with God.
- 1548–1617Francisco Suárez
Metaphysics can be organised as a complete system, nations are bound by a common law, and political power comes from the people.