Level 33
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Medieval and Scholastic Philosophy

Medieval Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Philosophy

Across Christian, Islamic, and Jewish thought alike, medieval philosophers took up the shared project of reconciling the rediscovered logic and metaphysics of Aristotle with the demands of revealed religion, from Augustine's meditations on time and grace to Aquinas's grand synthesis and the nominalist crisis that followed.

60-Second Review

Express review

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

  1. Augustine of Hippo: Faith, Time, and Evil. Augustine moved from skepticism to faith, framing time, memory, evil, and grace within a Christian Platonism.
  2. Boethius and the Problem of Universals. Awaiting execution, Boethius wrote the Consolation and passed Aristotelian logic to the medieval West.
  3. Early Scholasticism: Anselm and Abelard. Anselm's ontological argument and Abelard's conceptualism and ethics of intention shaped early Scholasticism.
  4. The Rise of Islamic Philosophy: Al-Kindi and Al-Farabi. Baghdad's translators recovered Greek thought, which Al-Kindi and Al-Farabi reconciled with Islam and politics.
  5. Avicenna: Essence, Existence, and the Soul. Avicenna distinguished essence from existence and argued from contingency to a Necessary Existent.
  6. Al-Ghazali and Averroes: Philosophy on Trial. Al-Ghazali attacked the philosophers; Averroes defended them, arguing philosophy and revelation can coexist.
  7. Maimonides and the Limits of God-Talk. Maimonides used negative theology to describe God while harmonizing Aristotelian reason with Jewish revelation.
  8. Thomas Aquinas: Synthesis of Faith and Reason. Aquinas fused Aristotle with Christian theology through the Five Ways, analogy of being, and natural law.
  9. Crisis and Transition: The Condemnations, Scotus, and Ockham. The 1277 condemnations, Scotus's univocity, and Ockham's nominalism marked scholasticism's late crisis.

This is the starting point of Medieval and Scholastic Philosophy: you don't need any prior knowledge of this subject to begin.

Key points

Visual module map

1Augustine of Hippo: Faith, Time, and Evil
2Early Scholasticism: Anselm and Abelard
3Avicenna: Essence, Existence, and the Soul
4Maimonides and the Limits of God-Talk
5Crisis and Transition: The Condemnations, Scotus, and Ockham

Alternative visual view: a simplified sequence of some of the module's key points, in their order within the syllabus.

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Final test

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Memory

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Chronological Order

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Further reading

Bibliography and cited sources used to create this module.

  • Copleston, F. (1950). A History of Philosophy, Volume II: Medieval Philosophy. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne.
  • Gilson, É. (1955). History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages. New York: Random House.
  • Fakhry, M. (2004). A History of Islamic Philosophy (3rd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Leaman, O. (1999). A Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Marenbon, J. (2007). Medieval Philosophy: An Historical and Philosophical Introduction. London: Routledge.