Augustine could be overthrown. Among problems of interest that were solved may be mentioned the determination of the length of the year by Albategnius and Thebit Ben Corrah; and increased accuracy was given to the correction of astronomical observations by Alhazen's great discovery of atmospheric refraction. Among the astronomers, some composed tables; some wrote on the measure of time; some on the improvement of clocks, for which purpose they were the first to apply the pendulum; some on instruments, as the astrolabe. The introduction of astronomy into Christian Europe has been attributed to the translation of the works of Mohammed Fargani. In Europe, also, the Arabs were the first to build observatories; the Giralda, or tower of Seville, was erected under the superintendence of Geber, the mathematician, A.D. 1196, for that purpose. Its fate was not a little characteristic. After the expulsion of the Moors it was turned into a belfry, the Spaniards not knowing what else to do with it. 87. Works of Aristotle known by 1300 (List adapted from Norton, Readings in the History of Education; Mediaval Universities. Cambridge, 1909) This Greek scientist and philosopher lived from 384 to 322 B.C., and wrote his organization of human knowledge in Athens between 335 B.C. and his death. His was the greatest organizing mind of antiquity, and it is no wonder that he came eventually to dominate mediæval thinking. The following list of his works shows what had been recovered by 1300. Abélard, the great mediæval scholar of France, who died in 1142, knew certainly only 1 and 2, though it is possible he had knowledge of 3 and 4. By 1150 all the Organon was known; between 1200 and 1270 most of the other works were translated; and by 1300 the twenty-one listed were known. For the next three centuries these were the great textbooks in the Faculty of Arts in the European universities. Many of these came in from Mohammedan sources in Spain, having experienced translation from the Greek into Syriac, then into Arabic, and then into Latin and Castilian, and were quite imperfect. After the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders and the Venetians, in 1203, the original Greek texts began to find their way westward, and were translated directly into the Latin. By 1500 all had been retranslated from the original Greek, and the newer Latin editions were in use. The following list was known by 1300: I. Logical treatises commonly referred to as the Organon, or Methodology. *1. Categories. *2. On Interpretation. *3. Prior Analytics. *4. Posterior Analytics. *6. Sophistical Refutations. II. Moral and Practical Philosophy. 7. Politics. *8. Ethics. 10. Poetics. III. Natural Philosophy. II. A Physical Discourse (Physics). *12. On the Heavens. 13. On Generation and Destruction. *15. Researches about Animals. 17. On Locomotion of Animals. 18. On Generation of Animals. 20. Appendices to the work "On the Soul." *(b) On Memory and Recollection. *(c) On Sleep and Waking. (d) On Dreams and Prophesying in Sleep. *(g) On Life and Death. (h) On Respiration. IV. Rational Philosophy. *21. Metaphysics. * Prescribed as regular texts at the University of Paris, in the Statutes of 1254. All others were optional. 88. Averroes, on Aristotle's Greatness (Averroës; Introduction to his Commentary on Aristotle's Physics) Abu'l Walid Mohammed Averroës, born at Cordova in 1126, of distinguished parents, became the greatest of all commentators on Aristotle, and exerted, through the translation of his works into Latin, a profound influence on the thinking of western Europe. His translations were the medium whereby much of the lost Aristotle was restored to western civilization. He expresses himself as to Aristotle's greatness as follows. Aristotle was the wisest of the Greeks and constituted and completed logic, physics, and metaphysics. I say that he constituted these sciences, because all the works on these subjects previous to him do not deserve to be mentioned and were completely eclipsed by his writings. I say that he put the finishing touches on these sciences, because none of those who have succeeded him up to our time, to wit, during nearly fifteen hundred years, have been able to add anything to his writings or to find in them any error of any importance. Now that all this should. be found in one man is a strange and miraculous thing, and this privileged being deserves to be called divine rather than human. 89. How Aristotle was Received at Oxford (A description by Roger Bacon; trans. by Rashdall) The following description by Roger Bacon, an English monk, who died in 1294, indicates a rather more tardy reception of Aristotle at Oxford than at Paris. But a part of the philosophy of Aristotle has come slowly into the use of the Latins. For his Natural Philosophy and Metaphysics, and the Commentaries of Averroes and of others, were translated in our times, and were excommunicated at Paris before the year of our Lord 1237 on account of (their heretical views on) the eternity of matter and of time, and on account of the (heresies contained in the) book on Interpretation of Dreams (which is the third book on Sleep and Wakefulness), and on account of the many errors in the translation. The Logicalia were also slowly received and read, for the blessed Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first at Oxford, in my time, to lecture on the book of Elenchi (Sophistical Refutations), and I saw Master Hugo who at first read the book of Posterior Analytics, and I saw his opinion. So there were few (books) which were considered worth (reading) in the aforesaid philosophy of Aristotle, considering the multitudes of Latins; nay, exceedingly few and almost none, up to this year of our Lord 1292. So, too, the Ethics of Aristotle has been tardily tried and has lately been read by Masters, though only here and there. And the entire remain FIG. 16. ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.) ing philosophy of Aristotle in a thousand volumes, in which he treated all the knowledges, has never yet been translated and made known to the Latins. 90. How Aristotle was Received at Paris (From Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, vol. 1; trans. by Norton) The hesitant attitude of the ecclesiastical authorities toward the study of Aristotle, and later his adoption as the great supporter and bulwark of theology, is well shown in the following regulations adopted at Paris, between 1210 and 1254 A.D. (a) Church Council, Paris, 1210 Nor shall the books of Aristotle on Natural Philosophy, and the Commentaries (of Averroës on Aristotle) be read in Paris in public or in secret; and this we enjoin under pain of excommunication. (b) Statutes of the Papal Legate for the University, 1215 ... The treatises of Aristotle on Logic, both the Old and the New, are to be read in the schools in the regular and not in the extraordinary courses. On feast-days (holidays) nothing is to be read except . . the Ethics, if one so chooses, and the fourth book of the Topics. The books of Aristotle on Metaphysics or Natural Philosophy, or the abridgments of these works, are not to be read. (c) Statutes of Pope Gregory for the University, 1231 Furthermore, we command that the Masters of Arts . . . shall not use in Paris those books on Natural Philosophy which for a definite reason were prohibited in the provincial council (of 1210), until they have been examined and purged from every suspicion of error. (d) Statutes of the Masters of Arts for the University, 1254 None of Aristotle's works is now forbidden. Of the twenty-one in the list given in Reading 87, the ones marked with a * are now prescribed as regular texts. 91. Abelard's Sic et Non (Cousin, V., Ouvrages Inédits d'Abélard) As a teacher of theology at Paris, early in the twelfth century, Abélard (1079-1142) prepared a little textbook for the use of his pupils, entitled Sic et Non (Yea and Nay). It was in the form of a large number of questions as to Church dogma and practices, in which, after stating the question, he presented the arguments on both sides as gleaned from Scriptures and advanced by the Christian Fathers, but drew no conclusions. In the introduction he stated his method, it being his desire to stimulate thinking. The following extracts indicate the nature of the work. (a) From the Introduction to Sic et Non In truth, constant or frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom; and it is, indeed, to the acquiring of this (habit of) questioning with absorbing eagerness that the famous philosopher, Aristotle, the most clear-sighted of all, urges the studious when he says: "It is perhaps difficult to speak confidently in matters of this sort unless they have often been investigated. Indeed, to doubt in special cases will not be without advantage." For through doubting we come to inquiry, and through inquiry we perceive the truth. As the Truth Himself says: "Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." And He also, instructing us by His own example, about the twelfth year of His life wished to be found sitting in the midst of the doctors, asking them questions, exhibiting to us by His asking of questions the appearance of a pupil, rather than, by preaching, that of a teacher, although there is in him, nevertheless, the full and perfect wisdom of God. Now when a number of quotations from (various) writings are introduced they spur on the reader, and allure him into seeking the truth in proportion as the authority of the writing itself is commended. . . . In accordance, then, with these forecasts it is our pleasure to collect different sayings of the holy Fathers as we planned, just as they have come to mind, suggesting (as they do) some questioning from their apparent disagreement, in order that they may stimulate tender readers to the utmost effort in seeking the truth and may make them keener as the result of their seeking. (b) Types of Questions he raised for Debate Of the 158 questions he raised and gave evidence on, the following are illustrative. Should human faith be based on reason, or no? Is God one, or no? Is God a substance, or no? Does the first Psalm refer to Christ, or no? Is sin pleasing to God, or no? Is God the author of evil, or no? Is God all-powerful, or no? Can God be resisted, or no? Has God free will, or no? Was the first man persuaded to sin by the devil, or no? Was Adam saved, or no? |