flower PHIL3172: MEDIEVAL WESTERN PHILOSOPHERS, 2013-2014
Venue: ELB 203 (利黃瑤璧樓 203)
Time: Wednesdays 9:45-11:15(lecture), 11:30-12:15(tutorial)
Medium of teaching: Cantonee
Teacher: Louis Ha.
email: [email protected]


Middle Ages in the West lasted for more than a millennium after the downfall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th Century. During this period people lived under certain unity and uniformity commanded by the strong influence of Christianity and the common acceptance of the importance of faith in one's daily life.
This course aims at presenting the thoughts of those centuries developed in serenity and piety together with the breakthroughs made by individual philosophers such as Boethius, Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus. Modern people, though live in a technologically advanced era, are quite often facing almost the same challenges of their Medieval fellow human-beings.
The course intends to provide students with instances for a more general comprehension of human reality through the study on the problems of faith and understanding.

Class dynamics -
a) lecture by the teacher,
b) reading at home,
c) oral report by students,
d) discussion in tutorial,
e) points of reflections (at least one each class)
f) written reports by students.

Assessment:

  • tutorial and field trip attendance 10%;

  • lecture and tutorial participation 30%;

  • comments and questions on the following two articles 20%;
    a) Faith by John Bishop (1,000 words, by 12 February)
    b) The Medieval Problem of Universals by Gyula Klima (1,000 words, by 12 February)

  • term paper 40% (5,000 words, by 9 April)


請注意大學有關學術著作誠信的政策和規則,及適用於犯規事例的紀律指引和程序。詳情可瀏覽網址: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/

學生繳交作業時,必須連同已簽署的聲明一併提交,表示他們知道有關政策、規則、指引及程序。如作業以電腦製作、內容以文字為主,並經由大學的「維誠」(VeriGuide)系統提交者,學生將作業的電子檔案上載到系統後,便會獲得收據,收據上已列明有關聲明。未有夾附該收據的作業,老師將不予批閱。 學生只須提交作業的最終版本。

「維誠」(VeriGuide)網址: https://services.veriguide.org/academic/login_CUHK.jspx

Internal website

Session One: 8 January, 2014
*INTRODUCTION (lecture)
The medieval Europe: the time, the place and the people
The themes and philosophers chosen for the course
no tutorial

Session Two: 15 January, 2014
*FAITH AND REASON (lecture)
no tutorial

Session Three: 22 January, 2014
*UNIVERSALS - The Medieval Problem (lecture)
no tutorial

Session Four: 29 January, 2014
*CONSOLATIO PHILOSOPHIAE, Book V (lecture)
by Boethius (波其武 480-524)

NO CLASS ON 5 February 2014 - UNIVERSITY HOLIDAY

Session Five: 12 February 2014
*DE DIVISIONE NATURAE, Book II. (lecture)
by John Scottus Eriugena (斯哥德 810-877)
Schoedinger, 282-295

Session Six: 19 February 2014
*PROSLOGIUM. chapter II-IV (lecture)
by Anselm of Canterbury (安瑟倫 1033-1109)
- AN ANSWER TO THE ARGUMENT #6.
by Gaunilon, a monk of Marmoutier.
- IN REPLY TO GAUNILON'S ANSWER, chapter III
by Anselm of Canterbury

Session Seven: 26 February 2014
*ETHICA (lecture)
by Peter Abelard (阿伯拉德 1079-1142) Schoedinger, 121-142

Session Eight: 5 March 2014
*SUMMA THEOLOGIAE (lecture)
by Thomas Aquinas (多瑪斯 1225-1274)
- Existence of God 1.1.1-2; 1,2,1-3;
- Problem of Evil: De Malo 1.2-4; 3.1

Session Nine: 12 March 2014 提交學期論文題目
*SUMMA THEOLOGIAE (lecture)
by Thomas Aquinas (多瑪斯 1225-1274)
- Knowledge and sensation 1.84.6-8; 1.85.1-4; 1.88.1-3
- Law 92,94,95

Session Ten: 19 March 2014
*MEDIEVAL SPIRITUALITY (lecture by a special guest,
Fr. Francis Tam 譚錦榮, 羅馬宗座傳信大學哲學及神學學士、英國方濟國際研習中心方濟靈修及神修指導文憑)
-Bonaventura di Giovanni Fidanza (文德/波拿文都辣 1221-1274)
The Journey of the Mind Into God

Session Eleven: 22 March 2014 (Saturday: 9:30-12:00)
*FIELD TRIP - An intellectual conversation with scholastics
Salesian House of Studies
Card. Joseph Zen 陳日君樞機, SDB
Address: 18, Chaiwan Road, Hong Kong.
Tel: 2567-9102/3

Session Twelve: 26 March 2014
*MEDIEVAL SPIRITUALITY (lecture)
-Meister Eckhart (厄克哈 1260-1327)
The Meister Eckhart Site: Texts and Discussion

no tutorial

Session Thirteen: 2 April 2014 (09:45-12:30)
Discussion and Presentation of papers (20 minutes each)

Session Fourteen: 9 April 2014 (09:45-12:30)
Discussion and Presentation of papers (20 minutes each)



READING MATERIAL

Boethius (波其武 480-524)

John Scottus Eriugena (斯哥德 810-877)

Anselm of Canterbury (安瑟倫 1033-1109)

Peter Abelard (阿伯拉德 1079-1142)

Bonaventura di Giovanni Fidanza (波拿文都辣 1221-1274)

Albertus Magnus (大阿伯都 1193-1280)

Thomas Aquinas (多瑪斯 1225-1274)

Siger of Brabant (西熱 c. 1240 - 1280s)
Controversial arts master, a leading figure among the so-called Latin Averroists.

  • THE ETERNITY OF THE WORLD - translated by Peter King
    several sophismata (ed. Bazán 1974)
    a set of Quaestiones logicales (ed. Bazán 1974)
    a treatise on Impossibilia (ed. Bazán 1974)
    commentary on De anima III [ca. 1265] (ed. Bazán 1972)
    commentary on De generatione (ed. Bazán 1974)
    commentary on the Physics (ed. Zimmermann, in Bazán 1974)
    commentary on the Metaphysics [ca. 1273/75] (in four mss., representing four distinct reportationes, ed. Dunphy 1981; Maurer 1983)
    commentary on Liber de causis [1274/76] (ed. Marlasca 1972)
    De necessitate et contingentia causarum (ed. Duin, La doctrine de la providence 1954)
    De aeternitate mundi [ca. 1272] (ed. Bazán 1972; tr. Vollert et al. 1964)
    De anima intellectiva [ca. 1271] (ed. Bazán 1972)

Meister Eckhart (厄克哈 1260-1327)

John Duns Scotus (東斯哥德 1266-1308)

William of Ockham (歐坎 1298-1350)


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updated on: 2014/01/06