Medieval Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #463

by John Marenbon

For many of us, the term 'medieval philosophy' conjures up the figure of Thomas Aquinas, and is closely intertwined with religion. In this Very Short Introduction John Marenbon shows how medieval philosophy had a far broader reach than the thirteenth and fourteenth-century universities of Christian Europe, and is instead one of the most exciting and diversified periods in the history of thought.

Introducing the coexisting strands of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish philosophy, Marenbon shows how these traditions all go back to the Platonic schools of late antiquity and explains the complex ways in which they are interlinked. Providing an overview of some of the main thinkers, such as Boethius, Abelard, al-Farabi, Avicenna, Maimonides, and Gersonides, and the topics, institutions and literary forms of medieval philosophy, he discusses in detail some of the key issues in medieval thought: universals; mind, body and mortality; foreknowledge and freedom; society and the best life.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, Academic, 21st Century, School, Medieval

141 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2016

Reviews

[Rafael Salazar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview. In his first part, Marenbon delineates the four traditions that were interrelated in Western medieval philosophy and in the second, discusses specific topics from exponents in at least two of them. Also, I personally found the timeline in the end crucial to associate the philosophers discussed with the main historical events of the period. Overall, surprisingly informative.

[Adam Marischuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a very short introduction to Medieval Philosophy, I think that this book does not do a good job introducing the novice reader to the era or the general thought of the period. That is not to say the book is without merit, but the book fails at its aim for a few reason.

Firstly, the author takes a deliberately long and wide view of medieval philosophy. This can be excused in a larger work, but results in a serious unbalancing of the book given that the book barely stretches to 120 pages. Professor Marenbon begins with the year 200, and though I appreciate the importance of both the Church fathers and Plotinus, that is not space well spent, only indirectly related to the subject at hand. Likewise, ending the book with Marsilius of Padua is excusable, but Marcilio Ficino, Pomponazzi and Suárez is again not what the casual reader is likely to include in their definition of 'Medieval'.

But what is likely more egregious is the imbalance concerning Arab and Jewish philosophy. The first half of the book, after two chapters on earlier and later medieval philosophy, is organised into historico-thematic sections, such as 'Fields of medieval philosophy', 'Institutions and literary forms'. But then the second half of the book is divided into themes where a Western-Christian thinker is paired with either an Arab (I'll get to this) or Jewish thinker: 6) Universals (Avicenna and Abelard), 7) Mind, body and mortality (Averroes and Pomponazzi), 8) Foreknowledge and freedom (Boethius and Gersonides) and 9) Society and the best life (Ibn Tufayl and Dante).

That previous list should give pause to anyone thinking of buying the book. Missing are the important names of Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Ockham, or even Maimonides. If someone were to write a book about the modern NBA and balance each chapter with one African-American and one White/Hispanic or Asian player, the image that would emerge from those pages could be accurate without reflecting the actual situation. Likewise with this book.

A few years ago reports came out of Arab (Saudi, Qatari, Bahrain) money being funneled to Oxford and Cambridge. I cannot help but think that this book was unduly influenced by that money.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little introduction to this period of philosophy! I’m still a bit confused by Marenbon’s position on a ‘long middle ages’ given the vastly different sociopolitical context of renaissance philosophers, but no complaints otherwise. Good emphasis on Muslim and Jewish scholars as well, whose influence is often forgotten in western philosophy.

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marenbon emphasizes the commonalities and interactions of Latin, Byzantine, Arabic, and Jewish traditions.

[Mihai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was reading this book mainly because I follow the writer, a highly praised academic, and I was expecting, as on any book from the series, a tough read. It was exactly as that: the reader has to be interested in what medieval philosophy is and most importantly what it is not only - e.g not only something related to theology, to know some medieval history and culture and to be genuinely interested in the era.

Tough, but beautiful.

[Sara 🦷 · Rating 5 out of 5]

medieval philosophy or by its synonym “aquinas” roots back mostly to Aristotle and Plato despite their differences contending that Plato wrote about the intelligible world, whereas Aristotle wrote about the everyday world.

this book introduced me to the concept of atomism, which is an idea I had for as long as I remember, but didn’t know it’s true origins within the philosophical field.

in most religions, it is claimed that god is all immortal, wasn’t born and will never die. according to medieval philosophers, the best explanation to this is that god is atemporal, which means “outside time altogether”.

the best part of this book is when they mentioned one of the best pieces of classical Arabic literature حي بن يقظان -ابن طفيل in detail…

[Melissa Barbosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good! It shows how interesting medieval philosophy really was, taking into account also authors from the Jewish, Islamic and Orthodox traditions. I really recommend!

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Medieval Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction is a very good survey of the 1,500 years philosophical thought between the years 200 and 1700 C.E. Some readers might be startled by these dates, but setting such a wide span of time isn’t the only way author John Marenbon enlarges what many people may think of as “medieval." Geographically, he includes not just western Europe, but also eastern Europe, north Africa, and the Middle East. Culturally, Marenbon does not restrict his summary just to the philosophy of Roman Catholic Christian Western Europe, but also covers philosophy in Orthodox Christian Eastern Europe, philosophy in Islamic areas of the world (the Middle East, north Africa, and Islamic-occupied Spain), as well as Jewish philosophy (wherever it was being developed during the Diaspora). The chapters include a general historical survey of how philosophical thought developed in each of these areas and religio-cultural traditions, as well as certain topics of long-lived concern to philosophers: Universals; Mind, body and mortality; Foreknowledge and freedom; Society and the best life. I am impressed by how much information the author crams into 120 pages.

In education, “schema is a mental structure to help us understand how things work. It has to do with how we organize knowledge. As we take in new information, we connect it to other things we know, believe, or have experienced. And those connections form a sort of structure in the brain.” In other words, schema help individuals make sense of new information by tying it to the knowledge an individual already possesses—it is a collection of “hooks” that allow us to relate new information to what we already know. Reading Medieval Philosophy: A Very Brief Introduction has made me acutely aware of how few philosophy hooks I already possess. To cram so much information into so few pages, requires mentioning a lot of names of philosophers and literary works which were unfamiliar to me, that it was often tough going to make sense of it all, even though the author did his best to cross-reference all the names and works. If I didn't understand all of it, the fault is not the author’s but lies in my unfamiliarity with the subject. But as Michael Valentine Smith, the protagonist in Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, often said, “I do not know, but I am only an egg.”

[Kiwi Comiendo Kiwi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vibrante y accesible exposición de la jamás como se debe reconocida filosofía medieval. Muchos aficionados a la filosofía conocen algo de la antigüedad y la modernidad, pero la edad media rara vez es mencionada en charlas filosóficas de diletantes pretenciosos. Si bien es entendible, muchas de las suposiciones metafísicas de la edad media no cuadran con la mentalidad de hoy, uno debería pensarlo dos veces antes de deliberadamente ignorar un periodo de cerca de mil años de pensamiento occidental.

Marenbon expone sus temas con tranquilidad y sencillez, sin hacer (me imagino) muchos estragos a la precisión. Los pensamientos de las principales tres tradiciones (cristiana, musulmana y judía) son leídos con naturalidad y aprecio.

Particularmente interesante fue la relación entre el dogma religioso y el pensamiento filosófico. Contrario a la acusación de que la edad media es supersticiosa y que la fe sofocaba la razón, filósofos como Aquino y Pomponazzi eran capaces de dejar de lado sus convicciones (en este caso sobre la eternidad del universo y la inmortalidad del alma respectivamente) para zambullirse en estudios filosóficos que no sustentaban o contradecían sus creencias.

Otra cosa loca fue la idea arábica del intelecto agente y las doctrinas musulmanas del conocimiento y el alma. Avicenna creía que compartíamos una sola mente colectiva. O algo así.

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting survey of medieval philosophy. In my opinion (I’m not an expert—obviously, as I am reading this book) it isn’t as accessible as it should be as a VSI. The writer assumes, in some sections, at least a graduate-level understanding of metaphysics. I was able to muddle through some of the complicated sections, but there were several passages analyzing controversies and commentaries that I couldn’t understand, and I have a B.A. in Philosophy. Also, the inclusion of some Islamic philosophy was compelling and no doubt necessary to correct the Christian-focused stereotype of medieval philosophy, but this philosophy was still given short shrift. The introduction and conclusion are worth getting and struggling through the book.

[Jackson Cyril · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marenbon presents what I suppose is the newly forming consensus in the field; that studying "Medieval Philosophy" really means studying the Byzantine, Arabic, Jewish and Latin traditions in conjunction with each other. The difficulty with this method, especially in the context of a "very short introduction", is that any systematic philosophical treatment of a thinker is impossible. JM makes a valiant effort, but one of the drawbacks of this book is that many thinkers-- especially thinkers whose influence was not very great or who seem to fall on the peripheries of their traditions-- are given short thrift here.

[Mondieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short introduction to 2000 years of philosophical thought. Naturally it's not possible to gasp it all in 120 pages but it accomplishes the objective of showing the general characteristics of the philosophy of this period.
Easy to read, however sometimes a reader not familiarized with philosophy (as myself) might get lost

[Marco · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is exactly what the subtiltle tell us: a very short introduction (tot medieval philosophy). It helps to step into a (philosophical) period that gets not enough attention. It invites you to read more about this fascinating periode. It is a nice overview, but still... A Very Short Introduction ;)

[Elizabeth Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should not have attempted a book on philosophy whilst suffering a head cold. This is not the fault of the book or its author.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good coverage of history and ideas for a VSI. A little dense at times for the non-philosopher.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part, the historical overview of the period and its various traditions is very good, and remedies a common failure of most introductions to medieval philosophy, i.e., it extends its discussion to medieval Islamic and Jewish thinkers as well as those in the Greek and Latin (especially Christian) traditions. The second half of the book is very good, but probably a bit too technical for the likely readers of the "very short introduction" series. Still, for those students who may be encountering some of these difficult topics (e.g., the problem of universals, philosophy of mind, freedom versus foreknowledge, etc.) in an undergraduate course in medieval philosophy, the short chapters on these themes will provide a brief overview of the main issues and players.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough, but not really what I was looking for.