Die Philosophie im Mittelalter: Von Boethius bis Cusanus (Beck'sche Reihe 2821)

by Loris Sturlese

Die Philosophie im Mittelalter (500–1450) umfasst etwa tausend Jahre Reflexion in unzähligen Texten und in den unterschiedlichsten Sprachen (Latein, Griechisch, Arabisch, Persisch, Hebräisch und später in den volkssprachlichen Idiomen wie Italienisch, Deutsch, Französisch, Englisch und Katalanisch). In diesen Jahrhunderten trieb man Philosophie als Trost und Lebenslehre, als rationale Naturforschung, als Liebe zur Wahrheit, als Wissen um Jesus den Gekreuzigten, als orthodoxe Theologie, als mönchische Lebensführung oder als Kunst der okkulten Wissenschaften. Um dieser Vielfalt gerecht zu werden, versucht dieser Band, seinen Gegenstand nicht theoretisch-beurteilend, sondern historisch-deskriptiv zu erfassen.
Dieses Buch nimmt Abstand vom Bild des Mittelalters als einer dogmatischen Zeit, in der unter strenger Aufsicht der Kirche nur einige systematische «Denkkathedralen» in blinder Gläubigkeit an die Autorität des Aristoteles errichtet wurden. Mit Blick auf die philosophischen Entwicklungen in den byzantinischen, islamischen, lateinischen und jüdischen Kulturgebieten des Mittelalters registriert diese Philosophiegeschichte eine explosionsartige Zersplitterung ihres Gegenstandes und zugleich eine fortschreitende Vermehrung der philosophischen Sprachen, die zu einer radikalen Erweiterung des geographischen Raums der Philosophie im Mittelalter führte.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

157 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Philipp · Rating 3 out of 5]

The C. H. Beck Wissen books are always extremely concise, and this one is no difference. You get a broad history of philosophy as it was practised in the Christian and Islamic world starting with Boethius (about 500 AD) and ending with Nicolaus Cusanus (about 1500 AD). Each chapter is 100 years focused around the rise and fall of various centers of philosophy. I found a bunch of new guys to check out - I still need to read Boethius, but also Averroes (Ibn Rushd, who believed that the Quran demands believers to think for themselves, and that therefore there is a duty to become a philosopher), or Albertus Magnus, essentially the first scientist ('I don't care for the wonders of God when I'm doing science', to him philosophy and theology were two different things).

It's great that the author doesn't ignore the Arabic/Islamic world (preferring the term Arabic philosophy as most philosophers in the Arabic world were not clerics, in contrast to the Christian/Western world). There's a small part on how the West, for the longest time, believed that Arabic philosophy 'stopped' after Islamic hardliners took over - as the author argues this is only partially true, but a new philosophy developed by Fakr al-Dîn al-Râzî and others which simply was never translated into a language the West could read). For a few hundred years Arabic philosophy was more active than Western/Christian philosophy, in parts because Arabic philosophy saw actors from many walks of life, while Christian philosophy depended on the rather small clerical class.

Another nice thing is, contrary to popular opinion in modern atheist circles, how much 'modern' thought appears here or there in a forgotten philosopher. So many theologians believed that by doing philosophy, thinking and gaining knowledge, man is getting closer to the holy spirit in himself, he's essentially fulfilling his destiny by researching the world. It's the opposite of the often spouted idea that Christianity was always trying to keep mankind in the dark during the Middle Ages.

Nicolaus Cusanus, the last philosopher of this book (useless side fact: I grew up in his birth town and we do rub it into the face of anyone who dares to visit) believed that all religions essentially believed in the same God, it's just that Christianity got it slightly more right than the others. The universe, mankind, and God is essentially one thing. To him people were making a continuous mistake as they were trying to use rational thought to learn about the infinite while assuming that it's finite, which cannot work - everything man sees is just a piece of God. Everything mankind rationalises is just artificial splitting up by the mind - there are no four elements, it's all just different pieces of God's oneness. The universe is infinite and the geocentric model is not needed. That sounds very humanistic and indeed Cusanus was one of the first humanists, which is why it's fitting that the book ends with him. (All of that sounds like he could have been a lonely kook, but he made it very far in the Catholic church - he was cardinal and vicar general, he is buried in Rome, his heart is buried in my hometown).

So why three stars? We Germans don't know how to write entertaining non-fiction, but we do know how to compress the highest amount of knowledge into the least amount of words, and that makes for harsh reading.

[Maxim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Im Rahmen des begrenzten Umfangs eine sehr umfassende Darstellung, aber als Einführung nur mäßig geeignet. Der Text ist recht voraussetzungsvoll und sprachlich teilweise schwer zu durchdringen und die schiere Masse der erwähnten Personen machen ein Durchdringen der Materie schwer. Eine zielgenauer Auswahl einiger Denker, die dafür etwas detaillierter dargestellt werden wäre dem Verständnis sicher zuträglich gewesen.