Chapter 5: Reawakening of intellectual life in the Middle Ages

 Medieval Europe was indeed an age of faith and science, discussions about the nature of
the soul, consciousness, and mental processes were often intertwined with theological
and philosophical considerations
o Psychology was not defined

The Papacy (authority of the pope) and the Church Powers

 Papacy was the major source of authority in Western Europe (stopped during the
Avignon period)
o both directly (political, religious, social matter) and with allegiances within the
feudal system (church received support from temporal ruler + lord transactions)
o pope was a temporal ruler over his estates in Italy + would confirm the legitimacy
of temporal rulers status to others
 Church’s connection to the emergence of intellectual life
o Church’s had more direct influence on intellectual formation after reform in the
monastic movement
 St. Bernard of Clairvaux created different monasteries where followers
were cut off from society interactions but had access to libraries. This
attracted talented people who preserved and even advanced scholarship
(knowledge)
 New monasticism in Italy: groups of men and women following the rules
of clerical disciple (lived a life of work and prayer avoiding intellectual
enterprises) would live among the people and attempted to serve their
needs
 St. Francis of Assis: spiritual father who led people to live a life of
humility and to sacrifice their material goods for the poor
 St. Dominic Guzman (founded order of Preachers): members used
their intellectual abilities to fight heresy forming an intellectual
elite within the church
o Attempted to keep the belief of the people free from error
o Infamous inquisition: investigated people accused of
heresy or deviation (demonic possession, witchcraft) from
official Church doctrine (tremendous impact on the
intellectual reawakening of Europe)
 All intellectual activity (books to teachings) had to
be scrutinized for possible errors.
 Created an index of books forbidden for the faithful
to read. The censors had power to condemn
offenders of either death or imprisonment
 Gave church direct control of intellectual inquiry
 Dominican followers created the book hammer of
witches which was later used during the Salem
Witch trials
  Psychology identified with Christianity at this time
and an understanding of individual behaviour and
mental activity required an appreciation of the
person’s desire to achieve eternal salvation
(intertwining of psychological and religious
perspectives)
 When universities emerged in western Europe, the Dominicans
and Franciscans led theology faculties and asserted powerful
influences to university structure
 New Churches created an uplifting and intellectual caliber
(people)

The Crusades + Rediscovery of Eastern Traditions

 Crusades represented when Christianity was most powerful
 What were the crusades: a series of military campaigns intended to secure the holy
lands of the middle east from Muslim control
 Outcome of the crusades: contact with other civilizations + stimulated intellectual life via
obtaining access to Islamic scholarships (preserved the Greek knowledge)
o Led to an end of the feudal provincialism (peasant received land for serving the
lord) + intellectual lethargy in Europe
o Led to a decrease Papacy’s power
 Islamic culture prospered and expanded, great centers of intellectual activity grew in
Eastern and North African cities
o Abu idn Sina (Avicenna): combined Aristotle’s metaphysics/psychology to the
Islam faith
 Human soul is an extension of God’s essence, and believed that through
the rational powers of the soul we can share in the perfect knowledge of
God
 Mind-body dualism: reflects an interaction b/t sensory and rational
knowledge
 Psychology was absorbed within Christianity
o Psychology became part of the moral doctrines on behaviour taught by the
Church
 Psychological explanations of any activity had to conform to Christianity
beliefs
o Psychology became immersed in the patterns of Christian practice
 Psychology was confused with the superstitions of widely believed
mythology (Some psychological concepts were based on religious beliefs
that lacked scientific grounding

The Universities (Universities = centers of learning)

**Churches exercised control over universities through financial support
  University of Bologna (Universitas Scholarium): Revival of interest in Roman law led to
the founding of Europe’s oldest university in Bologna (heavily influenced by the church)
o Focused on law + medicine
 University of Paris: greatest center of philosophy + Theology
o France increased their population  French monarchs created large armies to
expand France’s boundaries
o Faculty of theology at the University of Paris (consisted mostly of Dominican
priest) was considered prestigious (kings, emperors, pope looked to them for
ideas)
 Jagiellonian University: reputation in humanistic studies + in astronomy
 Oxford + Cambridge had the following faculties: arts, church law, medicine, theology
(looked at reason instead of faith)

Scholasticism
 Scholasticism: a movement which relied on human reason as a source of truth instead of
faith
 Allowed for the emergence of science
 Move European philosophy away from Plato and towards Aristotle
Early Scholars
Pierre Abelard
 Studied under the platonic philosopher William of Champeaux
 Philosophical controversy: metaphysical problem of universal being
o Plato argued: people changed, but not humanity
 William of Champeaux took the extreme platonic view
 Abelard show rationally the absurdity of William’s position: the relegation
of individual persons simply to instances of a universal defies our
observed order of reality in nature
o Aristotle argued: we use the concept of humanity to classify people as separate
from other animals
 Abelard tried to place Christian thought on a rational plane and deal with the critical
relationship b/t faith and reason
o Taught that if truth is given from god, then both faith and reason will reach the
same conclusion
 Contribution to the development of science: he relied on logical arguments that
appealed to reason for verification
 He legitimized the place of reason in the pursuit of knowledge (but did not discard faith
as a source of knowledge)
Hildegard of Bingen
 Became the leader of her religious community, an advisor to popes and civil rulers,
physician, scientist
 Known as the Doctor of the Church
  Works: spiritual visions with theological commentaries on Christian doctrine (creation
and fall, soul and body), personifications of virtue and vice in human life, consideration
of the human being as a microcosm within the macrocosm of the universe
 Discoveries:
o recognized a relationship b/t the 4 elements and the 4 bodily humors
o interrelationship with seasons of the year and regions of the earth
o medicine was similar to gardening: Just as the environment + nutrients of a
garden contribute to the viridity, verdure, and “greenness” of plants, so does the
harmonious balance of elements and humors contribute to the vitality, health,
and growth of humans
o Described blood moving through veins (aka circulation of blood)
o Role of brain in the regulation of vital functions
o Emphasized the value of natural medical knowledge rather than exclusively
supernatural causes and cures of illness
Roger Bacon
 Greatest Medieval scientist
 Emphasized importance of study through systematic observation and a reliance on
mathematics
 Connection to emergence of science studying: revived interest in the ancient authors
(especially mathematicians) + stressed the importance of empirical demonstration
(using observation of the physical world and math to support arguments)
o Empiricism was reintroduced
o Knowledge can be gained by both logical deduction (reason) + inductive
empiricism (careful observations through senses)
Albertus Magnus (Dominican Scholar)
 Follower of Aristotle
 Expanded Aristotle’s mind + body dualism and related the potential of the soul to the
Christian ethic of seeking eternal salvation
o Human’s rational powers (intelligence) + faith is key to eternal salvation
 Reinforced Bacon’s teachings on the importance + efficacy of careful empirical
observation
Thomas Aquinas
 Faith + reasoning are sources of knowledge
 Task of the time: Aristotle’s teachings on metaphysics and on the soul had to be
systematically reconciled with Christian theology
o Task accomplished by Aquinas: who determined human reason + faith were tools
to seek truth
 Bad for the church b/c it left them open to people questioning faith
o Led to full expansion of Scholasticism
 Expanded Aristotle’s metaphysical principles of matter and form and described a
dynamic relationship between the body + soul
o Person = defined in terms of essence and existence
 o Essence = classifies the nature of all people. Composed of the physical world (body
derived from) + soul (immortal and has primary functions of intellect + will)
o Existence (principle of actualization): this defines ones individuality
 Consists of necessary bodily + spiritual constituents, whose dynamic interaction
results in the sharing of humanity, expressed individually
o Person is a dynamic entity, motivated internally by the soul
 Developed the idea of various souls (vegetative, sensitive, rational) to account for all living things
possessing a unique soul
o Vegetative (plant life): functions of physical growth + reproduction
o Sensitive soul (animal life): ability to accept information about the external world through
5 senses + includes appetite (controls desire + goals)
o Rational soul (human beings): relates to power of thinking and willing
 2 elements of learning
1) Environmental dependency: our knowledge is based on input through the senses
2) Center of common sense (sensus communis): organizes, mediates, and coordinates sensory
knowledge
 2 types of knowledge
1) Sensory knowledge (animals also have this): provides information about physical reality
whereas human reason provides abstractions of universal principles
2) Rational intellect: accomplished by the soul (makes humans unique)
 Will is a motivational factor that comprises the critical forces of growth + movement.
o Intellect is subordinated to the will b/c the will determines the direction of the intellect
o Goal of will = seek goodness to please the soul
 Soul composed of intellect + will is dependent on sensory input while serving as
the supreme arbitrator of sensory knowledge
 Step towards modern science: knowledge is a natural product of the bodily senses
Philosophy + Science
William of Ockham
 Sought the resolution of faith and reason as harmonious not antagonistic
 Ockham’s razor: explanatory entities should not be multiped needlessly, meaning that
the simplest of 2+ competing theories is preferable and that explanations of unknown
phenomena should be attempted by working form what is already known
 First step to empiricism

Plato + Augustine = person is a soul imprisoned within a body

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