Medieval Philosophy
Code: 100309 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500246 Philosophy | OB | 2 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Jaume Mensa Valls
- Email:
- jaume.mensa@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- Yes
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- No
Teachers
- Jaume Mensa Valls
Prerequisites
There is no requirement
Objectives and Contextualisation
Medieval philosophy is a compulsory subject of the second year of the degree of Philosophy. The specific objectives of this subject are:
a. To get a good knowledge of the main authors, and of the philosophical and scientists approaches and problems in the Medieval Age.
b. To learn more about the two most significant authors of medieval philosophy: Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas.
c. To obtain a general knowledge of the main medieval Catalan authors.
d. To read, understand and interpret several texts by some studied authors.
e. To reflect on some problems considered by thinkers at this time.
f. To develop their own critical and self-critical thinking.
g. To connect the contents of the subject with the content of other subjects of the degree.
Competences
- Act within one's own area of knowledge, evaluating sex/gender-based inequalities.
- Analysing and summarising the main arguments of fundamental texts of philosophy in its various disciplines.
- Placing the most representative philosophical ideas and arguments of a period in their historical background and relating the most important authors of each period of any philosophical discipline.
- Recognising and interpreting topics and problems of philosophy in its various disciplines.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Thinking in a critical and independent manner on the basis of the specific topics, debates and problems of philosophy, both historically and conceptually.
- Using the symbology and procedures of the formal sciences in the analysis and building of arguments.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse the sex-/gender-based inequalities and gender bias in one's own area of knowledge.
- Arguing about several issues and philosophical problems for the purpose of different works and the assessment of the results.
- Assess how stereotypes and gender roles impact professional practice.
- Carrying out a planning for the development of a subject-related work.
- Demonstrating a personal stance over a problem or controversy of philosophical nature, or a work of philosophical research.
- Discriminating the features that define the writer's place in the context of a problem and reorganising them in a consistent diagram.
- Distinguishing and outlining the fundamental content of a philosophical text.
- Documenting a philosophical issue and contrasting its sources.
- Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
- Explaining the specific notions of the History of Philosophy.
- Expressing both orally and in written form, the issues and basic problems of the philosophical tradition.
- Indicating and discussing the main characteristics of the distinctive thought of a period and contextualizing them.
- Indicating the main issues of the history of philosophy.
- Producing an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
- Reading basic philosophical text thoroughly.
- Reading thoroughly philosophical texts of the History of Philosophy.
- Recognising, with a critical eye, philosophical referents of the past and present and assessing its importance.
- Relating the various orders of the philosophical ideas of different authors and historical moments.
- Rigorously building philosophical arguments.
- Solving problems autonomously.
- Summarising the topics and arguments exposed in a classical philosophical debate.
- Using suitable terminology when drawing up an academic text.
Content
BACKGROUND: AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO AND THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHICAL LEGACY
1. Academic Philosophy*, Neoplatonism and biblical and patristic tradition*
2. Augustine of Hippo. Introduction
3. Augustine of Hippo: God, creation, human being*
4. Augustine of Hippo: knowledge
5. Augustine of Hippo: Language, time, moral philosophy, the "political augustinisme"*
MEDIEVAL PATRISTIC PHILOSOPHY
6. Latin authors
7. Greek authors
THE LAST NEOPLATONISM
8. The Neoplatonic school of Athens
MUSLIM PHILOSOPHY
9. Muslim philosophy*
JEWISH PHILOSOPHY
10. Jewish philosophy*
BYZANTINE PHILOSOPHY
11. Byzantine philosophy*
CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY OF THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES
12. Latin philosophy at the Age of the Monasteries (9th-12th centuries)
SCHOLASTICISM: EARLY PERIOD AND MATURITY
13. The Renaissance of the twelfth century. The «new Aristotle»
14. Thomas Aquinas (1225-274) and his time
15. Thomas Aquinas: The Summa Theologiaeand the God’s existence
16. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotelian metaphysics
17. Thomas Aquinas: anthropology, moral*, politics*
THE PHILOSOPHY AFTER THE CONDEMNATION OF 1277
18. The Condemnation of 1277 and its consequences. John Duns Scot (ca. 1266-1308)
19. The "via modernorum": nominalism and mysticism
THE MEDIEVAL CATALAN PHILOSOPHY
20. Catalan philosophy until the beginning of the 14th century
21. Scotists and Thomists*
22. Towards the Renaissance and Humanism
* = Students who aspire to a good grade are recommended to make an oral presentation about any of the topics marked with a * (see Evaluation)
Methodology
Lessons combine theoretical lectures with reading and comments about particularly significant texts. The lecturer will follow the manual "Introduction to medieval philosophy" (UAB Manuals, 57), UAB, Publications Service, 2012, written by himself expressly for this subject. The student must go to class having prepared the daily topic. The lecturer's explanation of the subject presupposes this preparation.
In addition, the student will have to make personal readings.
We will use the Virtual Campus to share the materials. On the other hand, if the student wishes to contact the lecturer, he or she must send a personal email (not by a Virtual Campus message).
The tutorials will be basically dedicated to prepare the essay and the compulsory readings, and to solve any doubt.
In order that students may program the course correctly, on the first day of class the lecturer will provide a calendar with all the important dates (examinations, work assignments, etc.) in the Virtual Campus.
The teaching methodology and the evaluation proposed in the guide may undergo some modification subject to the onsite teaching restrictions imposed by health authorities.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures on fundamental concepts | 28.5 | 1.14 | 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 12, 18 |
| Presentation of the cours | 1.5 | 0.06 | 9, 17 |
| Reading texts | 15 | 0.6 | 7, 8, 12, 15, 16 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Reading: "Confessions", X-XIII, by Augustine of Hippo | 20 | 0.8 | 14, 4, 15, 16, 17, 20 |
| Reading: "De ente et essentia", by Aquinas | 20 | 0.8 | 6, 7, 8, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18 |
| Tutorials | 15 | 0.6 | 14, 4, 11, 20, 21 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Bibliographical research | 20 | 0.8 | 8 |
| Essay about a compulsory reading | 7.5 | 0.3 | 7, 8, 15, 16, 18 |
| Preparation of topics and texts | 15 | 0.6 | 7, 9, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21 |
Assessment
The assessment is continued and requires the constant follow-up of the course. To pass the course is required: a) to achieve a mark of 4, at least, in each exam; b) to achieve a mark of 5 in average, at least, in the set of all the activities. If a student does not fulfil these two conditions, he or she must be submitted to a reevaluation exam. The essays will not have a reevaluation. The reevaluation is not possible without having done previously the ordinary exam.
The reassessment exam format will be similar to the ordinary exams format and will have two parts: one for the topics of each partial exam. The student will only have to do the failed part(s).
The student whose evaluation activities have not reached the 30% of the activities will be assessed as “Non-evaluable”.
After the reevaluations, there is not a second round.
The lecturer will assign a day, hour and place to review the exams after having evaluated the activities of the course. Students who have to do the reassessment will have a specific day of review when they will have done the aforementioned reevaluation exam.
Comments on the evaluation activities
Exams: The student has to do two partial exams. Each exam may consist of two parts: theoretical and commentary questions of a passage. In addition to the theoretical contents of the subject, the student has to show his or her knowledge of the compulsory readings. In the theoretical questions, it will be necessary to demonstrate some knowledge of the basic bibliography. It is important to supplement the lecturer's presentations with, at least, a companion book. If the student has not been able to take one of the exams, he has failed it or the average of the assessment activitiesof the course does not reach5, he will have to be submitted for a reassessment.
Essay: The student will do two compulsory readings: Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, X-XIII;and Thomas Aquinas,De ente et essentia. Both will be object to the exam. In addition, the student will have to present an essay based on one of the two works (to choose). This essay must have an extension of 5,000 words maximum.
Participation in class. The lecturer will especially take into account the students participation in class.
Students who aspire to a good grade are advised to make an oral presentation on one of the subjects marked with an asterisk (*) (see Contents).
In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.
In the event that tests or exams cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay on one of the compulsory reading | 33,3 | 4.5 | 0.18 | 1, 2, 19, 5, 6, 8, 14, 9, 4, 10, 11, 22, 12, 15, 17, 21, 3 |
| Exam 1 | 33,3 | 1.5 | 0.06 | 2, 19, 7, 9, 10, 22, 13, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21 |
| Exam 2 | 33,4 | 1.5 | 0.06 | 2, 19, 7, 9, 10, 22, 13, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21 |
Bibliography
Studentbook:
Jaume Mensa i Valls, Introducció a la filosofia medieval (Manuals de la UAB, 57), Bellaterra, Servei de Publicacions, 2012 (Printed book and ebook), 280 pàgs. With specific bibliography about different topics. (https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.are.uab.cat/lib/uab/reader.action?docID=4824671)
To find out more:
K. Flasch, El pensament filosòfic a l'Edat Mitjana. D'Agustí a Maquiavel, Santa Coloma de Queralt, Edèndum, 2006.
A. de Libera, La filosofia medieval, València, 2006.
Andrés Martínez Lorca, La filosofía medieval. De Al-Farabi a Ockham (Descubrir la Filosofía, 18), Madrid, El País, 2015.
Giannina Burlando, F. Bertelloni (eds.), La filosofía medieval, Madrid, Trotta, CSIC, 2002;
Henrik Lagerlund (ed.), Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy (ebook), Dordrecht, Springer, 2011;
Michela Pereira, La filosofia nel Medioevo. Secoli VI-VX, Roma, Carocci, 2008;
Agustí, "Confessions", X-XIII, ed. M. Dolç, Barcelona, Proa, 2007;
Tomàs d'Aquino, Antologia metafísica (Textos filosòfics, 56), Barcelona, Edicions 62, 1991.
Software
During the course we will work with documents in .doc, .docs, .pdf and .ppt formats.
If we have to do online sessions, we will use the Teams and Meet programs