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Medieval Philosophy

Code: 100309 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500246 Philosophy OB 2

Contact

Name:
Jaume Mensa Valls
Email:
jaume.mensa@uab.cat

Teachers

Jaume Mensa Valls

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


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

  1. Analyse the sex-/gender-based inequalities and gender bias in one's own area of knowledge.
  2. Arguing about several issues and philosophical problems for the purpose of different works and the assessment of the results.
  3. Assess how stereotypes and gender roles impact professional practice.
  4. Carrying out a planning for the development of a subject-related work.
  5. Demonstrating a personal stance over a problem or controversy of philosophical nature, or a work of philosophical research.
  6. Discriminating the features that define the writer's place in the context of a problem and reorganising them in a consistent diagram.
  7. Distinguishing and outlining the fundamental content of a philosophical text.
  8. Documenting a philosophical issue and contrasting its sources.
  9. Establishing relationships between science, philosophy, art, religion, politics, etc.
  10. Explaining the specific notions of the History of Philosophy.
  11. Expressing both orally and in written form, the issues and basic problems of the philosophical tradition.
  12. Indicating and discussing the main characteristics of the distinctive thought of a period and contextualizing them.
  13. Indicating the main issues of the history of philosophy.
  14. Producing an individual work that specifies the work plan and timing of activities.
  15. Reading basic philosophical text thoroughly.
  16. Reading thoroughly philosophical texts of the History of Philosophy.
  17. Recognising, with a critical eye, philosophical referents of the past and present and assessing its importance.
  18. Relating the various orders of the philosophical ideas of different authors and historical moments.
  19. Rigorously building philosophical arguments.
  20. Solving problems autonomously.
  21. Summarising the topics and arguments exposed in a classical philosophical debate.
  22. 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». Hildegard of Bingen*

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. Marguerite Porete*

 THE MEDIEVAL CATALAN PHILOSOPHY

20. Catalan philosophy until the beginning of the 14th century

21. Scotists and Thomists*

22. Towards the Renaissance and Humanism

* = The topics marked with * will be the subject of presentation by the students (see Evaluation).


Activities and Methodology

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
Preparation of the small group presentation on required readings or a topic on the syllabus marked with * 5.5 0.22 7, 8, 11, 15, 16, 18
Preparation of topics and texts 15 0.6 7, 9, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21

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. It is necessary that the student give reason for this preparation in his interventions in class.

Constant attendance in class and active participation are essential for good course follow-up. The students will actively collaborate and present the continguts and lectures of the course.

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Exam 1 35 1.5 0.06 2, 19, 7, 9, 10, 22, 13, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21
Exam 2 35 1.5 0.06 2, 19, 7, 9, 10, 22, 13, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21
Participation and class activities. 10 2 0.08 2, 14, 9, 10, 11, 22, 15
Small group presentation. 20 4.5 0.18 1, 2, 19, 5, 6, 8, 14, 9, 4, 10, 11, 22, 12, 15, 17, 21, 3

SINGLE ASSESSMENT

The single assessment will be a written exam consisting of three parts:

a) Questions of a theoretical nature about the contents (35%);

b) Commentary on texts (35%);

c) Questions (contents) and activities, comments and arguments about the compulsory readings (30%).

To pass the exam it is necessary that the overall mark of the exam is at least 50% of the possible mark and  the mark of each part is at least 40% of the possible mark.

Recovery exam

The recovery excam can only be taken if the student has obtained at least a 3.5 in the single assessment exam.

The characteristics of the recovery exam will be the same as those of the single assessment exam. Even if the student has passed one or two parts of the single assessment exam, he/she must take the entire exam.

 

CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT

Continuous assessment presupposes class attendance and constant work. 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 presentation  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.

Compulsory readings: Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, X-XIII;and Thomas Aquinas, De ente et essentia. Both will be object to the exam. 

Presentation. The students, in groups of two or three people, will make a 30' presentation on a program point (*) or on a section of the compulsory readings. They will prepare a document to share on the Virtual Campus.

Participation in class. The lecturer will especially take into account the students participation in class. 

 

Recovery exam

The recovery exam will consist of a test that will combine theory questions and a text commentary.

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 disciplinaryprocess 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.

 


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://elibro.net/es/lc/uab/titulos/114160)

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


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed