The explicitly psychological works of Siger which are universally accepted as genuine are the Quaestiones in librum tertium de anima, the Tractatus de anima intellectiva, and the De intellectu. Siger’s Quaestiones in librum tertium de anima, which were written sometime between 1265 and 1270, may have been the occasion for Saint Thomas’ De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas, which was issued in 1270. Some of the doctrines contained in them are also to be found in Stephen Tempier’s condemnation of (...) the same year. The distinguished Italian historian of medieval and Renaissance philosophy, the late Bruno Nardi, proved that Siger’s immediate reply to Thomas’ attack was his now lost De intellectu, a work that we know primarily from excerpts and paraphrases to be found in various works of the Renaissance philosopher, Agostino Nifo. While this reply was probably written almost immediately after the appearance of Thomas’ opusculum, that is, in 1270 or 1271, Siger authored yet another reply, the Tractatus de anima intellectiva, which Fernand Van Steenberghen has dated as written in 1272 or 1273. A brief examination of these various works and of Siger’s questions on the Liber de causis, which were written between 1273 and 1276, will make evident the evolution of Siger’s ideas on the soul and the intellect that resulted from his careful study of Saint Thomas’ opusculum. (shrink)

La Universidad de París en la Europa de finales del siglo XIII fue centro de acaloradas discusiones acerca del alma del hombre. La cuestión del alma es el punto doctrinal central y se muestra decisivo porque en la resolución de este único punto puede verse el trasfondo antropológico y metafísico de toda una cosmovisión filosófica e incluso teológica del universo. Una de las más problemáticas cuestiones que se plantearon acerca del alma es el problema de la unidad del intelecto para (...) todos los hombres. Parecería contradictorio pensar que todos los hombres piensan con un único intelecto, pero a su vez suena absurdo afirmar que un principio espiritual, inmaterial, se una a un cuerpo por un tiempo determinado para luego separarse. Ambas posiciones surgen de la consideración de nuevos textos llegados a las manos de los pensadores parisinos a través de autores árabes: los textos del De anima de Aristóteles. (shrink)

A l'instar de ses confrères des années 1250-1260 à l'Université de Paris, Siger de Brabant prit activement part à un mouvement de prise de conscience et de revendication intellectuelle, d'émancipation de la raison contre l'autorité du dogme et le dogmatisme en général, et joua un rôle essentiel dans l'émergence d'un nouveau style, d'une nouvelle morale, d'une nouvelle forme d'existence : en un mot, à la vie philosophique. Il proposa une nouvelle éthique, établie à partir de la lecture d'Aristote, (...) mais une lecture essentiellement rationaliste qui, aux yeux des autorités, s'écartait en tous points de la sagesse chrétienne - affirmant notamment que c'est en cette vie que l'on peut trouver le. bonheur, et non dans l'autre. Siger de Brabant contribua ainsi à une renaissance de la philosophie, qui commence par la Logique qui ordonne la pensée et le discours du philosophe, lui donne aussi son style, au sens littéraire du terme - ce dont le Traité de l'éternité du monde est une bonne illustration. (shrink)

Einleitung -- Quaestiones in tertium De anima : Text und Übersetzung -- Appendices. Testimonien zu Siger von Brabants Über den Intellekt und Über das Glück ; Antwort eines anonymen Averroisten an Thomas von Aquin.

L�entrée de la Métaphysique d�Aristote en Europe occidentale a provoqué fascination et embarras. Les lectures nouvelles d�Aristote entrèrent souvent en confrontation avec les exégèses bibliques ; des problématiques spécifiquement médiévales, comme celle de l�être et de l�essence, sont alors apparues. Nous proposons ici la traduction d�une Question appartenant à un cours sur la Métaphysique donné à la fin du XIIIe siècle par Siger de Brabant, maître à la Faculté des arts de l�Université de Paris. La Question 7 propose (...) une solution originale au problème de l�être et de l�essence : le débat est détourné de sa perspective ontologico-théologique et resitué dans le contexte linguistique. (shrink)

Que la théorie de la « double vérité » n'a jamais été soutenue par les aristotéliciens radicaux du moyen âge est une certitude déjà acquise par les historiens. Le terme même d' « averroïstes » par lequel on les identifiait a été sérieusement mis en cause. Pourtant, il est évident que les maîtres és arts de Paris, dans la deuxième moitié du XIIIe siécle, ont éprouvé des difficultés considérables à mettre en harmonie les vérités de foi et les conclusions du (...) raisonnement philosophique. Comment se posait ce conflit et quelle voie de réconciliation ont-ils cherchée? Deux ouvrages récents nous donnent l'occasion de reprendre ce problème qui a fait déjà couler beaucoup d'encre dans l'historiographie du XXe siècle. Il s'agit de la monographie monumentale de M. Van Steenberghen sur Siger de Brabant et l'étude fondamentale de M.R. Hissette sur la condamnation de 1277. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Philosophy as a “professional” project Philosophy and faith Theory of knowledge Metaphysics The eternity of the world The unicity of the intellect.

The compatibility of divine providence with the contingency of human freedom is widely-debated within medieval thought. Following recent works on the Islamicphilosopher Averroes, this essay expands the issue of causal indeterminism to include the less disputed question of contingency in the larger framework of chance. In tradition of Latin Averroism, Siger of Brabant provides a unique and heterodox perspective on the compatibility of chance with providence. Unlike his fellow scholastics who attempt to preserve contingency under the watchful gaze (...) of divine providence, Siger rejects such moves as destructive of contingency. He instead argues for restrictions on the determination of such events by the arche of divine providence, thus leaving them anarchic with respect to its order but capable of introducing new beginnings in the otherwise closed universe of causes. (shrink)

phers] to be a demonstration of the fact that the human species (and in every case the species of all generable and corruptible individuals) began to exist at a time when previously it had not existed at all, a question is raised: whether, following the Philosopher’s method, the human species (and in every case any given species of generable and corruptible [individuals]) began to exist at a time when previously it had not existed at all.

In this paper I discuss Siger of Brabant’s anti-deterministic argument as developed in De necessitate et contingentia causarum. First, I offer an in-depth reconstruction of how Siger justifi es the contingency of effects in nature: the contingent status of an effect depends only on (the contingent status of) its proximate cause, and not on the First Cause. According to Siger, the First Cause, which is understood as a necessary cause, only determines the necessity of its immediate (...) effect. I, then show that such an account runs into an impasse: it is, in fact, impossible to justify how there can be contingent (i.e., impedible) secondary causes in the chain of causes, once it has been assumed that the First Cause is a necessary (i.e., nonimpedible) cause which immediately produces a necessary effect. (shrink)

We are once again back to the faculty of arts and to Siger of Brabant, and we are concerned to set forth his attitude toward the problem of the soul in Aristotle, not paraphrasing it, as was done earlier, but giving it in terms of the analytical discussion of the preceding two sections. A vitally important point must be made at the outset: Siger is not consciously attempting to accommodate Aristotle to the Faith. He is interested only (...) in reconstructing the Stagirite's own argument in a systematic and coherent manner, regardless of whether the conclusions come into conflict with Christian doctrine or not. Admittedly, he recognizes that these conclusions are sometimes at variance with Christian teachings, and he makes no attempt to blink these variations, but there is not in Siger any of the Thomist conviction that reason, properly exercised, cannot do otherwise than confirm the truths of faith. No--Siger reluctantly finds that properly employed reasoning can sometimes produce conclusions in conflict with truths of faith. His analysis of the Aristotelian doctrine of the soul, as presented in his De anima intellectiva, leads him to conclude that the rigorous application of systematic reasoning to the given premisses could have led to no other answers than the ones that Aristotle seems to reach. Bonaventure, faced with this dilemma, assumed that Aristotle's reasoning was proper and therefore concluded that his premisses must have been wrong; Aquinas agrees with Siger that the premisses were correct and therefore decides that the reasoning was faulty or perhaps merely inadequate, since the conclusions reached fail to confirm the truths of the Christian Revelation. Siger, however, finds both the premisses and the reasoning proper, and thus he is ultimately forced to the device of calling the resulting conclusions only "philosophical" and saying that they are always replaceable by the apodeictic certainties of the Faith. The recent research on Siger--Gilson, Van Steenberghen, and Nardi--has recognized that he was by no means insincere, or deliberately controverting the Faith; these commentators well understand that he is trying carefully and dispassionately to set forth the Aristotelian argument in all its consistency. When the conclusions reached appear to be contrary to Christian doctrine, he can do no more than say, as he does. (shrink)

The "assimilation" of Aristotle by Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century marked, despite all the scholastic distortion it entailed, a new stage in the history of medieval philosophy, elevating it to a higher level of development, and became, contrary to the intentions of its founders, the source of a revival of philosophical thinking. Aristotle, penetrating the University of Paris, proved to be a "Trojan horse" in the philosophical confrontation that developed around him.

Siger conçoit sa critique à l’encontre de la théorie thomasienne de l’intellect en s’appuyant sur les adages tels que « agere sequitur formam » et « potentia non potest esse simplicior aut immaterialior quam eius substantia ». Structurant son argumentation autour de ces deux principes, il tente de démontrer que la position de Thomas d’Aquin se réduit finalement à une position matérialiste ou, se révèle encore être philosophiquement intenable lorsque ce dernier soutientces deux thèses qui, pour Siger, sont (...) contradictoires, à savoir que l’intellect est, d’une part, une des parties de l’âme humaine et d’autre part une puissance indépendante et séparée du corps. Or, Siger semble faire l’économie de l’une de ses arguments les plus puissants qui peut, a priori saper le fondement même de la théorie de l’intellect chez Thomas, à savoir le problème de se séparation du corps. Cependant, une analyse détaillée de la terminologie thomasienne nousrévèle la raison qui a poussé Siger à ne pas utiliser cette critique majeure ; en effet, il était conscient que cet argument qui semblait indiquer un possible incompatibilité entre l’intellect et le corps ne se réduisait en réalité qu’à un problème unsinnig. Cette retenue et cette maîtrise témoignent de de la perspicacité de Siger qui a su précisément demeurer à l’intérieur de la limite conceptuelle où il lui est possible de se présenter non pas comme un critique manqué deThomas d’Aquin, mais comme un véritable philosophe capable de mettre sa position en parallèl avec celle thomasienne concernant l’homme pensant ou « cet homme-ci qui pense ». (shrink)

Introducción a la lectura del De aeternitate mundi El De aetemitate de Siger es un texto polémico, origen y parte de diversos equívocos producidos en un escenario de importantes contiendas doctrinales y profundos cambias históricos. Como introducción a su lectura intentaré caracterizar muy brevemente algunos de dichos equívocos y después, aun más brevemente, las líneas generales de la contienda en la que se encuadran. Al fin, expondré sinteticamente los criterios adaptados para la traducción, agregando en último término uma bibliografia (...) básica organizada por temas. Ya en el título encontramos un primer equívoco, porque no se trata de um Tractatus, como lo conoce la tradición, sino de una Reportatio, es decir, uma versión escrita basada en una exposición oral. Un segundo equívoco se encuentra también en el título. El escrito no trata de la eternidad del mundo sino de otro tema, mucho más acatado: la eternidad de la especie humana. Esto podría parecer una diferencia menor, pero no lo es: este texto le valieron a Siger la acusación de herejía y la consecuente reclusión en la corte papal donde fue asesinado. Dicha herejía consistia en negar, siguiendo rigurosamente la filosofia aristotélica, el carácter creado del mundo, negación que ninguna lectura atenta podrá encontrar en este escrito. El lector encontrará en cambio el tratamiento de un tema puntual en un detallado trabajo erudito, conciso, claro y sagaz que desarrolla sólo uno de los modos de producción de los seres expuestos por Aristóteles en Metafísica Z, VII. Por lo que la acusación, más allá de los fines que persiguiera en su momento, constituye uma clara tergiversación de los términos en que este escrito plantea el problema. (shrink)

Medieval philosophy is the collective name given to the philosophies of thinkers who lived between the end of the Roman Empire, c. 400, and the beginning of the modern era, c. 1490. The philosophers profiled in DLB Volume 115 were involved in education, public life and ecclesiastical administration, and thus represent the various schools of thought that existed throughout this vast period. This volume offers much new information on these scholars, and fills the gap in available literature. The entries, containing (...) biographies, bibliographies and beliefs of the philosophers, reflect the most recent developments in the field. (shrink)

Canon Van Steenberghen studies with some care and considerable scholarship the Medieval adventure with Aristotelianism, from its initiation in the twelfth century to its condemnation by the bishop of Paris in the latter part of the thirteenth. Grosseteste, Bonaventure, Albert the Great, Aquinas, and Siger of Brabant receive brief but penetrating discussions. The book deserves careful study. --L. H.

To avoid reification of prime matter, or the indeterminate, yet determinable, substrate underlying all change, many readers of Aristotle have identified this per se unknowable “stuff” with its functional identity, i.e., as a conceptual placeholder of the sum of formal potencies abstracted from concrete particulars.Despite the appeal of this reduction, a case will be made in reference to Siger of Brabant’s Metaphysics for the irreducibility of prime matter. This entails granting an extra-formal reality to prime matter beyond its (...) functional role as a correlate passively receiving forms imparted by an agent without contributing anything of this own. (shrink)