The Middle Ages are almost a millennium in the history of Europe. It originates from the collapse in the fifth century AD of the Roman Empire, captures feudalism and ends at the beginning of the fifteenth, when the Renaissance begins.
The main features of the philosophy of the Middle Ages
Features of medieval philosophy briefly represent the Christian faith as a tool for uniting all people, regardless of their material situation, nationality, profession, gender.
Medieval philosophers have ensured that every person who has been baptized has the opportunity to find in the future life those blessings that he was deprived of in this one. Belief in the
immortality of the soul as the main component of the essence of each person equalizes each other: the king and the poor, the tax collector and artisan, sick and healthy, man and woman. If we present the stages of the evolution of medieval philosophy briefly, this is the establishment of the dogmas of Christianity and the introduction of a Christian worldview in
public consciousness in accordance with the requirements of feudalism as the main form of government in most countries of that time.
Problems of Christian Philosophy
The main problems of medieval philosophy are rather difficult to summarize. If you try to imagine them in a few words, this is the establishment of world domination of the Christian church, the justification of its creed from a scientific point of view, from positions that are understandable and acceptable to people of all categories. One of the main collisions of medieval philosophy was the theme of universals. The dichotomy of spirit and matter was expressed in the polemic of nominalists and realists. According to the concept of Thomas Aquinas universals appeared in three forms. The first is home-made, that is, intangible, in the form of the Creator's original intention. The second is material or material, that is, physical appearance. The third is post-war, in other words, imprinted in the memory, the mind of man. Thomas Aquinas was opposed by the nominalist Roscelin.
His point of view of extreme rationalism was that the world can be known only from the position of the primacy of matter, for the essence of universals is only in their names. Only that which is individual is worthy of study. It is not only the vibration of the voice. The Catholic Church condemned the Roszelin theory as incompatible with the tenets of Christianity. The papal throne approved the version of the world order according to Thomas Aquinas. His moderate realism was ultimately accepted by the Catholic Church as the most rational and logically reasonably easy to justify.
The search for God is the main task of medieval philosophers
Medieval philosophy can be briefly described as God-seeking and confirmation of the existence of God. The atomism of ancient Greek philosophers was rejected, as was the consubstantiality of God according to Aristotle, but Platonism, by contrast, was taken as a basis in the aspect of the trinity of divine essence.
The theocentrism of medieval philosophy is briefly described in the catechism. Christianity began to occupy a dominant position in the political life of the states of medieval Europe. The harsh era of the Inquisition, the problems of medieval philosophy, briefly and fully used as a driving force for the implementation of the Christian way of thinking in everyday relations that took shape in agricultural communities, between merchants of the townspeople and among the knights.
Three stages of medieval philosophy
The following stages of medieval philosophy are distinguished, their essence is briefly as follows. A generalized characteristic of the former is the establishment of the trinity of God, the proof of the existence of God, the adaptation of early Christian rituals and symbols to the nascent Christian church. The second stage of medieval philosophy set itself the task of establishing the rule of the Christian church. Medieval philosophy briefly defined the third stage as the period of rethinking the Christian dogmas legalized in the previous period. The separation of these stages in time and personalities of the philosophers themselves is possible only very conditionally, since different sources provide inconsistent information on this subject. Scholasticism, patristicism and apologetics are very closely interconnected and intertwined.
However, apologetics is still considered the time of the emergence of the medieval view of philosophical science on the being and consciousness of man and takes a period of time from about the second to the fifth century. Patristics conditionally begins in the third century and is in an active dominant position until the eighth century, and scholasticism is most clearly represented in the interval from the eleventh to fourteenth centuries.
Apologetics
The first stage was defined as apologetic. His main followers were Quintus Septimius Florent Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria. The apologetic features of medieval philosophy can be briefly described as a struggle with pagan ideas about the world order. Faith must be above reason. That in Christianity it is impossible to verify, it should be accepted as truth from God, without expressing doubt or disagreement. Faith in God should not be rational, but it should be indestructible.
Patristics
The second stage is by definition patristic, since at this time there is no longer any need to prove the existence of God. Now philosophers demand to accept everything that comes from Him as a blessing, as a wonderful and useful gift. Medieval philosophy briefly and intelligibly conveys the Good News to the Gentiles through the organization of crusades. Whoever is not with the Christian church is against her, dissent burned with fire and sword. Blessed Augustine Aurelius in his “Confession” disbelief in God and the sinful desires of man defines as the main problems of medieval philosophy. He claims that all the good in the world is from God, and the bad - from the evil will of man. The world was created from nothing, so everything in it was originally conceived as good and good. A man has his own will and can control his desires. The human soul is immortal and retains memory, even having left its earthly abode - the physical body of man.
In patristics, the main features of medieval philosophy in brief are the tireless efforts to spread Christianity around the world as the only true information about the world and man. It was during this period that the philosophers established and proved the incarnation of the Lord, His resurrection and ascension. The dogma was also established about the second coming of the Savior, the Last Judgment, universal resurrection and a new life in the next incarnation. Very important, from the point of view of the existence of the Church of Christ in eternity and priestly succession within it, was the adoption of the dogma of the unity and collegiality of the Church.
Scholasticism
The third stage is scholastic medieval philosophy. A brief description of this period can be designated as shaping the church-Christian dogmas established in the previous period. Schools are emerging, philosophy is moving into theology. The theocentrism of medieval philosophy, in short, manifests itself as the creation of schools and universities with a theological focus. The natural sciences and the humanities are taught in terms of Christian doctrine. Philosophy is at the service of theology.
Philosophical Searches and Christian Thinkers
Medieval philosophy, a brief description of its stages are clearly explained in textbooks on the history of philosophy. There you can also find a mention of the works of such outstanding thinkers of the first stage as representatives of the apologetics Tatian and Origen. Tatian gathered the four Gospels of Mark, Luke, Matthew and John into one. They later became known as the New Testament. Origen created a branch of philology based on biblical legends. He also belongs to the introduction of the concept of the God-man in relation to Jesus Christ. Of the philosophers who left the most significant mark in this science, it is certainly impossible not to mention the patristics of Boethius Anicia Manliya Torquat Severin. He left behind the wonderful work “Consolation by Philosophy”. Medieval philosophy was briefly generalized by him and simplified for teaching in educational institutions. Universals are the brainchild of Boethius. With his initiative, the seven main areas of knowledge were divided into two types of disciplines. The first is humanitarian disciplines.
The three paths included rhetoric, grammar and dialectics. The second is natural science. This four-way path included geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy. He translated and explained the main works of Aristotle, Euclid and Nicomache. Scholasticism in philosophical doctrine is always associated with the name of the monk of the Dominican Order of Thomas Aquinas, who systematized the postulates of the Orthodox Church, gave five unshakable evidence of the existence of God. He combined and logically connected the philosophical calculations of Aristotle with the teachings of Christians, showed that natural human being, mind and logic, when developing, would certainly go to a higher level of consciousness, namely faith in the existence and active participation of the omnipresent, almighty and intangible triune God. He discovered and proved an always-lasting sequence, when the mind ends with faith, nature with grace, and philosophy with revelation.
Philosophers - Saints of the Catholic Church
Many medieval philosophers were ranked by the Catholic Church as saints. These are Irenaeus of Lyons, Blessed Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, John Damascene, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, Dionysius Areopagite, Boethius, canonized as Saint Severin, and others.