UGANDA MARTRYS’ NATIONAL MAJOR SEMINARY ALOKOLUM-GULU

AFFILIATED TO

URBANIANA PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITY-ROME

NAME: OGWANG JOSEPH ABEDISM

YEAR: ONE

COURSE UNIT: PHI 122

COURSE NAME: HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY

LECTURER: REV. FR. SIMON JUDE OWORI

SEMESTER: TWO

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2014/2015

COURSE WORK: Research about St. Anslem of Aosta, Peter Abelard and the spread and

organization of the Urban Schools.

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Life and works of Peter Abelard

2.1 The problem of the Universals

3.0 Life and works of St. Anselm of Aosta

3.1 Ontological argument

4.0 The organization and spread of the Urban Schools

5.0 Evaluation

6.0 Conclusion
1.0 Introduction

We shall talk about the philosophy of St. Anslem of Aosta, Peter Abelard and the spread and

organization of the urban schools.

2.0 Life and works of Peter Abelard

Abelard, originally called “Pierre le Pullet”, was born in c1079 in Le Pallet, about ten miles East

of Nantes, in Brittany, the eldest son of a minor noble Breton family. His father, a wealthy lord

called Berengar, encouraged him to study the liberal arts, where he excelled at the art of dialect,

which, at that time, consisted chiefly of the logic of Aristotle transmitted through Latin channels.

Instead of entering a military career, as his father had done, he became an academic pursuit, he

wandered throughout France, debating and learning. He first studied in Loire area, where the

nominalist Roscellinus of Compiegne, who had been accused of heresy by Anslem, was his

teacher during this period.1

2.1 The problem of the Universals

Abelard accepted Aristotle’s definition of the universal, as given by Boethius (quod in pluribus

natum est praedicari, singular vero quuod non), he went on to state that it is a thing which is

predicted but a name, and he concludes that “it remains to a scribe universality of this sort to

words alone”. He proceeded in the (logica nostrorum petitioni sociorum) to distinguish vox and

sermo and to say, not that universal est vox, but that universal est sermo. It is because vox

signifies the words as a physical entity (flatus vocis), a thing, and nothing can be predicated of

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter-Aberald accessed on 17/02/2015
another thing, whereas sermo signifies the word according to its relation to the logical content,

and it is this which is predicated.2

According to him, there are really no universal concepts at all, but only confused images, generic

or specific according to the degree of confusions and indistinctness. But he goes ahead to say

that universal concepts are formed by abstraction and that through these concepts we conceive

that it is in the object. When he says that the universal is anomen or asermon, what he meant is

that logical unity of the universal concept affects only the predicate, that it is anomen and not a

res or individual thing.

In his theologica Christiana and theologica, Abelard follows St. Augustine, Marcrobius and

Priscian in placing in the mind of God formae exemplars or divine ideas, generic and specific,

which are identical with God Himself, and he commends Plato on this point, understanding him

in a Neo-Platonic sense, as having placed the ideas in the divine mind, quam Graeci Noyn

appellant.3

3.0 Life and works of St. Anselm of Aosta

Anslem of Canterbury came from Aosta in Piedmont, and was the Benedictine Abbot of Bec in

Normandy before he became Archbishop of Canterbury.4 He was held the post for the rest of his

life. He went to into exile from 1097 to 1100 and again from 1103 to 1107 because he opposed

the king’s power to select church officials. 5 He adopted Augustine as his master, and his thought

in general is Augustine. He held that one must believe in order to understand: “crede ut

intellegas”. Faith is an immediate and infallible knowledge of truth. However, faith is obscure,
2
Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy: Mediaeval Philosophy, Vol 2, part 1 (New York: A Division
of Doubleday and co, Inc.; 1962), pg 171.
3
Ibid., 172.
4
Martin J. Walsh, A History of Philosophy (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1985), pg 109.
5
The World Book Encyclopedia: A Volume 1 (Chicago: World Book Inc.; 2001), pg 519
and this obscurity is to be dissipated by an effort of reason to find the “necessary reasons”

underlying the doctrine accepted in faith.

3.1 Ontological argument

An ontological argument is philosophical argument for the existence of God that uses ontology.

It is widely accepted that the first ontological argument was proposed by Anslem of Canterbury

in his 1078 work Prolog ion. Anslem defined God as “…that than which nothing greater can be

conceived,” and then argued that this being must exist in the mind; even in the mind of the fool

who denies the existence of God.6

But, at any rate, this very fool, when he hears of this being which I speak- a being than which

nothing greater can be conceived- understands what he hears, and what he understands is in his

understanding; although he does not understand it to exist. For it is one thing for an object to be

in the understanding, and another to understand that the object exists. When a painter first

conceives of what he will afterwards perform, he has it in his understanding, but he does not yet

understand it to be, because he has not yet performed it, but after he has made the painting, he

both has it in his understanding, and he understands that it exists, because he has made it.7

Hence, even the fool is convinced that something exists in the understanding, at least, than which

nothing greater can conceived. For, when he hears of this, he understands it. And whatever is

understood exists in the understanding. And surely that, than which nothing greater can be

conceived cannot exist in the understanding alone. For, suppose it exists in the understanding

alone: then it can be conceived to exist in reality; which is greater. However, if that, than which

6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ontological-argument accessed on 17/02/2015.
7
Walter Kaufmann, Philosophic Classics, Thales to Ockham, Vol 1, 2rd edition (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,
Inc.; 1968) pg 522.
nothing greater can be conceived, exists in the understanding alone, the very being, than which

nothing greater can be conceived, is one, than which a greater can be conceived. But obviously

this is impossible.

Hence, there is no doubt that, there exists a being, that which nothing greater can be conceived,

and it exists both in understanding and in reality.8

4.0 The organization and spread of the Urban Schools

During the twelfth century, the forms of medieval education developed and changed in important

ways. Monastic schools, like Anselm’s at Bec and William of Champeaux’s at St. Victor, had

been responsible for the education of young monks and others assigns to their care since at least

the time of Cassiodorus 9c.477-c.570). In addition, from about 1050 or so, schools associated

with individual teaching masters’ were sometimes set up.9

Meanwhile, other kinds of schools were developing at Cathedrals, for the education of those

entering the secular clergy. The later medieval universities frequently grew out such Cathedral

schools by granting of a royal or ecclesiastical charter. Once universities were firmly established,

philosophy became an increasingly specialized academic discipline, increasingly distinct from

theology.

Philosophy was taught in the faculty of Arts, which offered a king of “under graduate” course of

studies, all students had to complete before going on to one of the “higher” faculties. But

theology, which appealed not only to reason but also to scripture, the Fathers, and the Church

Councils, was taught in the separate faculty of theology as a kind of “graduate program”.10
8
Ibid.,522.
9
Anthony Kenny, The Oxford Illustrated History of Western Philosophy (London: Oxford University Press
Inc.; 1994). Pg 84.
10
Ibid.,85.
5.0 Evaluation

According to Peter Abelard, there are really no universal concepts at all, but only confused

universal concepts are not there, then there would be nothing like images in the degree of their

confusions. There are no confused images because any image one sees is correct according to his

senses. I concur with St. Anslem because when one hears what he is ignorant of, he becomes

aware of it and this makes him to understand what that thing is all about. By understanding it,

then that thing exists.

6.0 Conclusion

Whatever thing one thinks about exists in reality and this helps him to understand it better. It is

through the help and intervention of a certain force that one can interpret and think of things that

exists. And this is God because He is the controller of all things. One cannot claim that he does

not believe in God because the mere fact of mentioning God’s name is a clear indication that He

exists. It is a sign that one is ignorant of the presence of God.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAHY

Copleston Frederick, A History of Philosophy: Mediaeval Philosophy. Vol 2, part 1. New

York: A Division of Doubleday and co, Inc.; 1962.

Kenny Anthony, The Oxford Illustrated History of Western Philosophy. London: Oxford

University Press, Inc.; 1994.

The World Book Encyclopedia: a volume 1. Chicago: world Book Inc.; 2001.

Walsh J. Martin, A History of Philosophy. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1985.