Peter Abelard (or Abailard) was born in Nantes in 1079, a pupil of William of Champeux in Paris. Abelard would later combat William’s views and compelled him to modify them. Abelard studied theology under Anselm of Laon, and then later returned to Paris in 1113. He became lover of Heloise, niece of Canon Fulbert who had him castrated and he and Heloise had to retire from the world.
Abelard’s most famous books, composed in 1121-22 is Sic et Non, ‘Yes and No’ in which he gives dialectical arguments for and against a great variety of theses often without attempting to arrive at a conclusion. We must note here that Abelard likes disputation itself, considers it useful as sharpening the wits. According to Russell, B, Abelard’s view is that (apart from Scripture) dialectic is the sole road to truth. To Abelard, nothing outside the Scriptures is infallible: even Apostles and Fathers may err . This view was considered heretical in his days.
Before considering his influence on medieval philosophy, we must note here that Abelard considered logic ‘the Christian science’ and made play with its derivation from ‘logos’. ‘In the beginning was the Logos’ from St. John’s Gospel, this, he thought proves the dignity of logic . Abelard’s chief importance is in logic, the theory of knowledge, and metaphysics . Under metaphysics, Abelard addressed the problem of Universals which we will look at briefly.
TITLE: MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY: PETER ABELARD
Peter Abelard (or Abailard) was born in Nantes in 1079, a pupil of William of Champeux in Paris. Abelard would later combat William’s views and compelled him to modify them. Abelard studied theology under Anselm of Laon, and then later returned to Paris in 1113. He became lover of Heloise, niece of Canon Fulbert who had him castrated and he and Heloise had to retire from the world1.
Abelard’s most famous books, composed in 1121-22 is Sic et Non, ‘ Yes and No ’ in which he gives dialectical arguments for and against a great variety of theses often without attempting to arrive at a conclusion. We must note here that Abelard likes disputation itself, considers it useful as sharpening the wits. According to Russell, B, Abelard’s view is that (apart from Scripture) dialectic is the sole road to truth. To Abelard, nothing outside the Scriptures is infallible: even Apostles and Fathers may err2. This view was considered heretical in his days.
Before considering his influence on medieval philosophy, we must note here that Abelard considered logic ‘the Christian science’ and made play with its derivation from ‘logos’. ‘In the beginning was the Logos’ from St. John’s Gospel, this, he thought proves the dignity of logic3. Abelard’s chief importance is in logic, the theory of knowledge, and metaphysics4. Under metaphysics, Abelard addressed the problem of Universals which we will look at briefly.
On Universals, Abelard says ‘A universal word is one which is able to be predicated of many by reason of its intention, such as the noun ‘man’ which can be joined with the names of particular men by reason of the nature of the subject on the subject which they are imposed.’ That is, a particular word is one which is predicable only of a single subject, such as Socrates when it is taken as the name of but one individual5.
Put differently, he holds that what can be predicated to many different things is not a thing but a word. In this sense, he is a nominalist6. Against Roscelin, Abelard pointed out that a ‘flatus vocis’- breath of voice, is a thing: it is not the word as a physical occurrence that we predicate, but the word as meaning. That is, the point of resemblance between two similar things is itself not a thing7.
To Abelard, there is not a single thing that “man” or any other universal term seems to signify, since there is not a single thing whose sense the term seems to express. Neither does it seem there could be any sense if no subject is thought of. Universals, therefore then appear to be totally devoid of meaning. But this is not the case, for universals signify distinct individuals to the extent of giving names to them8. Universals thus function as names of things.
Abelard notes that universal conceptions must always be produced by way of abstraction. He describes a universal concept as being isolated, bare and pure. That is ‘isolated from sense’ because it is not a perception of the thing as sensory: ‘bare’ because it is abstracted form some or from all forms, ‘pure’ because it is unadulterated by any reference to any single individual9.
Abelard also addressed the question whether genera and species exist; he says that they serve to name things that actually and therefore are not the subjects of purely empty thoughts. On whether genera and species are corporeal or incorporeal, Abelard answers ‘To some extent, ‘corporeal’ would be appropriate, since the significata are in essence discrete individuals. ‘Incorporeal’ would be a better description, however, of the way a universal term names things , for it does not point to them in an individual and specific fashion but points only in an indiscriminate way…’10
Hence universal names are descried both as corporeal (because of the nature of the things they point to) and as incorporeal (because of the way these things are signified, for although they name discrete individuals, universals d not name them individually or properly)11.
As to whether universals designate only sensible things or whether they signify something else, the answer is that they signify both the sensible things themselves and also that common concept ascribed to the divine mind12. Russell notes that Abelard left a place for faith: he thought the Trinity could be rationally demonstrated without the help of revelation. Abelard also thinks Platonic ideas exist in the divine mind as patterns for creation; they are in fact, God’s concepts13.
As already noted, Abelard influenced William of Champeux to modify his work. He also directly influenced Peter Lombard who wrote his Book of Sentences in the tradition of Abelard’s Sic et Non14 . Indirectly, he influenced William of Ockham who also contributed on the theory of universals. In conclusion, this paper has highlighted Peter Abelard not just as an influential medieval philosopher but also an important contributor to the disciplines of metaphysics, logic and epistemology.
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1 Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, pg. 404
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 John F.Wippel, Allen B. Wolter, O.F.M, Medieval Philosophy: From St. Augustine to Nicholas of Cusa, pg.191
6 Op. Cit
7 Ibid.
8 John F.Wippel, Allen B. Wolter, O.F.M, Medieval Philosophy: From St. Augustine to Nicholas of Cusa, pg.193
9 Ibid, pg. 200
10 Ibid, pg. 201
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid, pg. 202
13 Op. Cit, pg. 406
14 John F.Wippel, Allen B. Wolter, O.F.M, Medieval Philosophy: From St. Augustine to Nicholas of Cusa, pg. 204
- Quote paper
- Mbogo Wa Wambui (Author), 2013, Medieval Philosophy: Peter Abelard, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/703510
