Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Emergence of a Transformed Europe in the Twelfth Century
- 2 Reason Asserts Itself: The Challenge to Authority in the Early Middle Ages to 1200
- 3 Reason Takes Hold: Aristotle and the Mediveal University
- 4 Reason in Action: Logic in the Faculty of Arts
- 5 Reason in Action: Natural Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts
- 6 Reason in Action: Theology in the Faculty of Theology
- 7 The Assault on the Middle Ages
- Conclusion: The Culture and Spirit of “Poking Around”
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Reason in Action: Logic in the Faculty of Arts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Emergence of a Transformed Europe in the Twelfth Century
- 2 Reason Asserts Itself: The Challenge to Authority in the Early Middle Ages to 1200
- 3 Reason Takes Hold: Aristotle and the Mediveal University
- 4 Reason in Action: Logic in the Faculty of Arts
- 5 Reason in Action: Natural Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts
- 6 Reason in Action: Theology in the Faculty of Theology
- 7 The Assault on the Middle Ages
- Conclusion: The Culture and Spirit of “Poking Around”
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
THE FACULTY OF ARTS OF ANY MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITY HAD MORE students and more teaching masters than any of the three other higher faculties: theology, medicine, and law. This was necessarily true because the bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees were prerequisites for entry into the higher faculties. Therefore, all students began their careers in the arts faculty. By virtue of the subjects taught, the faculty of arts was the primary repository of reason in any medieval university. This is evident from the range of courses taught: astronomy, mathematics, optics, logic, and natural philosophy. All were inherently analytical subjects except natural philosophy, which was nevertheless taught as if it were analytical.
THE OLD AND NEW LOGIC
Although logic was a basic subject, it was always regarded as an instrument for the critical study of all other areas of learning. We have already seen the role it played in the twelfth century. In the thirteenth century, Peter of Spain reiterated the central role that logic was accorded in the twelfth century when he declared that “[l]ogic is the art which provides the route to the principles of all methods, and hence logic ought to come first in the acquisition of the sciences.” With the translations of Aristotle's previously unknown logical works, which were added to the old logic, logic was given a substantial foundational role in the curriculum of the medieval university.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- God and Reason in the Middle Ages , pp. 115 - 147Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001