Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy (Advanced Studies)

Teacher(s)

Schmutz Jacob;

Language

French

Prerequisites

The course assumes a basic knowledge of the history of philosophy, especially ancient philosophy. Fluency in Latin is a plus, but is not required for enrolment in the course.
The ability to read translations of medieval authors and specialized studies in English will be expected.

Main themes

The History of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy course will seek to deepen the knowledge of the period concerned by starting from a given theme or corpus. It will pay particular attention to the genesis of the chosen subject and, based on up-to-date research, will attempt to shed light on this subject and to advance the questions related to it.
The historical field of this course goes from the end of Antiquity to the 16th century, and will be able to explore corpora and problems from the three great monotheistic cultures (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), in a comparative or non-comparative way.
The systematic field will not be restrictive, since the course may simultaneously or alternatively emphasize problems of theoretical philosophy or practical philosophy.
The course will also give a place to the historiography of medieval and renascent philosophy, in order to understand the reasons for the "rediscovery" of these traditions since the 19th century and to reflect on what the Middle Ages can still teach us today.
Particular attention will be paid to research tools and problems of source criticism (critical editions, lexicons, bibliographic directories, etc.).

Content

Duns Scotus and the Jewish Question

Course taught by Prof. Jacob Schmutz (February-May 2025), in French.
The Franciscan philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus (c. 1266-1308) is famous for having proposed the most radical solution to the 'Jewish question' during the Middle Ages: forcibly round up the Jews, expel them from the Christian kingdoms, forcibly baptise the children taken from them to make good Christians of them, and exile the last remaining Jews to a faraway island until the end of time. The violence of this text, long overshadowed by historiography, has recently been brought to the fore by the work of Sylvain Piron ("Duns Scotus and politics. Pouvoir du prince et conversion des Juifs", in: Duns Scot à Paris, 1302-2002, Brepols, 2004, pp. 21-62) and Elsa Marmursztejn (Le baptême forcé des enfants juifs, Les Belles Lettres, 2016) raises questions: is this simply a circumstantial justification, by the Franciscan theologian, of Edward I's policy of expelling the Jews from England (1290); or is this political text the logical outcome of a metaphysically founded anti-Judaism which is at the very heart of his entire theology?
We shall attempt to answer this question by analysing all the passages devoted by the Subtle Doctor to Judaism, and by comparing them with the solutions and readings proposed by his predecessors. We will thus analyse the relationship between Christian exegesis and Jewish exegesis of the Old Testament, the Scotist conception of Jewish Law, his theory of acquired and infused faith, and finally his highly original reading of Christ's death on the cross and the responsibility of Jews in it.  
Although very few of the texts analysed are available in English, French or any other modern language, I will do my best to provide with acceptable working translations. But students with a background in Latin a strongly encourage to participate in this seminar. A complete dossier of texts will be distributed, as well as a bibliography on relations between Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages.

Teaching methods

Seminar based on collective reading of texts, which will also aim to train students in medieval academic culture.

Evaluation methods

Seminar participants will be assigned a topic on which to work, and present a paper in class. At the end of the year, a written summary of the chosen topic will be due.

Faculty or entity

> EFIL