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

Is Islam a religion? The medieval scholastic debate, from the 12th to the 17th century

Today, we naturally speak of the ‘three monotheistic religions’. Such a conception was not at all obvious in the Middle Ages: since at least Augustine and his fight against heresy, only Christianity was the religio vera, the ‘true religion’. What, then, of other religious practices? Following on from last year's course on Judaism, this year we will explore how Christian philosophers and theologians of the Latin Middle Ages interpreted Islam, over a long period stretching from the first translation of the Qur'an on the initiative of Peter the Venerable (12th century) to the great missionary texts of the 17th century. This also corresponds to a period of gradual victory (the Crusades, the reconquest of Spain) and a period of defeat for the West in the face of Islam (the two sieges of Vienna, 1529 and 1683). At the heart of our investigation will be the very concept of religion: for Westerners have always considered Islam either as mere superstition or heresy, or, on the contrary, as a kind of philosophical wisdom, embodied by certain great sages (Avicenna, Averroes) – but never as an alternative “religion”. This investigation will lead us to compile an inventory of sources, understand what truly interested the West in its vast movement to translate Arabic sources, analyse the texts of great scholastic theologians such as Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and Raymond Lull on Islam, and to see how a first critical concept of ‘religion’ gradually emerged within the medieval scholastic tradition, similar to that used by the social sciences today.
An anthology of texts in French translation will be provided to students. Knowledge of Latin is an advantage, as well of English, for secondary literature.

Teaching methods

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

Evaluation methods

Assessment will be entirely in the form of continuous assessment (no final session exam): (1) oral presentation of one of the texts on the syllabus during one of the sessions, with feedback from the teacher; (2) submission of a written record (8-10 pages) of this presentation after the presentation.
Any work showing the slightest trace of AI (even for writing assistance) will be rejected. Zero tolerance, with the exception of standard spell checkers.

Faculty or entity

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