A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy

This is the first comprehensive study of the philosophical achievements of twelfth-century Western Europe. It is the collaboration of fifteen scholars whose detailed survey makes accessible the intellectual preoccupations of the period with all texts cited in English translation throughout. After a discussion of the cultural context of twelfth-century speculation and some of the main streams of thought--Platonic Stoic and Arabic--that quickened it comes a characterisation of the new problems and perspectives of the period in scientific inquiry speculative grammar and logic. This is followed by a closer examination of the distinctive features of some of the most innovative thinkers of the time from Anselm and Abelard to the School of Chartres. A final section shows the impact of newly recovered works of Aristotle in the twelfth-century West.