Textual interpretation: St. Thomas B [ LFILO2141 ]

Prerequisites :
Introduction to ancient and medieval philosophy
Knowledge of Latin or Greek, while very helpful, is not a requirement.

Each year the course will concentrate on a particular problematic that can be studied in relation to classical antiquity or the Middle Ages. The course is intended to present the current state of research relative to the chosen problematic, and will suggest methodological avenues and working hypotheses capable of advancing this state of research.

Attention will be paid to modern or contemporary developments with regard to the problematic presented in diachronic fashion (moving forward in time) in the course.
 

Upon successful completion of the course the student should be able to :
o make use of a set of research tools used in the study of ancient and medieval philosophy,
o give an account of some appropriate problematic in terms of doctrinal developments during classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, by citing appropriate lines of continuity or eventual changes down through the centuries,
o analyse the position relative to this problematic of a given author taken as representative of the classical-medieval period in a relevant way, based on the methodology and the conceptual and historical framework presented in the course
o make comparisons to modern or contemporary perspectives

The course will focus on  the following question: how are human freedom and divine knowledge of contingent futures to be reconciled? The divine foreknowledge of our future acts has often been seen as the very negation of human freedom. In spite of many theological and philosophical   claims for compatibility, this  feeling still remains. Is it  right?  Isn’t necessary to rethink our ideas of eternity, of time, and of the relationship between both, in order to get more insight in this topic? A lot of opinions  in that  field(Proclus, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas, John Pico della Mirandola) will be studied in their religious and philosophical context, and seen as so many steps of our reflection.