Aims

The aim of the course is to teach the students how to "read" Medieval texts on their own. In other words, by overcoming the cultural distance separating us from the texts, the students should come to understand the workings and uses of the texts and the methods necessary for explaining them,. thus providing the capacity for further independent research in this area.

Main themes

The course requires a direct and frequent exposure to Medieval texts. We shall either study a particular text (from beginning to end or jumping around in it), or extracts from different authors addressing a specific problem.
We shall examine these texts from a historical perspective. We shall shell out their sources, insisting on the fact that Medieval thinkers believed they were on the threshold of different traditions and heritages: biblical and theological, patristical, philosophical (Ancient, Arab, and Jewish thought). From a doctrinal point of view, we shall also show what was innovative in these texts when they were written and in their cultural context. If the need arises, we shall underline their posterity, especially their influence on Modern thought.
On top of this historical approach, we shall also examine the argumentative strategies of the texts themselves, highlighting their logical and conceptual rigor, which makes for excellent training for the students' reading skills.
The texts will be explained by the lecturer: the goal is to give examples of reading methods and to indicate the necessary tools for a proper reading of these texts.
The students will be asked to do complementary readings.

Content and teaching methods

The texts discussed this year concern the status of formal substance. This metaphysical concept, inherited from Aristotle, is taken up by the Medievals in the context of a polemic about the nature of the human soul. Is the soul necessarily linked to the body? Or is the soul capable of subsisting independently? What is the status of the corporeal in the human being?

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Pre-requisites:
A knowledge of the chronological framework of the key doctrinal trends from Antiquity to the Middle Ages is presupposed.
Familiarity with Latin is preferable, but not essential.

Assessment:
Given the pedagogical goals outlined above, the exam usually consists of a commentary of a text by an author studied in the course, or an author that addresses a similar problem.

Supporting material:
Book(s), or a text package put together by the lecturer to be photocopied by the students.

Programmes in which this activity is taught

Other credits in programs