The global Peter Lombard research reinaugurated in 1990s has resulted in a number of recent publications, but the Master of the Sentences’ theology proper is partially underresearched. In particular, a more detailed exposition of the distinctions 35-41 of his Book of Sentences is needed in order to clarify his doctrine of God’s knowledge and its relation to the human free will. The article builds on the earlier established evidence that, for Peter Lombard in distinctions 35-38, God’s knowledge, in general, is (...) not causative, although some causative power has to be ascribed to God’s knowledge of the good. The last part of distinction 38 and the content of distinction 39 further analyze the capacities and functionalities of the divine omniscience and explain how it interacts with acts of human will. The key question here deals with the problem of alternative states of affairs: whether something may be otherwise than God foreknew. As it is shown, Master Peter agrees that it is possible for created things and events to be otherwise than they are, but insists that God’s knowledge must be in any case exhaustive and infallible. He uses a number of logical tools to defend the thesis about God’s perfect knowledge and the possibility of things happening otherwise, but lacks a strict definition of the notion of “possibility” used here. The study concludes that in few cases Lombard’s posse could mean a potency or a simple logical possibility, or the diachronic contingency, but the overall theological statement is clear: potentially, God’s knowledge can be different or include alternative state of affairs but it cannot change. (shrink)

The last thirty years of scholarship in western medieval philosophical historiography have seen a number of reflections on the methodological paradigms, schools, trends, and dominant approaches in the field. As a contribution to this ongoing assessment of the existing methods of studies in medieval philosophy and theology and a supplement to classifications offered by M. Colish, J. Inglis, C. König-Pralong, J. Marenbon, A. de Libera, and others, the article offers another explanatory tool. Here is a description of an imaginary system (...) of methodological coordinates that systematizes the current tendencies by placing them in a three-dimensional system of axes. Every axis corresponds to a certain aspect of the historical and systematic research in medieval thought and symbolizes a possible movement between two extremes representing opposite methodological values and directions. The methods and approaches practiced in recent studies in medieval philosophy and theology might be schematically located inside this general system of argumentational, focal (or objectival), and (con)textual axes with their intersection identified with what some scholars call the “integral” model of study. This explanatory tool allows one to see how current approaches and methods form a panoply of axes that belong together in one complex grid and helps to visualize the tapestry of existing approaches in medieval philosophical historiography. (shrink)

The article treats the doctrine of transubstantiation or the Eucharistic change as formulated by Thomas Aquinas in his Summa theologiae, Question 75, against its double conceptual (Christian religious vs. Aristotelian philosophical), as well as double linguistic (Latin vs. translated Greek), background. The doctrine is presented and analyzed as a philosophical-theological theory that can be explicated and assessed using the concept of philosophical untranslatable(s), recently discovered and brought to the fore by the proponents of the “translational turn” in continental philosophy. It (...) is argued on the basis of careful study of Aquinas’ text that the notion of transubstantiation should be identified as a conceptual untranslatable. -/- Here the term “untranslatable” means a unique reinterpretation of Aristotelian language of being and change, which results in a conceptual innovation that has some inherent problems as well as creative and promising inventions. The usage of such a concept is justified by the fact that the reconceptualization that Aquinas did to a number of Peripatetic ideas creates a few untranslatable notions, which do not have much meaning outside the peculiarly Thomistic Latin vocabulary. Despite some criticisms they are not necessarily to be regarded as contradictions, but rather as thomistic untranslatables. (shrink)

RESUMO Este trabalho tem por objetivo apresentar os tipos de Argumentos Tópicos reconhecidos por Boécio, apontando suas diferenças quanto à disciplina a que pertencem. A partir disso, pretende-se considerar seu uso na “Consolação”, ressaltando que a utilização dessa forma de argumento possui, de acordo com o próprio filósofo, implicações sobre o objetivo do autor ao escrever o texto. Tendo sido sua última obra e escrita tão próxima ao estudo que realizou dos textos sobre os Tópicos, cuja pretensão era de, mais (...) tarde, harmonizar com as demais partes da lógica para fortalecê-la conforme parece propor em ambos os escritos sobre o tema, pareceria pertinente supor que Boécio utilizaria esse tipo de argumento para encontrar as inferências mais adequadas ao seu discurso, dando-lhe força e deixando clara sua intenção por meio da estrutura formal a que recorreu. ABSTRACT This paper aims to present the types of Topical Arguments recognized by Boethius, presenting their differences as to the discipline to which they belong. From this, it is intended to point out its use in the Consolation, emphasizing that the use of this type of arguments has, according to the philosopher himself, implications on the author's goal for writing the text. Having been his last work and having been written so close to his study of the texts on the Topics, which he intended to harmonize later with the other parts of logic in order to strengthen it as it seems to be proposed in both of his writings on the subject, it would seem appropriate to suppose that Boethius would use this type of argument to find the most appropriate inferences to his discourse, giving it strength and making his intention clear through the formal structure to which he resorted to. (shrink)