In this comment on Thomas Nisters’ “Gratitude, Anger and the Horror of Asymmetry” I propose a different reading of Schnitzler’s short story that serves as a basis for Nisters’ reflections. On my interpretation, the behaviour of Franz is best understood on the background of a traditional understanding of gratitude, one that we can find, for instance, in Thomas Aquinas.

In recent philosophical debates about the nature of human emotions the intentionality of emotions plays a key part. The article explores how medieval philosophers of the late 13th and early 14th centuries accounted for the fact that our emotions, such as love, hate, anger and the like, are intentional mental states, states that are ‘of’ or ‘about something’. Since medieval philosophers agree that emotions are essentially movements of the appetitive powers, the intentionality of emotions is part of the broader problem (...) of the intentionality of our appetitive acts. Do emotions and other appetitive acts derive their intentionality from the relevant cognitive acts on which their occurrence depends? And if so, how? Are appetitive acts intrinsically intentional states? The contribution discusses these and similar questions, while special attention is given to authors such as Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, Thomas of Bailly, Adam Wodeham and Gregory of Rimini. (shrink)

This contribution looks at how the topic of sleep, prominent in the Parva naturalia, is picked up by philosophers and theologians of the late thirteenth century in texts that are not directly commentaries on the Parva naturalia. In particular, the chapter looks at the question of what sort of activity sleep is and whether it is possible to have higher-level cognitive activities during sleep. While most authors deny outright that we can perform acts of thinking while we are asleep, others (...) defend the occurrence of thought during sleep. Authors discussed include Henry of Ghent, Richard of Middleton, Thomas Aquinas, Peter of Tarentaise, and Peter John Olivi. (shrink)

In the Middle Ages more than in other periods, eschatology informed the way people understood humankind and the world. The papers in the present volume are devoted to the complexity and interconnectivty of the eschatological orientation of the Middle Ages. Central topics are questions of the influence and formation of eschatological themes in philosophy and the significance of ideas of the final end in medieval political thought. In addition, there is a consideration of further themes from history, theology, art and (...) literature. The 29th volume of the Miscellanea Mediaevalia contains the papers delivered to the 32nd Cologne Medieval Studies Conference plus additional contributions. The volume includes five papers on the 50-year history of the Thomas Institute, which has been organising the Cologne Medieval Studies Conference for the last half century. (shrink)

This is the first book-length treatment of the philosophical thought of one of the major thinkers at the University of Paris in the late thirteenth century. The book examines all major areas of James’s philosophical thought, exploring his connections with other important masters of the time and highlighting his originality in the context of late medieval philosophy.

The discovery of the reportatio of Giles of Rome’s lectures on the Sentences by Concetta Luna is without doubt one of the most important contributions to the history of medieval philosophy and theology in the last years. This note reviews Luna’s edition of the reportatio and draws attention to what seems to be its earliest indirect witness: the anonymous Dominican Sentences commentary in ms. Bruges, Stadsbibliotheek, 491.

Biographical note: Martin Pickavé ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Thomas-Institut der Universität zu Köln.

As the subtitle indicates, and the introduction explains in more detail, this is a sequel to Aubry's 2006 book, Dieu sans la puissance. Dunamis et energeia chez Aristote et chez Plotin. In the present as well as in the previous studies, the author traces the developments and transformations undergone by the notion of power and in particular how these transformations affect the understanding of God. Whereas the first study follows the development from Aristotle's account of the divine being to Plotinus, (...) the present volume covers, in five densely written chapters, medieval philosophers from Augustine to John Duns Scotus. According to the author, the history of the notion of power reflects two... (shrink)

Nach wie vor wird das Verhältnis des späten Mittelalters zur anbrechenden Neuzeit kontrovers diskutiert. Manche sehen im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert eine Periode des Verfalls, andere betonen die prägende und innovative Rolle dieser Epoche für die Neuzeit. Der 31. Band der Miscellanea Mediaevalia wirft einen interdisziplinären Blick auf diese Zeitspanne und wendet sich dabei auch kritisch klassischen Einschätzungen zu. Die über dreißig Beiträge behandeln die Philosophie des Spätmittelalters, spätmittelalterliche Wissenschaftsinstitutionen, die Architektur, die Wirtschafts- und Rechtsgeschichte, die Spiritualität im Spätmittelalter, aber (...) auch so prominente Figuren wie Jean Gerson und Nikolaus von Kues. (shrink)

L'A. esamina in primo luogo l'origine del problema metafisico in Enrico. Il tema del subiectum metaphysice è inquadrato nel contesto della problematica del soggetto scientifico e ciò che interessa l'A. è soprattutto il procedimento argomentativo di Enrico ed il significato delle conseguenze di tale procedere. Lo studio si chiude con uno sguardo sul commentario alla Metafisica di Pietro di Auvergne, evidenziando la relazione fra soggetto della metafisica e dottrina del primum cognitum nell'intelletto umano. Riferimenti alle posizioni di Avicenna, Averroè e (...) Tommaso. (shrink)

In this short contribution I argue that the history of philosophy has much to gain from an engagement with the questions and conceptual tools of contemporary philosophy. In particular I argue against the view that the historian of philosophy’s engagement with contemporary philosophy necessarily leads to anachronism. Whatever the risks of failure, they seem to be outweighed by the potential for insight. Advocates of a “purely” historical approach to the history of philosophy defend their approach by pointing to the idea (...) that the history of philosophy can and should be studied on its own terms and independently of our current philosophical interests. I try to show that this is an illusion. (shrink)