Abstract
In 1996 Jan Aertesen stated that the core of Medieval Philosophy—starting from the Summa de Bono (c. 1225) by Philip the Chancellor—is the doctrine of the transcendentals. This chapter will verify if Grosseteste belonged to the tradition of transcendental thought. After a brief discussion of Aertsen’s thesis, it will focus on some elements of the transcendental theory before and during Grosseteste’s time. In particular it will trace the elements of this doctrine in the twelfth century then those in the first treatises on transcendentals in the thirteenth century. We will then outline five features of the transcendental theory before we discuss Grosseteste’s elaboration of those five characteristics. That is the list of the transcendentals, the introduction of ‘truth’ among them in the thirteenth century, the analogical nature of transcendental names, the primacy of ‘good’ among them and finally considerations about the differences among the transcendentals. This chapter concludes that even though Grosseteste did not develop a systematic account of transcendentals, he did however possess the core ideas of it courtesy of his Neoplatonic sources.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The transcription of CDN is, unless stated otherwise, from Oxford, Merton College, MS 86. The text has been corrected against Paris, Marazine MS 787 and Paris, Bibliotèque Nationale MS Lat.1620. English translation is mine.
- 3.
- 4.
An example may be found in (De Rijk 1967).
- 5.
- 6.
Besides the authors mentioned in this paragraph, I want to recall Albert the Great’s De natura boni (1236/7) and De bono (in the ‘40) and the collective work of the first Franciscans at Paris, the Summa Halensis (1240–1256).
- 7.
To be precise, the formula comes from Aristotle Physics III, 3 (202b7-202b22), but its application to the transcendentals is Philip’s originality.
- 8.
Grosseteste reaffirms the identity of being and truth in CDN 252vb.
- 9.
Grossetste refers to Augustine’s De libero arbitrio II 13, n. 36.
- 10.
For a full exposition of Philip’s argument see (Aertsen 2012).
- 11.
For an extensive comment on Grosseteste’s analogy see (Cooper 2012).
- 12.
For a brief discussion of the Avicennian contribution to the doctrine of the transcendentals see (Aertsen 2012).
- 13.
The doctrine of the analogy of ‘ens’ in Grosseteste’s commentary of the Physics has been studied by Neil Lewis (2009) to which I refer the reader for further details. In this paragraph I have omitted all the information that can be found in that study.
- 14.
In the Hexaemeron (Grosseteste 1996, 81f) Grosseteste argues against the manichean interpretation of Genesis 1, 2, (about the ‘darkness over the abyss’) which is the source of that heresy. Manicheans are mentioned also in the Commentary on the EcclesiasticalHierarchy in a passage on Christology and several heretics are mentioned and confuted by the authority of Dionysius see (Grosseteste 1991).
- 15.
‘Pulchrum at bonum sunt idem in substantia, sicut habetur a Dionysio […], sed aliqua est differentia rationis’. The difference between good and beautiful in these terms will be recovered by Aquinas (Summa Theologiae I, q.5, a. 4, resp.) almost with the same words.
- 16.
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Manuscripts
Grosseteste. Commentary on the divine names. Oxford, Merton College MS 86.
Paris, Marazine MS 787; Paris, Bibliotèque Nationale MS Lat.1620.
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Curiello, G. (2016). Robert Grosseteste on Transcendentals. In: Cunningham, J.P., Hocknull, M. (eds) Robert Grosseteste and the pursuit of Religious and Scientific Learning in the Middle Ages. Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33468-4_10
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