Abstract
Dietrich of Freiberg (c. 1240/1250–1318/1320) was an important representative of the Dominican order in the Middle Ages. He focused on central philosophical problems taken up toward finding solutions applicable for philosophy as well as theology and the natural sciences. Methodologically, rational argumentation was key for Dietrich, even as he aimed, in line with Augustine’s recommendation, at a concordance between authority (auctoritas) and reason (ratio). Characteristic of his thought are his theory of intellect, whose cognition renders it self-knowing knowledge: consciousness as self-consciousness; his doctrine of what is an essentially structured cosmos reflecting the comprehensible rationality of its absolute principle, the Godhead; and his theory of the rainbow. Dietrich was particularly influenced by Albert the Great, while he himself influenced the Proclus commentator Berthold of Moosburg.
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Mojsisch, B., Summerell, O.F. (2011). Dietrich of Freiberg. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9729-4_143
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