Medieval Platonism

In the later Middle Ages philosophical questions on the ordinary sources of human knowledge attracted continuous though uneven attention. The fundamental problem for the discussions involved taking account of two commonly recognised extremes.

On the one hand, Augustine had in summary fashion heralded a unified philosophy. For him the best in all preceding Greek thought had been assimilated into the Platonism current in his epoch, a type now conveniently designated by the nineteenth-century term ‘Neoplatonism’. Within its own competence the perfected philosophy, as Augustine saw it, paralleled revealed biblical truth. His view set the framework for Christian intellectual tradition among the Latins for the eight ensuing centuries.

Medieval Aristotelianism

On the other hand, Boethius, from whose translations and commentaries medieval students learned their logic and received their general introduction to philosophy, had handed down an acquaintance with certain facets of Aristotle that resisted absorption into the Neoplatonic stream. By the mid twelfth century Aristotle had attained the status of the Philosopher par excellence. His thought, as enhanced by Islamic writers translated during the latter half of that century, deepened medieval inquiry into subjects significant for problems of cognition. During the thirteenth century Aristotle's major works became available in direct translation and were read with the commentaries of Averroes. They rapidly imposed their philosophical techniques upon the intellectual training in the newly established universities and guided it for the rest of the medieval period.