Abelard in Four Dimensions: A Twelfth-Century Philosopher in His Context and Ours by John Marenbon, one of the leading scholars of medieval philosophy and a specialist on Abelard's thought, ...originated from a set of lectures in the distinguished Conway Lectures in Medieval Studies series and provides new interpretations of central areas of Peter Abelard's philosophy and its influence. The four dimensions of Abelard to which the title refers are that of the past (Abelard's predecessors), present (his works in context), future (the influence of his thinking up to the seventeenth century), and the present-day philosophical culture in which Abelard's works are still discussed and his arguments debated. For readers new to Abelard, this book provides an introduction to his life and works along with discussion of his central ideas in semantics, ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion. For specialists, the book contains new arguments about the authenticity and chronology of his logical work, fresh evidence about Abelard’s relations with Anselm and Hugh of St. Victor, a new understanding of how he combines the necessity of divine action with human freedom, and reinterpretations of important passages in which he discusses semantics and metaphysics. For all historians of philosophy, it sets out and illustrates a new methodological approach, which can be used for any thinker in any period and will help to overcome the divisions between historians based in philosophy departments and scholars with historical or philological training.
Peter Abelard is not a Proto‐Kantian Abadal, Lily M.
The Journal of religious ethics,
March 2024, 2024-03-00, 20240301, Letnik:
52, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
ABSTRACT
Though there has been much debate about whether Abelard's ethics are dangerously subjective or surprisingly absolutist, one thing is unanimous: they are intentionalist. The goal of this ...article is to parse out what should be meant by this claim, distancing his ethical account from the popular Kantian appraisal. Though much of the secondary literature on Abelard likens him to Kant, I argue that this is mistaken. For Abelard, an agent's intentions are informed by their affections—whether carnal or spiritual. This becomes clear when contextualizing Abelard's use of intentio with a view to his Commentary on Romans. Using the account of intention I suggest—one nuanced by Abelard's own theological commitments and biblical exegesis—it will be clear that Abelard's ethics is not a case for the moral neutrality of the passions nor an ethic of pure reason.
...a book would shed light on what Christians were saying about Judaism at the very moment one of our most significant thinkers was commenting on Christianity, and it might help us glean insights ...into how to respond to Christian counterpoints to the Jewish arguments. Because Christian scholars had to live lives of celibacy, and because Abelard did not want to interrupt his career, he secretly married Heloise but then arranged for her to enter a convent so as to hide their union from the public. ...he sought to demonstrate that Judaism possesses a superior source for its theology, which is the unbroken chain of prophecy and Torah transmission. Kuzari opens in the actual first-person voice of Halevi, explaining that he was asked to provide proofs for the veracity of Judaism's faith claims.
Peter Abelard (1079–1142) is still considered one of the giants of philosophy, theology, and psychology, and the unsurpassed master of dialectical debate. Born in Le Pallet, near Nantes, Abelard ...became an academic and wandering cleric of great fame, founder of several schools that attracted students from all countries, arousing the admiration of his contemporaries and the profound envy of his colleagues. Around 1115, Abelard became master of the school of the Cathedral of Notre‐Dame. Shortly after, the canon Fulbert asked him to take his niece, the equally famous and highly cultured Héloïse d'Argenteuil (1092–1164), as a pupil. Thus a relationship began, celebrated for centuries to come, characterized by burning sexual and intellectual passion, by the famous correspondence, which will be the archetype of sentimental education and the template of romantic love letters, bythe birth of a son and consequent marriage, and by the cowardly revenge of Fulbert, who, together with a band of servants, mutilated “those parts of my body with which I had done what was the cause of their pain,” as Abelard wrote. While this unclear self‐description has suggested to contemporaries and to posterity that Abelard was castrated, we aim to question this belief by analyzing in‐depth this historical‐andrological clinical case to understand if there is any evidence that could suggest that Abelard was instead the victim of an even more brutal punishment: penectomy. Signs and symptoms gleaned from the personal writings and historical perspectives of Abelard and his time are used here to provide a possible answer to a thousand‐year‐old question: what makes a man … a man?
This article argues that traditional presentations of Heloise focus on her image as a heroine of love rather than giving sufficient attention to her status as abbess of the Paraclete. In particular, ...there has been unjustified neglect of the final dossier in her exchange, known as the Institutiones nostre, written in response to Peter Abelard's Institutio, or Rule for the Paraclete. These observances were formulated to establish uniform practices at both the Paraclete and its first daughter‐house at Trainel, dedicated to Mary Magdalen. This neglect of Heloise's role as an abbess encouraged a tendency in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to focus on themes of erotic rather than religious longing, as well as a subsequent tendency to question the authenticity of the letters of Heloise, without full appreciation of her role as abbess of the Paraclete. A translation of the Institutiones nostre is included as an appendix.
Textual Transvestism analyzes the flourishing of imitative versions of Heloise's and Abelard's love correspondence in the late 17th and 18th centuries.
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