Medieval Philosophy: A Multicultural Reader

Description

Medieval Philosophy: A Multicultural Reader comprises a comparative, multicultural reading of the four main traditions of the medieval period with extensive sections on Greek-Byzantine, Latin, Jewish, and Islamic traditions. The book also includes an initial 'Predecessors' section, presenting readings (with introductions) from figures of antiquity upon whom all four traditions have drawn. Representative readings from each of the four great traditions are presented chronologically in four different tracks, along with engaging and accessible introductions to the traditions themselves, as well as each individual thinker-all selected and presented by noted scholars within each respective tradition. This groundbreaking collection: -Offers readings from early thinkers that contextualize the medieval traditions. -Presents, for the first time, extensive readings from the Byzantine Christian tradition that has wielded an important cultural influence from Russia and the Balkans to the Middle East and Northern Africa. -Chooses and interprets texts that are integrally important within each of these four traditions-living traditions that continue to shape values and beliefs today-rather than seen from an external point of view, such as that of a later school of philosophy. -Juxtaposes extensive readings from poetic and mystical elements within these traditions alongside the usual, often more analytical readings. -Features a timeline of the entire period, a map indicating the locations associated with philosophers included in this volume, an annotated guide to further reading on each of these traditions, and an index of names and of subjects that appear in the volume. Given its relevance for approaching the medieval world on its own terms, as well as for understanding the foundations of our own world, the volume is intended not only as an academic textbook and reference work, but as a readable and informative guide for the general reader who wishes to understand these great philosophical and religious traditions that continue to influence our world today-or perhaps to simply glean the wisdom from these enduring texts. This is a culturally inclusive title, which seeks to provide the reader with a rich, varied and comprehensive insight into the entirety of the medieval philosophical world.

Bruce Foltz is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Eckerd College, USA.

That the title of this book clearly signals the multiculturalism and pluralism of medieval thought is to its credit. The book is organized in five sections: an opening section looks at Greco-Roman sources, and each of the remaining four sections treats a major linguistic or cultural grouping in medieval thought: Byzantine, Jewish, Latin, and Muslim. Each section offers translated selections of relevant major works of the tradition. This being the case, the volume could serve as a resource in survey courses ... Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. * CHOICE * It's great to have alongside each other a large selection of the crucial texts of Western medieval philosophy, in its Christian (Greek and Latin), Jewish and Islamic branches. I know of no other anthology which would enable students to see the similarities and differences between the different ways in which ancient Greek philosophy developed in the Middle Ages, and the interactions between them. -- Richard Swinburne, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Oxford, UK This large and comprehensive volume of primary source material provides the reader not only with key medieval philosophical texts from the Latin Christian, Byzantine, Islamic, and Jewish traditions, but also with a judicious selection of foundational texts from the ancient Greek philosophical period, both pagan and patristic. There is no other source book that matches this one in breadth and depth. -- Daniel Frank, Professor of Philosophy, Purdue University, USA This brave new anthology opens up new ways of studying and understanding medieval philosophy, both by fully including the Arabic, Jewish and Greek, as well as the Latin traditions, and through its admirably broad conception of what texts count as philosophical. * John Marenbon, Professor of Medieval Philosophy, University of Cambridge, UK; Fellow of the British Academy *