Boetius of Dacien

Boetius von Dacien (also Boethius of Sweden ; † probably around 1284) was a Swedish or Danish philosopher.

Life

Boetius was believed to be a secular cleric and canon of the Diocese of Linköping . He is the most famous supporter of the Siger of Brabant and a leader of the radical Aristotelians and Averroists , who mainly taught in the second half of the 13th century at the artist faculty of the Paris University and whose specific teachings were condemned in 1270 and 1277 by the Parisian bishop Stephan Tempier were. After 1277 Boetius fled Paris with Siger and appealed to the Pope. In Orvieto , however, he was established by the papal curia and joined the Dominican order , where he belonged to the order of Dacia ( Denmark ).

Think

Boetius defended an unrestrained rationalism in the sense that every subject area can be rationally investigated and the understanding can also justify conclusions that contradict the Christian faith. For example, he considered creation out of nothing as impossible as the resurrection of the dead and the non-eternity of the world. In De summo bono he explains the life of reason as a philosophical view of truth and a virtuous lifestyle in the sense of Aristotle as the highest goal of human life. But Boetius tried to avoid a contradiction between philosophy and theology. To this end, he first divided their responsibilities: philosophy examines the natural causes, religion, on the other hand, is based on the supernatural, theology therefore on a higher-level source of knowledge. That is why it deserves priority in cases of conflict and what appears philosophically necessary , such as the eternity of the world, must give way to the revealed truths. Boetius has been credited with a doctrine of twofold truth , but in fact he always seems to have avoided calling a philosophical conclusion true when it contradicted belief.

Works

• De summo bono (English: Boethius of Dacia: On the Supreme Good , on the Eternity of the World, on Dreams , translated by John F. Wippel , Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto 1987)
• De aeternitate mundi ( German: Bonaventura, Thomas von Aquin, Boethius von Dacien: About the eternity of the world . With an introduction by Rolf Schönberger . Translation and comments by Peter Nickl, 2000)
• Martin Grabmann : The sophismatic literature of the 12th and 13th centuries with text edition of a sophism of Boetius von Dacien. In: Contributions to the history of philosophy and theology of the Middle Ages. Volume 36.1, Aschendorff, Münster 1940.
• The Sophisma Every Man Is of Necessity an Animal. In: Norman Kretzmann , Eleonore Stump (Eds.): The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical texts. Vol. 1: Logic and the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998, ISBN 0-521-28063-X .
• Language, truth and logic. Modi Significandi sive quaestiones super Priscianum Maiorem. Omnis homo de necessitate est animal. Topica . Latin - German. Translated and introduced by Stefan Schick. Herder. Freiburg im Breisgau 2018.

literature

• Angela Beuerle: Language Thinking in the Middle Ages. A comparison with modernity. Studia Linguistica Germanica 99, De Gruyter, 2010.
• Sten Ebbesen : The Paris Arts Faculty: Siger of Brabant, Boethius of Dacia, Radulphus Brito. In: J. Marenbon (Ed.): Medieval Philosophy. Routledge, London and New York 1998, pp. 269-290.
• Martin Grabmann : The Opuscula De Summo Bono sive De Vita Philosophi and De Sompniis of Boetius von Dacien. In: Archives d'histoire doctrinale et du Moyen Age. Volume 6, 1931, pp. 287-317, slightly expanded also in: Medieval Spiritual Life. Volume 2, 1936, pp. 200-224.
• Richard Heinzmann : Philosophy of the Middle Ages. 3rd edition, Stuttgart 2008.
• L. Hödl: Averroism. In: Historical Dictionary of Philosophy. Volume II. Pp. 285-287.
• L. Hödl: Aristotle prohibitions. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages. Volume I. Munich and Zurich 1980, pp. 948f.
• Wolfgang Kluxen : Occidental Aristotelianism. V / 1. Middle Ages. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia. Volume 3. 1978, pp. 783-789.
• Armand A. Maurer: Boetius of Dacia. In: Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Volume 1. 1967, pp. 628f.
• G. Sajó: Boetius de Dacia and its philosophical meaning. In: Miscellania Mediaevalia. Volume 2: Metaphysics in the Middle Ages. De Gruyter, Berlin 1963.
• Stefan Schick: Science is a Game that Theologians Can't Play - Boethius of Dacia's Semantic Solution to the Problem of Double Truth . In: Classica et Mediaevalia 64 (2014), pp. 371-408.

Web links

Works and sources

• Boetius von Dacien: De mundi aeternitate ( Memento of December 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Latin)
• Boetius von Dacien: De Somniis ( Memento of December 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Latin)
• Boetius von Dacien: De summo bono sive de vita philosophi ( Memento from December 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Latin)
• Étienne Tempier : Opiniones ducentae undeviginti Sigeri de Brabantia, Boetii de Dacia aliorumque, a Stephano episcopo Parisiensi de consilio doctorum Sacrae Scripturae condemnatae 1277 ( Memento of December 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Latin)

Secondary literature

• Alexander Baumgarten: Disputation on the Unity of the Intellect and the Birth of Parisian University Intellectual ( Memento from August 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.5 MB)
• G. Klima: Boetius of Dacia on the supreme good

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Maurer p. 629