William of Conches

Wilhelm von Conches (bottom right) and Gottfried Plantagenet (bottom left) in a 13th century manuscript

Wilhelm von Conches (Latin Guilelmus de Conchis ; * around 1080/1090 in Conches-en-Ouche in Normandy ; † after 1154) was a medieval philosopher . He belonged to the group of scholars known as the " School of Chartres ".

Wilhelm's main interest was natural philosophy , especially cosmology ; in this field he developed a systematic overview of the knowledge of his time. In explaining the origin of the world and natural processes, he resorted to ancient ideas, especially the cosmological model of Plato's dialogue Timaeus . He tried to reconcile his platonic natural philosophy with the biblical worldview. He defused contradictions that he encountered by interpreting the description in the Bible as an allegory that could not be taken literally . His understanding of man as a natural being integrated into nature, which should be researched as such (i.e. not only from the point of view of salvation history ), pointed the way for the philosophical anthropology of the subsequent period. With his ideas, which were bold for the time, he also aroused violent opposition.

Life

Little is known about Wilhelm's life. He mentions that he was of Norman descent. He probably studied in Paris and Chartres , where he was probably a student of the famous scholar Bernard of Chartres . From about 1120 he worked as a teacher at the Cathedral School of Chartres, where he earned a high reputation. Johannes von Salisbury , a pupil of Wilhelm, called him the most important grammarian after Bernhard von Chartres. In the late 1940s he was in the service of Gottfried Plantagenet , Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, and was the tutor of Gottfried's son, the future King Henry II of England . He was mentioned for the last time in 1154, his further fate is unknown.

Works

Beginning of Philosophia Wilhelm in a 12th century manuscript

Wilhelm emerged primarily as the author of natural philosophy writings in which he combined cosmological and physical with anthropological explanations. His works in this area are the Philosophia (also: Philosophia mundi ) , created around 1124/1130, and the Dragmaticon (also: Dragmaticon philosophiae ) written between 1147 and 1149 . The Philosophia is divided into four books. The first deals with the invisible world (God, the world soul , demons and individual souls, the origin of the world), the second with astronomy , the third and fourth deal with a variety of topics mainly from geography , meteorology and anthropology. In the Dragmaticon , Wilhelm corrects views that he had earlier and now considers to be incorrect. This work takes the form of a dialogue between the duke (Wilhelm's patron Gottfried Plantagenet), who asks questions, and an answering philosopher who takes the author's point of view.

He also wrote a number of commentaries on works by ancient authors that were popular at the time: on the Consolatio philosophiae of Boethius , on Plato's natural-philosophical dialogue Timaeus , on Priscian's grammar textbook Institutio and on Macrobius ' commentary on Cicero's Somnium Scipionis . He probably also commented on the work De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii by Martianus Capella and Boethius' De institutione musica . A commentary on Juvenal's satires previously ascribed to him is no longer considered genuine today, but it appears to contain material from a lost Juvenal commentary by Wilhelm.

Whether Wilhelm also wrote the Moralium dogma philosophorum , a collection ( Florileg ) of statements by philosophical authorities on ethics, is disputed. The sayings compiled there, which come mainly from Cicero and Seneca , are systematically arranged, using the structure of Cicero's De officiis as a model. Only a few quotes come from Christian authorities. The author's concern is to contemplate the virtuous (the four cardinal virtues ) and the useful and the conflict between them.

Wilhelm's intensive reception of ancient and Arabic literature is characteristic. It earned him the term “humanist” in modern times, but its application to personalities of the 12th century is problematic. In contrast to most of the Renaissance humanists , Wilhelm judged the rhetoric negatively, since he considered an overestimation of aesthetic aspects compared to the quality of the content of a text to be harmful.

Teaching

Wilhelm's inclinations correspond to the general orientation of the philosophical group or tendency that modern scholars call the "School of Chartres". The extent to which it is actually a school with specific content characteristics is, however, controversial. As one of the main representatives of this group of scholars, which is characterized by common interests, Wilhelm is a Platonist , shows a strong interest in questions of natural history and natural philosophy and particularly deals with problems of cosmology , orienting himself on Plato's Timaeus .

Natural philosophy and natural history

Wilhelm wants, as he himself writes, to find out the reasons for all phenomena. He starts from the assumption that the world has been an orderly system since it was created by God, the processes of which run according to their own internal laws. From this it follows for him that the causalities which determine the natural processes can be explored and explained with reason. He vehemently turns against unnamed opponents who consider such questions to be presumptuous and contrary to faith.

In physics he advocates a theory of the elements, according to which the four elements (earth, water, air and fire) are the fundamental components of all things. They are qualitatively simple and quantitatively the smallest of all. In things, however, they do not appear in pure form, but always mixed. Wilhelm differentiates between the original formless, undifferentiated matter, which can absorb any form or property, and the formed matter, which appears in the form of different mixtures of elements. He rejects equating the elements with the totality of their properties. For him, the elements form the absolute limit of the divisibility of any body. With this hypothesis of a quantification of matter, he contradicts - without admitting this - the authority of Boethius, who had assumed any divisibility.

According to Wilhelm's teaching, the elements were initially created by God. From this, within the framework of the natural laws, which also come from God, the further unfolding of the cosmos resulted without God's intervention again. Wilhelm interprets the individual works of creation mechanistically - he also expressly speaks of a "world machine" - as a result of the meeting of the properties of the elements or their various mixtures with the effects of active forces. The effective forces are shown in the processes of compression and warming, evaporation and cooling, in which Wilhelm sees the fundamental physical principles of action. Wilhelm assigns a central role in these processes to “thick steam” ( spissus fumus ). In this sense he traces the temperaments of the individual animal species back to the respective mixture of the elements; for example, the lion is choleric because of the predominance of the fire element . Wilhelm does not regard God as the direct cause of the same natural processes, but rather nature at work ( natura operans ). With regard to physicality, he also regards humans as a natural product; However, according to church doctrine, he considers the soul to be inspired by God.

With these assumptions, he lays the philosophical basis for an interpretation of the world that combines empirically founded scientific statements with speculative natural-philosophical hypotheses about the unobservable. He regards his theory of elements as an innovation; he points out that none of the previous authors made a careful study of the problem of the elements.

In his writings on the philosophy of nature, Wilhelm deals with the heavens, the heavenly bodies and the earth, plants and animals, and especially meteorological phenomena. It deals with hailstorms and snow, thunder and lightning, the flood and the origin of the winds. He pays special attention to anthropology . It is important for him to consider the human being not only with regard to the soul, but also with regard to the physiological constitution ( naturalia ). With this, the human being, insofar as he is a “natural thing”, comes into the field of view as an object of investigation from the point of view of natural philosophy. Specifically, it is about its "daily creation" ( cotidiana creatio ), its design, its birth, its age levels, its organs and their functions. Wilhelm is one of the pioneers of a new movement in the history of ideas that puts such topics in the foreground, as it sees people as part of nature. He is one of the first Latin-speaking scholars of the Middle Ages to make use of Arabic knowledge of anatomy and physiology . He has access to Latin translations of works by Greek, Arabic and Hebrew authorities on medical and natural history topics.

Natural and positive justice

Wilhelm describes the divine world order as the theme of Timaeus , which can be seen most clearly from the process of creation. He characterizes it as “natural justice” ( iusticia naturalis ) in contrast to the “positive justice” invented by humans ( iusticia positiva ). He defines “justice” as the force that gives each thing its appropriate rank. The natural justice is recognizable in the laws of nature, in the harmony of the natural movements. It shows itself in the course of the heavenly bodies as well as in the harmonious connection of the elements or in parental love. The balance it brings about in nature is a model for positive justice, the legislation of the state rulers, who coordinate the forces of the people so that no one harms or deprives the other. The power and utility of natural righteousness can be seen by reading Timaeus ; the researcher seeks and finds divine goodness in the world, then he loves it and consequently imitates it. For Wilhelm, such considerations justify natural research, which helps to understand divine activity in the visible world, and serve as the basis for his research program. In this way, the scientific observation of nature as a human task is immensely valued.

Theological problem

What was new and offensive for the time is that Wilhelm does not simply follow the biblical account of creation in his portrayal of the unfolding of the cosmos, but tries to reconcile the story of creation in the Bible with the portrayal of the origins of the world in Timaeus . As part of these efforts, he carefully connects the Platonic world soul with the Holy Spirit . This brings him the reproach of identifying the Holy Spirit with the world soul - a theologically offensive idea, because according to the Christian faith the Holy Spirit is a person of the divine Trinity and as such uncreated, whereas the world soul, according to Wilhelm's own understanding, is part of the Creation. Wilhelm explains the bisexuality of the first humans through the different composition of their body matter; He understands the biblical myth of the creation of Eve from Adam's rib as a parable that cannot be understood literally.

The theologian Wilhelm von Saint-Thierry , who was also one of the prominent opponents of Petrus Abelardus , strongly criticized Wilhelm's views . In a long letter to Bernhard von Clairvaux , he attacked Wilhelm's Philosophia and accused him of sharing Abelard's views. Bernhard doesn't seem to have reacted. A central area of ​​conflict was the doctrine of creation, whereby in addition to the inclusion of the world soul concept, Wilhelm's interpretation of the creation of women was particularly criticized. Wilhelm defused the conflict by revoking particularly provocative formulations and withdrawing to a less vulnerable position in the Dragmaticon . There is no longer any talk of the world soul - probably also because Wilhelm noticed inconsistencies in his earlier theory.

reception

The rich handwritten tradition testifies to the intensive reception of Wilhelm's writings on natural philosophy; More than 40 manuscripts are known of the Philosophia , 73 manuscripts of the Dragmaticon (among them 11 which contain only excerpts). Petrus Helie (Helias) relied heavily on Wilhelm's Priscian commentary in his Summa super Priscianum , without citing this source. The optical theory presented in Philosophia and the Timaeus Commentary influenced Guillaume de Lorris , the author of the rose novel , who adapted it for his purposes. The drag maticon was translated into Hebrew and Catalan. The Boethius commentary became a trend; Nikolaus Trevet , the most influential late medieval Boethius commentator, drew from this.

expenditure

• Gregor Maurach (Ed.): Wilhelm von Conches: Philosophia . University of South Africa, Pretoria 1980, ISBN 0-86981-094-4 (with German translation)
• Italo Ronca (Ed.): Guillelmi de Conchis dragmaticon philosophiae . Brepols, Turnhout 1997, ISBN 2-503-04521-9 (also contains a critical edition of the Summa de philosophia in vulgari , the medieval Catalan translation of the Dragmaticon )
• Lodi Nauta (Ed.): Guillelmi de Conchis glosae super Boetium . Brepols, Turnhout 1999, ISBN 978-2-503-04581-8
• Édouard Jeauneau (Ed.): Guillelmi de Conchis glosae super Platonem . 2nd edition, Brepols, Turnhout 2006, ISBN 978-2-503-05039-3 (revised version of the first edition Paris 1965)
• Édouard Jeauneau (Ed.): Gloses de Guillaume de Conches on the "Institutiones" de Priscien. Prologue et début des glos . In: Édouard Jeauneau: "Lectio philosophorum". Research on the Ecole de Chartres . Hakkert, Amsterdam 1973, ISBN 90-256-0606-7 , pp. 366-370 (partial edition)
• Karin Margareta Fredborg: Some Notes on the Grammar of William of Conches . In: Cahiers de l'Institut du Moyen-Âge Grec et Latin 37, 1981, pp. 21–41 (pp. 29–40 edition of excerpts from Wilhelm's Priscian commentary)
• Irène Rosier: Le commentaire des Glosulae et des Glosae de Guillaume de Conches sur le chapitre De Voce des Institutiones Grammaticae de Priscien . In: Cahiers de l'Institut du Moyen-Âge Grec et Latin 63, 1993, pp. 115–144 (pp. 131–144 edition of excerpts from Wilhelm's Priscian commentary)
• Peter Dronke : Fabula. Explorations into the Uses of Myth in Medieval Platonism . Brill, Leiden 1985, ISBN 90-04-07715-4 (contains pp. 68-78 excerpts from Wilhelm's Macrobius commentary)

Translations

• Italo Ronca, Matthew Curr (translator): William of Conches: A Dialogue on Natural Philosophy (Dragmaticon Philosophiae) . University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame 1997, ISBN 978-0-268-00881-9

literature

• Tzotcho Boiadjiev : The natural science as metaphysics of nature with Wilhelm von Conches . In: Ingrid Craemer-Ruegenberg, Andreas Speer (eds.): Scientia and ars in the high and late Middle Ages , 1st half volume, de Gruyter, Berlin 1994, pp. 369-380
• Joan Cadden: Science and Rhetoric in the Middle Ages: The Natural Philosophy of William of Conches . In: Journal of the History of Ideas 56, 1995, pp. 1-24
• Anne Eusterschulte: From ΔΗΜΙΟΥΡΓΟΣ to creator mundi. On the interpretation of the Platonic Timaeus in the Glosae super Platonem of Wilhelm von Conches . In: Würzburg Yearbooks for Classical Studies , New Series 22, 1998, pp. 189–222
• Édouard Jeauneau: "Lectio philosophorum". Research on the Ecole de Chartres . Hakkert, Amsterdam 1973, ISBN 90-256-0606-7
• Barbara Obrist, Irene Caiazzo (Ed.): Guillaume de Conches. Philosophy et science au XIIème siècle . Società internazionale per lo studio del Medioevo latino, Firenze 2011
• Andreas Speer : Discovered nature. Investigations into attempts to justify a "scientia naturalis" in the 12th century . Brill, Leiden 1995, ISBN 90-04-10345-7 (pp. 130-221 about Wilhelm)

Web links

• Literature by and about Wilhelm von Conches in the catalog of the German National Library
• Edited by the Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies; Editor: Édouard Jeauneau
• Original text of Philosophia und Moralium dogma philosophorum at The Latin Library

Remarks

1. ↑ On Wilhelm's life and the chronological questions see Bradford Wilson (ed.): Guillaume de Conches: Glosae in Iuvenalem , Paris 1980, pp. 75-77, 83 and Édouard Jeauneau (ed.): Guillelmi de Conchis glosae super Platonem , 2 2nd edition, Turnhout 2006, pp. XIX – XXVI.
2. ↑ For the title see Italo Ronca, Matthew Curr (translator): William of Conches: A Dialogue on Natural Philosophy (Dragmaticon Philosophiae) , Notre Dame 1997, pp. XX – XXIII. Dragmaticon (literally "dramatic work") means "dialogue". The alleged title De substantiis physicis has not been handwritten.
3. ↑ On this as yet unedited commentary by Wilhelm see Édouard Jeauneau: "Lectio philosophorum". Recherches sur l'Ecole de Chartres , Amsterdam 1973, pp. 267-308. A critical edition of the shorter version is being prepared by Helen Rodnite Lemay, a critical edition of the longer version by Irene Caiazzo.
4. ↑ See on this missing comment Peter Dronke: Fabula. Explorations into the Uses of Myth in Medieval Platonism , Leiden 1985, pp. 167-183.
5. ↑ Édouard Jeauneau (ed.): Guillelmi de Conchis glosae super Platonem , 2nd edition, Turnhout 2006, p. XXX and note 57.
6. ↑ Édouard Jeauneau (ed.): Guillelmi de Conchis glosae super Platonem , 2nd edition, Turnhout 2006, pp. XXXI – XXXIV. The two surviving versions of this commentary were edited by Bengt Löfstedt: Four Juvenal Commentaries from the 12th Century , Amsterdam 1995, pp. 215–365 (see pp. V – VI). An older edition comes from Bradford Wilson: Guillaume de Conches: Glosae in Iuvenalem , Paris 1980. Wilson considered this commentary to be an authentic work by Wilhelm.
7. ↑ On the debate about the attribution of this work, see Bradford Wilson (ed.): Guillaume de Conches: Glosae in Iuvenalem , Paris 1980, pp. 79 f.
8. ↑ The Moralium dogma philosophorum is critically edited by John Holmberg: The Moralium dogma philosophorum by Guillaume de Conches , Uppsala 1929 (Latin text and translations into Old French and Middle Lower Franconian ).
9. ↑ On this use of the terms “humanist” and “humanism” see Richard W. Southern: Medieval Humanism and Other Studies , Oxford 1970, pp. 73–78; Alexander Fidora, Andreas Niederberger: The dispute over the Renaissance in the 12th century - a society caught between humanism, science and religiosity ( online ).
10. ^ Joan Cadden: Science and Rhetoric in the Middle Ages: The Natural Philosophy of William of Conches . In: Journal of the History of Ideas 56, 1995, pp. 1-24, here: 4-7.
11. ↑ On Wilhelm's Platonism see Édouard Jeauneau (Ed.): Guillelmi de Conchis glosae super Platonem , 2nd edition, Turnhout 2006, pp. LII – LVII.
12. ↑ For the theory of elements see Tzotcho Boiadjiev: The natural science as metaphysics of nature with Wilhelm von Conches . In: Ingrid Craemer-Ruegenberg, Andreas Speer (eds.): Scientia and ars in the high and late Middle Ages , 1st half volume, Berlin 1994, pp. 369–380, here: 373–376.
13. ^ Dorothy Elford: William of Conches . In: Peter Dronke (Ed.): A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy , Cambridge 1988, pp. 308–327, here: 313; Andreas Speer: Die Entdeckte Natur , Leiden 1995, pp. 183-185.
14. ↑ Wilhelm von Conches, Dragmaticon 2 , 6, 12: mundi machina .
15. ↑ Wilhelm von Conches, Philosophia 4,7,15, ed. by Gregor Maurach: Wilhelm von Conches: Philosophia , Pretoria 1980, p. 95.
16. ↑ See Theodor W. Köhler : Homo animal nobilissimum , Leiden 2008, pp. 142–158.
17. ↑ See Bradford Wilson (ed.): Guillaume de Conches: Glosae in Iuvenalem , Paris 1980, p. 84.
18. ^ Wilhelm von Saint-Thierry, De erroribus Guillelmi de Conchis ad Bernardum , ed. by Jean Leclercq: Les lettres de Guillaume de Saint-Thierry à Saint Bernard . In: Revue Bénédictine 79, 1969, pp. 375–391, here: 382–391.
19. ↑ Andreas Speer: Die Entdeckte Natur , Leiden 1995, pp. 151–162.
20. ↑ Karin Margareta Fredborg: The Dependence of Petrus Helias 'Summa super Priscianum on William of Conches' Glose super Priscianum . In: Cahiers de l'Institut du Moyen-Age Grec et Latin 11, 1973, pp. 1–57.
21. ↑ Suzanne Conklin Akbari: Medieval Optics in Guillaume de Lorris' Roman de la Rose . In: Medievalia et Humanistica New Series 21, 1994, pp. 1-15, here: 4-9.

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 18, 2009 .