William Manderston

William Manderstown , also William Manderston , (* approx. 1485–1552) was a Scottish philosopher and was one of the leading Scottish academics in the time before the Reformation in Scotland. Manderston was assigned to the circle of John Major alongside George Lokert (approx. 1485 to 1457), Robert Galbraight (approx. 1483 to 1544) and Hector Boece (approx. 1465 to 1536) . He met these people in Paris and like them returned to Scotland to take on important positions in society and education.

Life

Manderstown was probably born near St Andrews in the village of Manderston, in Stirlingshire . According to the Dictionary of National Biography of 1893, he was apparently also trained at St Andrews. Alexander Broadie describes that he was matriculated at the University of Glasgow in 1503 and graduated three years later. He moved to Paris, where he first learned under John Major and later worked as a colleague. In 1525 Manderstown received his doctorate in medicine in Paris. He took over the medical professorship at the Collège Sainte-Barbe and became rector of the university in the same year. In 1530 he was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews . He spent most of his subsequent life in Scotland. In 1535 Manderstown was awarded a Vatican doctorate in theology.

In 1539 he and John Major donated a number of scholarships which were financed with the income from a few houses on South Street in St Andrews. Manderstown's death date is unknown.

Works

In 1517 Manderstown had published the Tripartitum Epithoma Doctrinale , an extensive work on logic . A year later he had the bipartite follow in Morali Philosophia Opusculum , a work on moral philosophy , which he dedicated to James Beaton , the Archbishop of Glasgow . Allegedly the second work was a plagiarism of a work by Hieronymus Angestus . Copies of both works can be found in the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh . In 1519 he re-published the Quaestiones ac decisiones physicales by Albert von Rickmersdorf together with Lokert .

Other works awarded to Manderston are In Ethicam Aristotelis ad Nicomachum Comment , Quæstionem de Futuro Contingenti and De Arte Chymica .

Manderstown's moral philosophy can be broadly classified as Aristotelian. But since Manderstown's philosophy is Christian, it also contains elements that were alien to Aristotle , such as grace . Even so, there are two features that classify philosophy as clearly Aristotelian:

• the central role attributed to virtues and
• the virtues as a characteristic of the soul

But Manderstown continues here. He not only assigns virtue to the soul, but also subordinates it to the will, in that a virtue must not only be present but also be applied in practice. Since the situation must first be assessed in order to act, the virtues are also evident in such assessments. From will, Manderstown deduces statements about freedom of decision. Because from the will to do something he deduces two activities: 1. the formulation of the act of will ("I want to go") and the execution ("I go"). While the second is the consequence of the first, the first arises without an act of will: I don't want to want me to go. Manderstown continues to work on the resulting questions of freedom of choice.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Albert Frederick Pollard, Manderstown, William in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 36 on Wikisource.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r} Alexander Broadie (2008) History of Scottish Philosophy ; Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 9780748628643 . Page 71 ff.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Hans-Jochem Ostwald (2005) Art or Science: The Evaluation of Art in the Philosophy of the Scottish School ; Königshausen & Neumann, ISBN 9783826031366 . Page 25.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Alexander Broadie (2008) Scottish Philosophers in France: The Earlier Years ; in Cairns Craig, Michael Brown, Rosalyn Trigger (2008) Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies ; AHRC Center for Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen. ISSN 1753-2396.