ABSTRACT

Had Eriugena or Gerbert or Anselm awoken one morning to find himself in the 1130s or 1140s, the world of philosophy would in many respects have seemed to him familiar. The most important sources had not changed, and the fundamental problems were, in the main, those which had fascinated scholars of the three preceding centuries. Only after 1150, when the later books of Aristotle’s logic had been absorbed and translation from the Arabic provided a new range of scientific materials, would the perspectives of medieval thought begin to alter. The change which characterized the first half of the century was one in the method of teaching and learning. Eriugena, Gerbert and Anselm had all been teachers; but their instruction took place in the leisure afforded by royal patronage, high ecclesiastical office or monastic seclusion. They had learned friends and learned enemies, but neither professional colleagues nor competitors. In the twelfth century teachers proliferated, and ambitious pupils were no longer content to be taught by a single master: in different disciplines they turned to different specialists; and even within one area of study they sought variety of opinion and approach. These external developments were not without influence on the manner of speculative thought. Logic, grammar, theology and physical science each began to develop a distinctive method, vocabulary and set of assumptions. Yet many a teacher interested himself in more than one of these areas; and the influence of logic on grammar, grammar on logic, and both logic and grammar on theology moulded the form of each of these disciplines.