1. Kilcullen, Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, download; listen [The setting. The problem: why does God allow the wicked to prevail? How does God guide the universe and to what goal? The "good" (goal) for human beings; views of Aristotle, the Stoics, the neo-Platonists. Consolations derived from Stoic philosophy, books 1-3. The problem reasserted (begining of Book 4). Arguments of Plato's Gorgias, to the effect that the wicked are really weak and wickedness is its own punishment. The problem again reasserted (4, pr. 5). Providence and fate. There is no such thing as chance. But we have free choice. God has foreknowledge. Our free choice and God's foreknowledge are not inconsistent.]

2. Kilcullen, Boethius, Other Writings, download; listen [A list of Boethius' writings. His contributions to the liberal arts and to philosophy reflect the philosophical education at Alexandria. Plato's educational plan, Republic 398ff, 524ff, 531ff. The "Platonist" school. Translations of Greek mathematics, science, philosophy, medicine etc. into Arabic, then in the 12th century into Latin; until then Boethius the main source of Greek philosophical material in Latin. What is available in English translation of Boethius' other writings. An account of his discussion of universals in his commentary on Porphyry's Introduction. Aporetic method. What is the problem about universals? Abstraction as Boethius' solution.]

3. Kilcullen, Boethius, Medieval Logic, download; listen [More on universals -- Ockham's approach. Aristotle, On Interpretation, ch. 9, on statements about future acts within our power. Difficulties for religious thinkers in the suggestion that such statements do not become true or false until the event does or does not happen. On logic: the books included in volume 1 of Aristotle's Works. Assessing an argument -- are the premises true, does the conclusion follow. Logic concerned with what follows from what. This depends on the skeletal structure of the argument -- if any argument with a certain structure has true premisses but false conclusion, then in no argument with that structure does the conclusion follow. Aristotle's achievement in the Prior Analytics.]

4. Scott, Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, download; listen. [The importance of history within the western intellectual tradition. Medieval historians, like the classical predecessors who influenced them, were rhetors, skilled in the technique of 'invention'. Their rhetorical background explains: (i) their use of attributed direct speech; (ii) their predilection for hagiographical stereotyping; (iii) their concern for literary style. Christian aspects of medieval history writing: (1) conception of history as a comprehensible whole; (2) a concern with time and accurate dating; (3) explanatory themes derived from the biblical (especially Old Testament) conception of history.]

5. Kilcullen, Augustine, City of God, download, listen. [Augustine thinks not in opposites but in terms of an order with many levels. Manicheanism; his theory of evil. Structure of the City of God. Some themes: Fate, foreknowledge and free will; the greatness of the Roman empire, honour as a simulacrum of virtue; the two cities; the possibility of cooperation between citizens of the two cities.]

6. Scott, Gregory the Great, download, listen [Pope Gregory 1 (the Great) was the highly influential moral teacher of Europe between 600 and 1100. Manuscript survivals, library catalogues and citations by many other writers show his popularity. His Letters were mined for information; his works of biblical exegesis, especially his Moralia on the book of Job, were regarded as models of allegorical exposition by later writers and enshrined practical moral advice with a Stoic bent; his Pastoral Care provided a model of leadership for the secular clergy; his Dialogues introduced a new model of sanctity based on everyday Christian virtues. In general, his writings portrayed a world where the boundaries between the natural and supernatural were porous and advocated the individual's obligations to other members of the body of Christ.]

7. Kilcullen, Augustine on Freewill and Predestination, download, listen [Augustine's conception of free choice. According to Pelagius, living the good life is up to you. Augustine's dissatisfaction with Pelagius' doctrine. According to Augustine, after the Fall, human beings need God's help for each and every good act of choice. This help is gratuitous, not earned or deserved as a right. Needed also is the gift of perseverance; salvation or damnation depends on the state in which one dies. Predestination. Adam's sin attributed to all human beings. The basis for Augustine's doctrine in the bible (see extracts from bible). Later contests over Augustine's doctrine: Ockham, Bradwardine and Gregory of Rimini, Luther, Calvin, Molina, Jansen, Arnauld, Arminius.]

8. Kilcullen, Anselm 1, download, listen [See written lectures 1 and 2. This lecture contains little new material but reinforces points made in the written lectures, especially in relation to the argument types Anselm uses, and the difference between philosophical and revealed theology.]

9. Kilcullen, Anselm 2, download, listen [A discussion mainly of the kinds of necessity. In Anselm's school basic questions relating to the credibility of Christianity were actively discussed.]

9. Scott, Monastic intellectual culture in the West, download, listen [Monastery a school in how to live. What did they read? The Bible, books of the Fathers, but also the pagan classics. How did they read? Meditatively; to fix in the memory; their writing full of reminiscences of what they read. Allegorical reading. What they wrote: copied MSS. Concrete genres such as letters, history, saits lives, pastoral, not abstract speculation. History writing a classical genre; the monks wrote to record God's deeds. Saints lives stereotyped.]

10. Kilcullen, Medieval Science, download, listen [Translation of Greek science and philosophy into Arabic; prestige of Greek medicine. In the 12th century translations into Latin from Arabic and Greek. Content of Aristotle's writings in natural philosophy. Conflicts between Aristotle's philosophy and Christianity. Criticisms of Aristotle's natural philosophy. The scientific revolution. Reading list.]

11. Ward, Urban Schools and Universities 1, download, listen [Carolingian renaissance: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, classical literature; invention of Carolingian script. Survival of the educational program in some places, notably Chartres. Controversies: Investiture contest, Eucharist, marriage, satan, conversion of Muslims and Jews. Translations. Knowledge becomes objectified. Areas of study: the Bible, Aristotle, Platonism, hermeneutic matters. French cathedral schools -- Laon, Reims, Chartres, Paris. Interests of students. Curriculum. Dialectic, theology, literature, philosophy. Accomodation of students. The licence to teach.]

12. Ward, Urban Schools and Universities 2, download, listen [Foundations of universities of Paris, Bologna and Oxford. Reading and discussion of documents "Authentica habita", Letter of Innocent III (1208-1209), and "Rules of the University of Paris" Resources Book, pp. 221, 223, 224-6.]

13. Ward, Urban Schools and Universities 3, download, listen [The curriculum. Demands of the market. Eclipse of rhetoric by letter writing skills, then (with the advent of the universities) by disputation. Of the seven liberal arts, the others were modified, but rhetoric was the only one that died. In the 12th century no fixed curriculum in the universities. Kinds of reasoning distinguished (apodeictic, dialectical, sophistical). From 12th to 13th centuries general competence replaced by specialisation. Late 12th century: missionary theology. Increased contact with Jews. Hugh of St Victor. Rupert of Deutz. John of Salisbury's criticism of the schools. Alan of Lille. In the thirteenth century much controversy and conflict, hence restrictions and condemnations -- 1210, 1231, 1241, 1270, 1277 (pp. 271-2 in Resources Book), etc. Was scholasticism too restrictive to be beneficial? Petrarch.]

14. Ward, Urban Schools and Universities 4, download, listen [Argument of Luca Bianchi, "Censure, Liberté et progrès intellectuel à l'université de paris au xiiie siècle", Archives d'historie doctrinale et littéraire du moyen age, 63 (1996), pp. 45-93. (For a different view see "Introduction", Resources Book, pp. 10-12.) Alan of Lille and the study of rhetoric.]

15. Kilcullen, Medieval Law 1, download, listen. [Law schools in Italy, the universities and colleges at Bologna. Justinian's Corpus iuris civilis (comprising Code, Digest, Novels, Institutes). Canon law collections: Burchard of Worms, Decretum (P.L., vol. 140), Ivo of Chartres, Decretum, Panormia (P.L., vol. 161). Gratian's Concordia discordantium canonum, (also called Decretum). Illustrative extracts from Justinian's Digest and Gratian's Decretum.]

16. Kilcullen, Medieval Law 2, download, listen. [Gratian continued. The liber extra. A few illustrations of the ideas contained in the writings of lawyers -- on marriage, on corporation law and political philosophy.]

17. Crittenden, Medieval Philosophy 1, medieval philosophy in the 12th century, download, listen [see lecture outline].

18. Crittenden, Medieval Philosophy 2, Abelard cont. -- recording not successful [see outline].

19. Crittenden, Medieval Philosophy 3, Thomas Aquinas, "Five Ways", download, listen [see outline].

20. Crittenden, Medieval Philosophy 4, Thomas Aquinas, Ethics, download, listen [see outline].

21. Scott, Political Thought in the 14th Century, download, listen [Relations between Church and secular rulers. Investiture conflict; conflict between Boniface VIII and Philip IV; between John XXII and Ludwig of Bavaria. Pro-papal writers: Giles of Rome, James of Viterbo. Opponents of papalist claims: John of Paris, Marsilius of Padua, William of Ockham.]

22. Kilcullen, Predestination in the 14th Century, download, listen [The practice of criticism in 14th century universities. Recapitulation of Augustine's view on predestination and grace. Ockham's reworking of the theory. What God could do de potentia dei absoluta, what he does de potentia dei ordinata. "Facientibus quod is se est Deus non denegat gratiam". Semi-Pelagian? Bradwardine and Gregory of Rimini as opponents of the new theory.]

23. Kilcullen, 14th century theories on predestination and grace continued, download, listen [Grace as habitus. Sacraments as sine qua non cause of grace. Possibility of morally good acts done without grace. Predestination ante or post praevisa merita; reprobation.]

24. Kilcullen, Final lecture, download, listen [Free will: Scotus and Ockham on the will's power for opposites. Moral theories in the late middle ages: eudaimonistic ethics contrasted with Scotus' notion that the will has not only an affectio commodi but also an affectio iustitiae (compare Anselm, here and here)
Connections between medieval and early modern thought -- in philosophy (for more detail, here and here), in theology (controversies over grace in the reformation, between Molinists and Dominicans, Jesuits and Jansenists, Arminians and Calvinists), the legal system, the universities.]