Peter Abelard's Philosophy Essay

Peter Abelard (1079-1142) is a medieval French philosopher who is considered to be “the keenest thinker and the boldest theologian” of his age. This philosopher is well known person in the history of philosophy not only due to his ideas and concepts but also due to his life story which is described in his autobiographical work Story of my Calamities.
This paper’s main goal is to prove the fact that Peter Abelard , the “keenest thinker and the boldest theologian” of his age had a great impact on the world.
To achieve this goal it is necessary to represent information concerning Peter Abelard’s life, works, ideas and concepts, teaching and quotes.
SOME FACTS FROM PETER ABELARD’S BIOGRAPHY
The original name of this philosopher was Piarre le Pallet. He was born in a village Le Pallet which was situated not far from Nantes, in Brittany. His father whose name was Berengar was a lord. It is known that his mother Lucia entered the monastic state. Their family was large. Peter was the eldest son. His parents wanted him to go into the army but the young man “abandoned Mars for Minerva”. (Clanchy, 19)
He was a clever boy. He was fond of learning. It is known that he refused to get his succession in favor of his relatives because he decided to devote his life to philosophy. He studied liberal arts, Aristotle’s works and Latin language. Some times later Peter Abelard became an academic. He traveled all over France, met different people, debated and learned much. (Clanchy, 23)
His Teachers. One of his teachers was Roscellinus of Compiegne, a famous French philosopher and theologian who is considered to be the founder of nominalism. The young man spent several years at his school in Locmenach. In Paris Peter Abelard continued his studies. He was taught by William of Champeaux, the famous philosopher and theologian, a proponent of realism. The young philosopher was interested in dialectic. The Cathedral school was one of the most prestigious schools in Paris at that time. The young man began to argue against the philosophical conception of his teacher who was dissatisfied with his ideas. The young man left the Cathedral school and was ready to open his own school where he would be able to represent his ideas.
The Beginning of the New Career. At the age of twenty two Peter Abelard set up his own school which was situated at Melun. Later he moved to Paris. He rose to international fame as an excellent dialectic. The lectures of the new master attracted a lot of pupils.
Philosophical Movements of the 12-th century in France. In Paris as well as in many other cities of France there was an obstinate fight between the representatives of different schools of thought. Two main movements were found in the medieval philosophy: realism and nominalism. The founder of the medieval nominalism was Rosceline. Realism was represented by Anselm of Canterbury, a Benedictine monk and a philosopher whose best pupil was William of Champeaux, the philosophical opponent of Peter Abelard. The realists proved the fact that the objects of faith exist in our society. The medieval realism served the interests of the Catholic Church and found its support. The nominalists set their school of thought against realism. According to their philosophy all the general concepts or universals are nothing more than names or “nomia” of the objects which actually exist and come before concepts. The nominalists denied the substantive existence of general concepts what gave the way to the empirical knowledge. The Church found out that the ideas of nominalists are dangerous and during one of the councils in 1092 their ideas were excommunicated. (Morenborn, 41)
In 1113 Peter Abelard returned to Paris where he proceeded with his lectures on philosophy.
It is necessary to say that Abelard could make a brilliant career of a teacher in Paris. He was engaged in teaching from 1108 to 1118. (Clanchy, 25)
Peter Abelard’s Story of my Calamities and his love story with Heloise. In his autobiographical work Story of my Calamities Peter Abelard tells about his teaching process and about his pupils who came to his school from different parts of Europe. He was a person of strong will. The contemporaries called him the “idol of Paris”. He was a handsome young man with an unusual rich voice. He had wonderful skills of the orator. He was always cheerful and liked to tell jokes. His unique self-confidence proved the fact that he “had the whole world at his feet”. He knew that he was greatly appreciated by his admirers. In his Story of my Calamities he tells a lot about his friends and enemies, about his pupils and followers. He confesses that at that period he was very proud of his achievements. However, his downfall was as fast and unusual “as everything in his career”. (Mews, 56)
He uses graphic language to tell the readers about his love story which went down in history and in classical literature. He tells in details about his love to Heloise, his talented pupil and a beautiful young girl who was a niece of Canon Fulbert. Peter Abelard tells about the brutal revenge of Canon Fulbert, about the flight of his beloved woman to Pallet and about their small son Astrolabius who was born as the symbol of their love. He also writes about his secret marriage and about Heloise who took the veil. She retired to the nunnery of Argenteuil. He also writes about the reasons which made him abandon his career of a teacher. (Snell)
Changes in the life of Peter Abelard. There were great changes in his life. He became a cleric in the minor orders and was going to be an ecclesiastical teacher.
It is known from the history that Peter Abelard retied to the Abbey of St. Denis where he assumed the habit of the Benedictine monk. At that moment he thought that it was the only way out to get rid of enemies. He decided to hide himself in the Abbey and to devote his life to service of God. However, the situation was a serious one and his dreams failed. He quarreled with the monks of the Abbey. This occasion was a disrespectful criticism of the Patron Saint and he was sent to some small priory where he was accused of false teaching in philosophy and theology. (Morenborn, 63)
In 1121 they summoned Peter Abelard to appear before the Council at Soissons. The reason lied in the fact that his Doctrine of the Holy Trinity was blamed. Although there was no any formal condemnation concerning Abelard’s works, he was condemned to burn his doctrine of the Holy Trinity and sentenced to detention in a jail which was the Abbey of St. Medard. However, Abelard could run and found a safety place in at Troyes. Although it was a desert place a great deal of his pupils found him and came to Troyes. He had the success of a teacher in philosophy again. His pupils liked to listen to his debates, they learn much more interesting things from him. Soon, in 1125, after the death of Abbot Peter Abelard was absolved from censure and his rank of the monk was restored. Abelard was invited to take the position of Abbot in the Abbey of St. Gildas de Rhuys. (Clanchy, 40)
Being an Abbot of the Abbey, Peter Abelard had rather bad relations with the monks of that Abbey who considered him to be very strict and unfair to them and wanted to remove him from that post. They even wanted to poison him but their attempt failed. Finally they drove Peter Abelard from the Abbey. (Morenborn, 66)
In 1136 he moved to Nantes where he lived several years. Then he moved to Paris and proceeded his career of a teacher and gathered a lot of new pupils who were ready to listen to his lectures again. Among his pupils were Arnold of Brescia and John of Salisbury. There were some other episodes in the life of this great philosopher when he was accused and then absolved again.
Peter Abelard died in 1142. He was buried at the Paraclete.
In 1817 his remains were moved to Paris as well as the remains of his beloved woman Heloise. (Snell)
PETER ABELARD’S WORKS
Among the numerous works written by the French philosopher Peter Abelard one can find both philosophical and theological ones.
His philosophical works include the following ones: Dialectica, Liber Divisionum et Difinitionum, Glossulae in Porphyrium, The Glosses to Porphyry, a moral treatise Scito Teipsum, seu Ethica.
His theological works include Sic et Non, Tractatus de Unitate Divina, Theologia Christians, Introductio in Theologiam, Dialugus inter Philosophum, Udaeum et Christianum, Sentetiae Petri Abaelardi, some hymns and exegetical works. (Morenborn, 71)
PETER ABELARD’S TEACHING
The Main Principle of Abelard’s Concept. The main principle of the ethical concept of this philosopher is confirmation of full moral responsibility of any person for his behavior and his actions, both good and bad. The activity of any person is defined by his intentions. There are no good or bad actions. Everything depends on the intentions. According to this ideas, Abelard argued that the pagans who persecuted the Christ did not perform any sinful actions as these actions were not at variance with their beliefs. The antique philosophers were not sinful too although they were not the supporters of the Christianity. They acted according to their high moral principles. The common spirit of Peter Abelard’s teaching made him the worst of the heretics in the eyes of the Church.
In his work Dialugus inter Philosophum, Udaeum et Christianum Peter Abelard preaches the idea of religious toleration. Each religion has the grain of truth that is why Christianity cannot consider that it is the only perfect religion. (Mews, 67)
The main problem in the works of Peter Abelard. Peter Abelard was a well-educated person who had learned the works of Platon, Aristotle, Cicero. The main problem in the works of Abelard is interrelation of faith and minds. This was the key problem of scholastic philosophy. Abelard gave the preference to minds and knowledge over the blind faith. According to his ideas the faith should have some grounding. Abelard is a strong follower of scholastic logic and dialectic which can disclose any tricks. According to Abelard’s ideas, we can have progress in faith only if we improve out knowledge in dialectic. (Snell)
Abelard defined the term faith as something that is inaccessible to human feelings, and that cannot be studied.
In his work Sic et Non which consists of 158 philosophical and theological questions Peter Abelard discusses the views of the Church Fathers using the extracts from the Bible and other works and shows the inconsistency of their statements. As a result of this discussion he represents some doubts concerning the doctrines of the Church and Christianity. On the other hand Abelard did not doubt in the principal doctrines of the Christian faith. He appealed to understand them in a proper way. He wrote that those who do not understand the Holy Scripture are similar to a donkey who do not understand music.
According to Abelard’s ideas, dialectic should impeach the authorities’ views concerning self-sufficiency of the philosophers and critical relation to theology. That is why the Church condemned the views of Abelard. He was made compelled to burn his book Tractatus de Unitade et Trinitate Divina. In this book he wanted to prove the fact that there is only one God – God the Father while God the Son and God the Spirit demonstrate His Power.
In the work Dialectic Peter Abelard represents his ideas concerning the universals. He tried to bring together too realistic viewpoints and too nominalistic ones. Abalard’s teacher Rosceline was a representative of too nominalistic viewpoints and his another teacher William of Champeaux was a representative of too realistic viewpoints. Rosceline considered that there were only individual things and universal things did not exist. William of Champeaux considered that all the things had something common. Abalard argues that a person in the process of his perception produces some universal concepts which are expressed in words with some certain sense. The universals are created by a person due to perception. This is conseptualism.
PETER ABELARD’S QUOTES
As Peter Abelard was greatly appreciated by other philosophers not only by philosophers-contemporaries but also by the present day historians and scholars some of his quotes became very popular and are widely used in different scientific works. Here are some of them:
It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth.(Aberald)
This quote means that it is necessary to recognize the truth rather than to investigate something.
The key to wisdom is this – contrast and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth. (Aberald)
This quote means that in order to become wise it is required to ask questions and only after that we will be able to find out the truth.
The first key to wisdom is defined, of course, as assiduous and frequent questioning. (Aberald)
This quote is taken from Abelard’s work Sic et Non and proves the fact that asking questions help us to become wise.
Against the disease of writing one must take special precautions, since it is a dangerous and contagious disease. (Aberald)
This quote is taken from The Letters of Aberald and Heloise. It denoted that love makes a person to write to his sweetheart and this is similar to disease: the person who is in love cannot stop writing.
Music in the life of Peter Abelard. It is known that Peter Abelard was not only a philosopher but also he was a good composer. He also was a poet. His love songs were dedicated to his beloved woman Heloise and showed his inner world, his feeling and emotions, his perception of love. He praised these songs in his letters to Heloise. Unfortunately, some of his songs were lost.
Peter Abelard composed a special hymn book which was written especially for Heloise’s religious community. They young man composed an absolutely new hymn where he used new materials. One of the melodies survived and can be heard nowadays. It is O Quanta Qualia. Those melodies which were composed by Peter Abelard are called “flexible and expressive”. (Snell)
THE INFLUENCE OF PETER ABELARD’S IDEAS ON THE WORLD
Peter Abelard is considered to be the most significant philosopher of the 12-th century, the outstanding representative of the medieval philosophy in the period of its rise. The ideas of Peter Abelard influenced greatly the contemporaries and the medieval schools of thought. In modern times Peter Abelard is well known for his love story. His philosophic works were published in 1721 for the first time. It was the ethical treatise which was called Scito te Ipsum.
It is also known that Abelard developed his teaching which later was called conceptualism. (Mannis, Scott 81)
Although this philosopher had a lot of followers and pupils he was accused several times for his ideas which were not supported by the Church. He was a brave person who was not afraid of the punishment. He protected his ideas till his dying day. Undoubtedly, his works and philosophical ideas had the greatest impact on the world.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, it is necessary to say that Peter Abelard was one of the greatest and famous intellectuals of the 12-th century. A wonderful orator, he had a well-developed logic. The constitution of his mind and character made Peter Abelard a special figure in the history of philosophy. Although his brave ideas were condemned by the Church, he could find a great deal of his followers among his numerous pupils. He was called the teacher of his generation. The philosophy of this unique person had an obvious impact on the following development of the philosophical thought.