Is there Medieval Philosophy?

There is Medieval Philosophy although this stage of Philosophical history is not focused on the discipline of Philosophy itself. It is said that the Medieval Philosophy was subordinated to Theology which means that unlike in the Ancient Philosophy, wherein man is the center of the intellectual attention, in Medieval Philosophy, the center of the intellectual attention was God.

The Medieval Philosophy was a period wherein the flourishing of Philosophy was not only centered in Europe and no person called his self a philosopher. A lot of Philosophical accounts are not just found in Europe like the emergence of Latin Philosophy in the Middle Age.  Another thing is that a lot of thinkers found in this era are not European like St. Augustine who was Roman. Also, Medieval Philosophy has no clear boundary between ancient times and the Renaissance time. With these, a lot of people would skip this part of the history as there were no exact measure to when, where and who were Medieval Philosophy is. But despite these, Medieval Philosophy continued to prosper and take its own part in the history.

The Medieval Philosophy was a period wherein people were relearning and started to have intellectual activities again after the ancient period. At this moment, a lot of events like world wars affected the blossoming of Philosophy. But, in spite of the happenings, philosophical reflections still emerges. Also, at this time, the works of the ancients were made available to the people through translations.

As what I have stated, this time was full of events that affected Philosophy. One of the results was that no certain person or thinker at this time thought of himself as a philosopher and no certain work can be classified as purely philosophical. More thinkers refer themselves as theologians. The philosophical works are only found inside these theological works. With this, Medieval Philosophy is said to be a subordinate to Theology. This means that no certain work was dedicated to Philosophy itself. It is always a mixture of Theological thought.

Overall, it can be proven that there is a Medieval Philosophy for it has its own pursuit which is to understand the world and man’s place on it.

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Source

Gracia, J., Noone, T. 2002. A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Berlin; Blackwell                        Publishing Ltd.

Klima, G., Allhoff, F., Vaidya, A. 2007. Medieval Philosophy: Essential Readings with Commentary.

Australia; Blackwell Publishing Ltd.