The Structure of the Soul, Intellectual Virtues and the Ethical Ideal of Masters of Arts in Early Commentaries on the Nichomachean Ethics

BUFFON, VALERIA

Nijmegen

Conferencia; Virtue Ethics in the Middle Ages: Commentaries on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, 1200-1500; 2006

Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

Much has been said on the importance of the Aristotelian ideal of contemplation during the second half of thirteenth century. We intend to show that this ideal was already born by the 1230’s and 1240’s. Nevertheless, it should not be called, in contemporary terms, an Aristotelian ideal. In the present conference, we would like to highlight the Avicennian and Neo-Platonic elements behind the interpretations of Aristotle’s Ethics in masters of Arts of the first half of thirteenth century. The main element stressed is the theory of the two faces of the soul, as one of the constituents of the soul framework that is always (more or less explicitly) considered in these commentaries. It will be shown how the theory of two faces of the soul is used to justify the Aristotelian division in moral and intellectual virtues, and how this Avicennian theory is combined with the first readings of the Aristotelian treatise On the Soul leading to a complex theory that will also set some psychological foundations of ethics as a science. Finally, the intellectual virtues are considered to be an access to the knowledge or contemplation of separated things such as the celestial intelligences and God. The concern about the possibility of knowledge of God is recurring in some commentaries and other works of Parisian masters of Arts of the same period.[1] This knowledge of God as a product of ‘performing’ intellectual virtues is the ethical ideal of masters of Arts, which leads them to enter on some theological and metaphysical subjects and to inquire into a number of fundamental problems of the early scholastics such as the transcendentals. [1] We will include in our presentation a partial analysis the following works: a. Pseudo-Peckham, Commentarium in Ethicam Nouam et Veterem, in Oxford, Bodleian Library, misc. lat., c. 71, f. 1r-52r; in Florence, Bibl. Naz., conv. sopp., G 4. 853, f. 1r-77v; in Prague, Univ. Stat., III. F 10, f. 12r-23v (incomplete witness) and in Avranches, Bibl. Munic., 232, f. 123r-125v (incomplete witness). b. Also the so-called Commentary of Paris (R. A. Gauthier, « Le cours sur l’Ethica Nova d’un maître ès arts de Paris (vers 1235-1240) », Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge, 42 (1975), p. 71-141); the commentary on the Ethica vetus still inedited is found in Paris, Bibl. Nat., lat., 3804a. c. Robert Kilwardby, Expositio super Ethica Noua et Vetus, Cambridge, Peterhouse 206, f. 285r-307v; Prague, Czech State Library 513 III. F. 10, f. 1r-11v (incomplete witness) d. Anonyme, Commentarium super Ethica uetus, Avranches, Bibl. Munic., 232, f. 90r-122v. We shall mention too some introductions to philosophy such as Arnoul de Provence, Divisio scientiarum, in C. Lafleur, Quatre introductions à la philosophie au XIIIe siècle, Montréal, Institut d’études médiévales; Paris, Vrin (coll. « Publications de l’Institut d’études médiévales », XXIII), 1988; C. Lafleur and J. Carrier, « La Philosophia d’Hervé le Breton (alias Henri le Breton) et le recueil d’introductions à la philosophie du ms. Oxford, Corpus Christi College 283 (Deuxième partie) », Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge, 62 (1995), p. 359-442; and C. Lafleur and J. Carrier, Le “Guide de l’étudiant” d’un maître anonyme de la Faculté des Arts de Paris au XIIIe siècle, édition critique provisoire du ms. Barcelone, Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Ripoll 109, f. 134ra-158va, Québec, Faculté de Philosophie, Université Laval, 1992.