WILLIAM OF CHAMPEAUX
Life. William of Champeaux was, like St. Anselm, an opponent of
the nominalism of Roscelin. He was born at Champeaux, a village near
Melun, about the year 1070. At an early age he repaired to Paris to
study under the renowned Alsatian teacher Manegold of Lautenbach. Later
on he studied dialectic at Roscelin's school in Compiègne and
theology at the school of Laon, over which the theologian Anselm (not
St. Anselm of Canterbury) at that time presided. In 1103 he was
summoned to Paris, was made archdeacon, and appointed to the chair of
philosophy in the cathedral school. In 1108 he retired to the monastery
of St. Victor, where he continued his career as a teacher and gave the
initiative to the mystic movement which is associated with that abbey.
He was promoted in 1113 to the see of Châlons-sur-Marne. He died
in 1121.
William of Champeaux enjoyed among his contemporaries a very high
reputation for learning and sanctity. He was known as the Columna
Doctorum; according to Abelard, he was re et fama
praecipuus; and when he died it was said that "the light of the
Word of God was extinguished on earth."
Sources. Of the philosophical writings of William of Champeaux
we possess merely some fragments: a portion of the work De Origine
Animae, published by Martene, and forty-two fragments discovered at
Troyes by Ravaisson, portions also of a Liber Sententiarum and a
Dialogus seu Altercatio Cujusdam Christiani etJudaei. [1] Our
chief secondary sources of information are Abelard, who constantly
refers to his rival teacher, and John of Salisbury. Michaud's
Guillaume de Champeaux (Paris, 1867) is an excellent study of
our philosopher and his times.
[1] Migne (Patr. Lat., Vol. CLXIII) publishes fragments of De
Origine Anima, De Sacramento Altaris, Dialogus seu Altercatio, etc.
Titles of forty-two fragments are given by Michaud, op. cit., p.
532.
DOCTRINES
Problem of Universals. According to Abelard, William maintained
that the universal is wholly and essentially present in each
individual:
Erat autem ea sententia ut eamdem essentialiter rem totam simul
singulis suis inesse adstrueret individuis; quorum quidem nulla esset
in essentia diversitas sed sola multitudine accidentium varietas. [2]
[2] Historia Calamitatum, col. 119.
Universals, therefore, exist in individual things. This is the thesis
of realism. That by the word essentialiter William meant
to convey a doctrine of exaggerated realism is apparent from the
objections which Abelard urged against him. Among Abelard's objections
we find the following: If the essence of humanity is wholly and
essentially present in Socrates, it is not where Socrates is not. But
it is also wholly and essentially present in Plato; therefore, Socrates
must always be where Plato is. [3]
[3] Cf. Cousin, Ouvrages inéd., p. 455.
Unable to refute this and similar objections, William of Champeaux,
after his retirement to St. Victor, formulated a new thesis in which he
maintained that the universal is in the individual, not in the entirety
of its essence, but by reason of its particular or individual
modifications: "Sic autem istam suam correxit sententiam," says
Abelard, "ut deinceps rem eamdem non essentialiter sed
individualiter diceret." [4] Even if we substitute for the word
individualiter the word indifferenter (and there seems to
be better manuscript authority for indifferenter), [5] we cannot
arrive at a definite conclusion as to what was the precise meaning of
the change which Abelard forced on his adversary. It is obvious,
however, that the substitution of individualiter or
indifferenter for essentialiter was meant as a concession
to the anti-realists; the corrected expression was intended to convey a
doctrine of more temperate realism. The end of the controversy, if we are to accept Abelard's authority, was that
William, after having modified his first thesis, was obliged to abandon
the second thesis altogether. The truth, however, seems to be that,
although Abelard carried off the honors of the debate, William
continued to teach realism while he remained at St. Victor.
[4] Hist. Calam., ibid.
[5] Michaud (p. 231, n.) gives a fragment of William's work, De
Esrentia et Substantia Dei, which confirms the use of the word
indifferenter in this context, and explains its meaning:
Vides (idem) duobus accipi modis, secundum indifferentiam et
secundum identitatem prorsus ejusdem essentia; secundum indifferentiam,
ut Petrum et Paulum idem esse dicimus in hoc quad sunt homines . .
. sed si veritatem confiteri volumus, non est eadem utriusque
humanitas, cum sint duo homines.
Psychological Doctrines. In the work De Origine Animae
William refutes the doctrine of the traducianists (according to whom
the soul of the child is in some way derived from the parents)
and defends the creationist doctrine that the soul is created
immediately by God. He teaches that the soul is a simple substance and
that it is not distinct from its faculties or their operations. [6] He
describes in the following terms the relation between body and soul:
Quae duo (corpus scilicet et anima) ita quodammodo sunt inserta ut et
corpus per spiritum sensificaretur, i.e., illos quinque sensus haberet,
et anima naturam corporis ita contraheret ut inde sensificaret, et
irasceretur, vel concupisceret vel esuriret. [7]
[6] Cf. frag. 38, apud Michaud, op. cit., p. 114.
[7] De Origine Animae, frag. 3.
Historical Position. William of Champeaux represents an
important phase in the development of the doctrine of universal
concepts. His most noteworthy contribution to philosophy is, however,
his doctrine of creationism. It will be remembered that St. Augustine
refused to decide the question of the origin of the soul. William is
the first Christian philosopher in the West to maintain definitely and
unhesitatingly the creation of the individual soul.
Associated with William of Champeaux are the realists Otto of
Tournai, Adelard of Bath, and Walter of Mortagne.
OTTO OF TOURNAI
Life. Otto, or Odon, of Tournai (died 1113), was professor at
Tournai, abbot of the monastery of St. Martin in that city, and
subsequently bishop of Cambrai. Such was his renown as a teacher that
Herman says, "Cives omnes relictis allis operibus soli philosophiae deditos crederes." [8]
After he had devoted much attention to the study of Plato, he chanced
one day to read some of St. Augustine's treatises against the
Manicheans, and henceforth he gave all his time and attention to the
study of theology. Before he took up the study of theology he composed
several philosophical works. His principal theological treatise is
entitled De Peccato Originali. His works are published by Migne
(Patr. Lat., Vol. CLX).
[8] Migne, Patr. Lat., Vol. CLXXX, col. 42. Herman was a monk of the
abbey of Tonrnai and became abbot in 1127.
DOCTRINES
Otto was a Platonic realist. This appears from the work just mentioned
and also from certain verses which were written by a contemporary,
probably by a disciple of Otto, and attached to a manuscript copy of
Boethius' work De Hypotheticis Syllogismis. [9] He applied
exaggerated realism (1) to the doctrine of original sin, teaching
that the whole human race is one substance, and that, when our first
parents sinned the whole race was vitiated, because the humanity which
existed then as really as it exists now was contaminated; (2) to the
account of the origin of the soul, maintaining that the act of creation
consists merely in the production of new properties, which adhere in a
previously existing substance, and serve to distinguish one soul from
another, there being no substantial difference between individual souls.
[9] Cf. Hauréau, op. cit., I,
308.
Hildebert of Lavardin, a Platonist poet and mystic philosopher,
belongs to the same school as Otto. Hauréau has been obliged to
reconsider his decision that Hildebert was the author of the Tractatus
Theologicus, which, according to some historians, was the model used by
Peter the Lombard in composing his Sentences. [10]
[10] Cf. Archiv f Gesch. der Phil., X (1897), 135.
ADELARD OF BATH
Life. Adelard of Bath (circa 1100), who, about the beginning of
the twelfth century, studied at Tours and at Laon, was the first of the
mediaeval teachers to seek enlightenment by traveling in Greece and
Asia Minor. His principal works are Questiones Naturales,
published in 1472, and a treatise De Eodem et Diverso, which has
recently been published in Beiträge zur Gesch. der Phil. des
Mittelalters (IV, I).
DOCTRINES
Adelard is a Platonist. He teaches that ideas are innate, having been
placed in the soul by the Creator at the beginning of the world:
Conditor immensitatis . . . praecellenti naturae quam animam vocamus
intellectuales formas omnium creaturarum induit. . . . Illum itaque
formarum intellectualium thesaurum non semper, sed cum necesse est,
explicat. [11]
[11] Quaestiones
Naturales, apud Hauréau, op. cit., I, 355,
n.
In the treatise De Eodem et Diverso Adelard solves the problem
of universals by the doctrine of indifferentism, which closely
resembles the second form of William of Champeaux's realism. The
indifferentists maintained that in every individual we may distinguish
the determinations which belong to the individual, namely, the
differentiating mark (differens), and the generic or specific
part of the individual, namely, the common element (indifferens)
which it shares with others of the same genus or species. The latter
alone is universal. Making a further distinction between essence and
substance, the indifferentists granted that the essence includes
the differens; and therefore, they argued, there is no universal
essence. They contended, however, that substance does not include the
differens, and thence they inferred that substance is
(physically) one and common to all individuals. [12]
[12] Cf. Ouvrages inéd., CXXIII, and a passage
quoted by Hauréau, op. cit., I 349, from De Eodem et
Diverso.
WALTER OF MORTAGNE
Walter of Mortagne was born about the beginning of the twelfth
century, at Mortagne in Flanders. After studying at Tournai, he went to
Paris, where from 1136 to 1144 he taught at the school of Ste.
Geneviève. He died bishop of Laon in 1174. He composed a work
entitled Tractatus de Sancta Trinitate and six Opuscula.
Five of the Opuscula are published in D'Achery's
Spicilegium (Paris, 1723), and the sixth in Migne's Patr.
Lat., Vol. CLXXXVI, col. 1052.
DOCTRINES
Walter, like Adelard, is a Platonist. In a letter to Abelard [13] he
expresses the belief that the body is an obstacle to the higher
operations of the soul. He is best known, however, by his doctrine of
non-difference or indifference, which is described by John of
Salisbury, his disciple, in the following terms:
Hic, ideo quod omne quod est unum numero est, rem universalem aut unam
numero esse aut omnino non esse concedit. Sed, quia impossibile
substantialia non esse, existentibus his quorum sunt substantialia,
denuo colligunt universalia singularibus, quod ad essentiam, unienda.
Partiuntur itaque status, duce Gualtero de Mauritania, et
Platonem in eo quod Plato est, individuum; in eo quod homo, speciem; in
eo quod animal, genus, sed subalternum; in eo quod substantia,
generalissimum. [14]
[13] Spicilegium Dacherii, III, 525.
[14] Metal., II, 17.
The doctrine of indifferentism is further described in a document, No.
17813 of the Bibliothèque Nationale, published by
Hauréau in 1892, and attributed by him to Walter. The document
defines differens and indifferens, and proceeds:
Et attende quod Socrates et unumquodque individuum hominis, in eo quod
unumquodque est animal rationale mortale, sunt unum et idem. [15]
[15] Hauréau, Notices, etc. (Paris, 1892), Vol. V, p.
313.
It is worthy of remark that in this document the status of which
John of Salisbury speaks are called attentiones. They suggest at
once the formalitates of Duns Scotus.
The question of the interpretation of the passage just quoted is to be
answered according to the meaning attached to the phrase "unum et
idem." Does it mean mere logical unity, or does it mean that there is
in the world of reality a one which is "animal rationale mortale"? If
the unity is merely logical, -- the work of the mind, as the word
attentio seems to imply, -- we have here the nearest approach of
realism to the moderate realism of St. Thomas. If, on the contrary, the
unity is real and objective, we have, instead, a form of Platonic
realism. We must decide in favor of the latter interpretation, for it
is on the supposition that the latter is the true interpretation, and
on that supposition alone, that we can understand the objections which
Abelard and others urged against the doctrine of indifferentism.
Historical Position. The school of Tournai and the advocates of
indifferentism represent an attempt at founding a realistic doctrine of
universals on an eclectic union of Platonic and Aristotelian
principles. Before we take up the history of the more thoroughgoing
Platonism of the school of Chartres it is necessary to study the
philosophy of Abelard, the opponent of realism and the chief advocate
of what was then understood to be the Aristotelian doctrine of
concepts.
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