William of Conches
Encyclopedia
William of Conches was a French
scholastic
philosopher who sought to expand the bounds of Christian humanism
by studying secular works of the classics and fostering empirical science. He was a prominent member of the School of Chartres
. John of Salisbury
, a bishop of Chartres and former student of William's, refers to William as the most talented grammarian after Bernard of Chartres
.
, Normandy
. His teaching activity extended from c. 1120 to 1154, and about the year 1145 he became the tutor of Henry Plantagenet
. It is possible, but uncertain, that he was teaching at Chartres
before that. Warned by a friend of the danger implied in his Platonic realism as he applied it to theology, he took up the study of Islamic philosophy
and physical science
. When and where he died is a matter of uncertainty.
William devoted much attention to cosmology
and psychology
. Having been a student of Bernard of Chartres, he shows the characteristic Humanism
, tendency towards Platonism, and taste for natural science which distinguish the "Chartrains". He is one of the first of the medieval Christian philosophers to take advantage of Islamic physical and physiological lore, to which he had access in the translations by Constantine the African
.
William of St. Thierry, who had encouraged Bernard of Clairvaux
to prosecute Abelard, in another letter to Bernard attacked William's De philosophia mundi for having a modalist view of the Holy Trinity. William in consequence revised some controversial parts in the Dragmaticon.
's Timaeus
, on Boethius
's Consolation of Philosophy
, on Priscian
's Institutiones grammaticae, and on Macrobius's Commentary on the Dream of Scipio
. He was probably also the author of a lost treatise Magna de naturis philosophia. A work on ethics
, the Moralium dogma philosophorum
, was attributed to him in the 1920s, but his authorship is now rejected by most scholars.
, astronomy
, geography
, meteorology
and medicine
.
William explains the world as composed of elements (elementa), which he defines as "the simplest and minimum part[s] of any body—simple in quality, minimum in quantity". He identifies the elements with the traditional four elements
(fire, air, water, earth) but (following Constantine the African) not as they are perceived, since as such they are neither simple in quality nor minimum in quantity: earth, for example, contains something hot, something cold, something dry and something wet at the same time. Pure elements are not to be perceived, says William, but to be grasped by reason, through an abstract division of the sensible bodies. Each of these pure elements has two of the four basic qualities: earth is cold and dry, water is cold and humid, air is hot and humid and fire is hot and dry. The perceivable elements, called elementata, are made of pure elements: the sensible earth especially of pure earth, the sensible water especially of pure water, and so on.
The discussion of meteorology includes a description of air becoming less dense and colder as the altitude increases, and William attempts to explain the circulation of the air in connection with the circulation of the oceans. The discussion of medicine deals chiefly with procreation and childbirth. This work influenced Jean de Meung, the author of the second part of the Roman de la Rose
.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
scholastic
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
philosopher who sought to expand the bounds of Christian humanism
Christian humanism
Christian humanism is the position that universal human dignity and individual freedom are essential and principal components of, or are at least compatible with, Christian doctrine and practice. It is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles.- Origins :Christian humanism may have...
by studying secular works of the classics and fostering empirical science. He was a prominent member of the School of Chartres
School of Chartres
During the High Middle Ages, Chartres Cathedral operated a famous and influential cathedral school, an important center of scholarship. It developed and reached its apex in the 11th and 12th centuries...
. John of Salisbury
John of Salisbury
John of Salisbury , who described himself as Johannes Parvus , was an English author, educationalist, diplomat and bishop of Chartres, and was born at Salisbury.-Early life and education:...
, a bishop of Chartres and former student of William's, refers to William as the most talented grammarian after Bernard of Chartres
Bernard of Chartres
Bernard of Chartres was a twelfth-century French Neo-Platonist philosopher, scholar, and administrator.- Life :...
.
Life
He was born in ConchesConches
Conches may refer to:the plural of the Conch, a type of mollusk.Places:*Conches-sur-Gondoire, a village in the northern part of France*Conches-en-Ouche, another village in the northern part of France...
, Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
. His teaching activity extended from c. 1120 to 1154, and about the year 1145 he became the tutor of Henry Plantagenet
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
. It is possible, but uncertain, that he was teaching at Chartres
Chartres
Chartres is a commune and capital of the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. It is located southwest of Paris.-Geography:Chartres is built on the left bank of the Eure River, on a hill crowned by its famous cathedral, the spires of which are a landmark in the surrounding country...
before that. Warned by a friend of the danger implied in his Platonic realism as he applied it to theology, he took up the study of Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies. It is the continuous search for Hekma in the light of Islamic view of life, universe, ethics, society, and so on...
and physical science
Islamic science
Science in the medieval Islamic world, also known as Islamic science or Arabic science, is the science developed and practised in the Islamic world during the Islamic Golden Age . During this time, Indian, Iranian and especially Greek knowledge was translated into Arabic...
. When and where he died is a matter of uncertainty.
William devoted much attention to cosmology
Cosmology (metaphysics)
Cosmology in metaphysics is the reflection on the totality of all phenomena. It contrasts with physical cosmology, the study of the origin of the universe in scientific terms after the Copernican Revolution....
and psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. Having been a student of Bernard of Chartres, he shows the characteristic Humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
, tendency towards Platonism, and taste for natural science which distinguish the "Chartrains". He is one of the first of the medieval Christian philosophers to take advantage of Islamic physical and physiological lore, to which he had access in the translations by Constantine the African
Constantine the African
Constantine the African was a Tunisian doctor of the eleventh century. The first part of his life was spent in Tunisia and the rest in Italy. In Salerno, Italy, he became a professor of medicine and his work attracted widespread attention...
.
William of St. Thierry, who had encouraged Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...
to prosecute Abelard, in another letter to Bernard attacked William's De philosophia mundi for having a modalist view of the Holy Trinity. William in consequence revised some controversial parts in the Dragmaticon.
Works
There is a good deal of discussion regarding the authorship of the works ascribed to William. It seems probable, however, that he wrote the encyclopedic De philosophia mundi (or Philosophia) and the related dialogue Dragmaticon, as well as glosses on PlatoPlato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's Timaeus
Timaeus (dialogue)
Timaeus is one of Plato's dialogues, mostly in the form of a long monologue given by the title character, written circa 360 BC. The work puts forward speculation on the nature of the physical world and human beings. It is followed by the dialogue Critias.Speakers of the dialogue are Socrates,...
, on Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius was a philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after...
's Consolation of Philosophy
Consolation of Philosophy
Consolation of Philosophy is a philosophical work by Boethius, written around the year 524. It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West on Medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great Western work that can be called Classical.-...
, on Priscian
Priscian
Priscianus Caesariensis , commonly known as Priscian, was a Latin grammarian. He wrote the Institutiones grammaticae on the subject...
's Institutiones grammaticae, and on Macrobius's Commentary on the Dream of Scipio
Dream of Scipio
The Dream of Scipio , written by Cicero, is the sixth book of De re publica, and describes a fictional dream vision of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus, set two years before he commanded at the destruction of Carthage in 146 BCE.Upon his arrival in Africa, Scipio Aemilianus is visited by his...
. He was probably also the author of a lost treatise Magna de naturis philosophia. A work on ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
, the Moralium dogma philosophorum
Moralium dogma philosophorum
Moralium dogma philosophorum is a Latin work of the 12th century. Its authorship is uncertain: it has been attributed to William of Conches, to Walter of Châtillon and to Alan of Lille...
, was attributed to him in the 1920s, but his authorship is now rejected by most scholars.
The De philosophia mundi
The De philosophia mundi is divided into four books, covering physicsPhysics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
and medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
.
William explains the world as composed of elements (elementa), which he defines as "the simplest and minimum part[s] of any body—simple in quality, minimum in quantity". He identifies the elements with the traditional four elements
Classical element
Many philosophies and worldviews have a set of classical elements believed to reflect the simplest essential parts and principles of which anything consists or upon which the constitution and fundamental powers of anything are based. Most frequently, classical elements refer to ancient beliefs...
(fire, air, water, earth) but (following Constantine the African) not as they are perceived, since as such they are neither simple in quality nor minimum in quantity: earth, for example, contains something hot, something cold, something dry and something wet at the same time. Pure elements are not to be perceived, says William, but to be grasped by reason, through an abstract division of the sensible bodies. Each of these pure elements has two of the four basic qualities: earth is cold and dry, water is cold and humid, air is hot and humid and fire is hot and dry. The perceivable elements, called elementata, are made of pure elements: the sensible earth especially of pure earth, the sensible water especially of pure water, and so on.
The discussion of meteorology includes a description of air becoming less dense and colder as the altitude increases, and William attempts to explain the circulation of the air in connection with the circulation of the oceans. The discussion of medicine deals chiefly with procreation and childbirth. This work influenced Jean de Meung, the author of the second part of the Roman de la Rose
Roman de la Rose
The Roman de la rose, , is a medieval French poem styled as an allegorical dream vision. It is a notable instance of courtly literature. The work's stated purpose is to both entertain and to teach others about the Art of Love. At various times in the poem, the "Rose" of the title is seen as the...
.
Editions
- De philosophia mundi is edited under the name of BedeBedeBede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
in Patrologia LatinaPatrologia LatinaThe Patrologia Latina is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1844 and 1855, with indices published between 1862 and 1865....
, vol. 90, and under the name of Honorius AugustodunensisHonorius AugustodunensisHonorius Augustodunensis , commonly known as Honorius of Autun, was a very popular 12th-century Christian theologian who wrote prolifically on many subjects. He wrote in a non-scholastic manner, with a lively style, and his works were approachable for the lay community in general...
in vol. 172. - Gregor Maurach, ed., Philosophia Mundi; Wilhelm von Conches: Ausgabe des 1. Buchs von Wilhelm von Conches Philosophia. Pretoria: University of South AfricaUniversity of South AfricaThe University of South Africa is a distance education university, with headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa. With approximately 300 000 enrolled students, it qualifies as one of the world's mega universities.-History:...
, 1974. - Italo Ronca, ed., Guillelmi de Conchis Dragmaticon, Corpus ChristianorumCorpus ChristianorumThe Corpus Christianorum is a major publishing undertaking of the Belgian publisher Brepols devoted to patristic and medieval Latin texts. The principal series are the Series Graeca , Series Latina , and the Continuatio Mediaevalis...
Continuatio Mediaevalis 152. Turnhout: Brepols, 1997. ISBN 2-503-04521-9 (hardback); ISBN 2-503-04522-7 (paperback) - Lodi Nauta, ed., Guillelmi de Conchis Glosae super Boetium, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 158. Turnhout: Brepols, 1999. ISBN 2-503-04581-2 (hardback); ISBN 2-503-04582-0 (paperback)
- Édouard Jeauneau, ed., Glosae super Platonem. Paris: Vrin, 1965. ISBN 2-7116-0336-9 (reprint)
- Marco Albertazzi, ed., Philosophia. Lavis: La Finestra, 2010. ISBN 978-88-95925-13-4
- Paul Edward Dutton, ed., Philosophia (Simon Fraser UniversitySimon Fraser UniversitySimon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...
, forthcoming) - Helen Rodnite Lemay, ed., Glosae super Macrobium (State University of New York at Stony BrookState University of New York at Stony BrookThe State University of New York at Stony Brook, also known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, about east of Manhattan....
, forthcoming) - Irene Caiazzo, ed., Glosae super Priscianum (CNRS, Paris, forthcoming)
Further reading
- Peter Ellard, The Sacred Cosmos: Theological, Philosophical, and Scientific Conversations in the Twelfth Century School of Chartres, University of Scranton Press, 2007
External links
- William of Conches
- http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/wmconches.htmlEtexts of De philosophia mundi and Moralium dogma philosophorum at The Latin LibraryThe Latin LibraryThe Latin Library is a website that collects public domain Latin texts. The texts have been drawn from different sources. Many were originally scanned and formatted from texts in the Public Domain. Others have been downloaded from various sites on the Internet . Most of the recent texts have been...
] - Facsimile of ljs384, a late-12th-century manuscript of De philosophia mundi