Introduction to Philosophy

The quiz question today was - what did you think of the Ontological Argument? Did you think it was persuasive? We went over Anselm's Ontological Argument. I take the position that it is a winning argument. See Kurt Godel for a more contemporary approach. I then did a quick review of some famous Medieval Philosophers or reformers: Abelard (and Heloise) - Stealing Heaven Saint Frances - Brother Sun Sister Moon Hildegaard von Bingen who we have in the text. William of Occam who we will discuss next week. I argued that Boethius - the last Roman - wasn't really the last Roman in criticism of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. We looked at Moses Maimonides who influenced Aquinas by aiding the introduction of Aristotle's thought into the west. And we began looking at Aquinas.