The Latin classics and patristic literature carried the name Socrates in the early Middle Ages, a virtuous, wise man, master of Plato and condemned to death by Athenian democracy. Aristotle's works, translated into Latin, especially from the end of the 13th century onwards, conveyed information on Socratic doctrine, often to criticise it. Albert the Great, a German Dominican, studied both traditions and, deepening the study of Stoic and Platonic philosophy, came to identify the reasons for their mutual convergence. Socrates, for Albert the Great, thus becomes the founder, ante litteram, of Stoicism: the Socratic doctrine of reminiscence constitutes a fundamental presupposition of the Stoic theorem of the divine nature of human reason.
Socrates, "princeps stoicorum," in Albert the Great's middle ages
Nadia Bray
2019-01-01
Abstract
The Latin classics and patristic literature carried the name Socrates in the early Middle Ages, a virtuous, wise man, master of Plato and condemned to death by Athenian democracy. Aristotle's works, translated into Latin, especially from the end of the 13th century onwards, conveyed information on Socratic doctrine, often to criticise it. Albert the Great, a German Dominican, studied both traditions and, deepening the study of Stoic and Platonic philosophy, came to identify the reasons for their mutual convergence. Socrates, for Albert the Great, thus becomes the founder, ante litteram, of Stoicism: the Socratic doctrine of reminiscence constitutes a fundamental presupposition of the Stoic theorem of the divine nature of human reason.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
