Medieval Europe · c. 1240–c. 1284 (born 1235–40, died 1281–84)
Siger of Brabant
Radical Aristotelian master at the Paris arts faculty
Following Averroes, he argued that Aristotle’s principles imply one intellect for all humans and an eternal world, while professing that faith teaches otherwise. Dante placed him in Paradise beside Aquinas, his critic.
Life and thought
Siger of Brabant was born between 1235 and 1240 in the Low Countries and taught in the arts faculty at Paris from the 1260s. He read Aristotle with the help of Averroes’ commentaries and followed the argument where it led, even against Christian doctrine. His teaching was among the targets of the bishop of Paris’s condemnations of 1270 and 1277; summoned by the inquisitor, he left Paris and died at the papal court in Orvieto in the early 1280s, reportedly killed by his secretary.
Siger argued that, read correctly, Aristotle implies one intellect shared by all humans and a world without beginning, while professing that faith teaches otherwise and is true. Aquinas answered him in 1270 with On the Unity of the Intellect, insisting that it is this man who thinks, and Siger later moved partly toward Aquinas’s view. His opponents accused the “Averroists” of holding a “double truth”, which they denied. Dante nonetheless placed Siger in Paradise, introduced by Aquinas himself.
Works
Shaped by
1126–1198Ibn Rushd (Averroes)Córdoban judge, known in Europe simply as “the Commentator”384–322 BCEAristotlePlato’s student, Alexander’s tutor, founder of the LyceumCriticised by
1225–1274Thomas AquinasAquinas wrote On the Unity of the Intellect (1270) against Siger and the Paris Averroists.Meanwhile, in other traditions
1200–1253DōgenJapanese monk who founded Sōtō Zen1207–1273Jalāl al-Dīn RūmīPersian poet and Sufi teacher in Konya1238–1317 (some sources: 1199–1278)MadhvaFounder of Dvaita, the dualist school of VedāntaOn the record
Siger wrote the Questions on the Third Book of On the Soul about 1269 and On the Intellective Soul about 1273.
The Questions survive as a student’s report of his lectures, which Van Steenberghen dated to 1269–70, before Aquinas’s On the Unity of the Intellect (1270); it is his most openly Averroist work. On the Intellective Soul is usually placed in 1272–73, after Aquinas’s attack, and moves partly toward Aquinas’s reading. Siger’s own dates are only approximate: born between 1235 and 1240, died between 1281 and 1284.
Sources: Encyclopædia Universalis, “Siger de Brabant” · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Influence of Arabic and Islamic Philosophy on the Latin West”