The aim of this book is to analyze the problem of the intensity of forms in the late Middle Ages and to show how this debate eventually gave rise to a new metaphysical project in the 14th century: the project of quantifying the different types of perfections existing in the universe – that is the project of “measuring being”. Cet ouvrage se propose d’analyser l’histoire du débat relatif à l’intensité des formes au Moyen Âge, et de retracer la manière dont il conduisit au XIVe siècle à l’émergence d’un projet métaphysique nouveau : celui de quantifier les perfections contenues dans l’univers et, ainsi, de “mesurer l’être”.
Early in his career, Fernand Brunner became one of the few specialists on Ibn Gabirol, a Jewish philosopher and poet in 11th-century Spain, whose treatise, the Fons vitae, is known only in Latin translation. Brunner showed the coherence of this rarely studied version of Platonism and traced its impact on the scholastic philosophy of the succeeding centuries. His work was guided by a systematic interest in Platonic solutions to such problems as the relations of matter and form, and of God to the world. This volume includes a number of previously unpublished papers, several of which also provide broad expositions of a Platonic ontology. The author makes his reader aware that arguments as well as images must be taken seriously in the attempt to approach the Platonic tradition. Dès le début de sa carrière, Fernand Brunner est rapidement devenu l’un des rares spécialistes d’Ibn Gabirol, le poète philosophe juif espagnol du 11e siècle - dont le traité, le Fons vitæ, n’est connu qu’en version latine. Guidé dans ses recherches par un intérêt systématique pour les solutions platoniciennes aux problèmes des rapports entre la forme et la matière, et entre Dieu et le monde, Brunner a démontré la cohérence de cette interprétation rarement étudiée du platonisme et en a retracé l’effet sur la philosophie scolastique des siècles suivants. Ce volume comprend plusieurs exposés inédits traitant de l’ontologie platonicienne dont la compréhension, selon Brunner, est essentielle à tout historien de la philosophie. L’auteur fait prendre conscience à ses lecteurs de l’importance des arguments, tout comme des métaphores, dans toute tentative d’approche de la tradition platonique.
This book presents classical philosophical sources on value as well as readings that show how this concept shapes central issues and domains of economics, culture and knowledge, thus shedding a light on a key concept of the globalized work.
The present volume is a continuation of the series Contemporary Philosophy. As with the earlier volumes in the series, the present Chronicles purport to give a survey of significant trends in contemporary philosophy. The need for such surveys has, I believe, increased rather than decreased over the years. The philosophical scene appears, for various reasons, more complex than ever before. The continuing process of specialization in most branches, the increasing contact between p- losophers from various cultures, the emergence of new schools of thought, particularly in philosophical logic and in the philosophy of language and ethics, and the increasing attention being paid to the h- tory of philosophy in discussions of contemporary problems, are the most important contributing factors. Surveys of the present kind are a valuable source of knowledge of this complexity. The surveys may therefore help to strengthen the Socratic element of modern philosophy, the intercultural dialogue or Kommunikationsgemeinschaft. So far, nine volumes have been published in this series, viz. P- losophy of Language and Philosophical Logic (Volume 1), Philosophy of Science (Volume 2), Philosophy of Action (Volume 3), Philosophy of Mind (Volume 4), African Philosophy (Volume 5), Medieval Age P- losophy (Volumes 6/1 and 6/2), Asian Philosophy (Volume 7), Philo- phy of Latin America (Volume 8), and Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art (Volume 9).
