Marsilius of Inghen(1340–1396)
Marsilius of Inghen was a scholastic theologian, writer on logical textbooks, and prolific commentator on Aristotle. He played an important role in the foundation of the University of Heidelberg. His significance rests not only on his commentaries on Aristotle—his advocacy and popularization of the new, nominalist logic and semantics—but also on an independent-minded theology that sometimes rejected post-Scotistic positions in favor of thirteenth-century positions (such as those of Thomas Aquinas or Bonaventure).
Marsilius of Inghen was a student at Paris, matriculating there in Arts in 1362, and then in Theology in 1366. At Paris, he was influenced by the thought of John Buridan, and he undertook significant administrative work, including rectorships (1367–68, 1371) as well as representation to the Papal court (1369, 1377–78). Marsilius's whereabouts are largely unknown between 1379 and the founding of the University of Heidelberg in 1386—except, that is, for a Nijmegen banquet he attended in 1382. From 1386 to 1392, he was a Master at Heidelberg—and was also an occasional Rector—up until his death in 1396 (Hoenen 1993, pp. 7–11; Santos Noya, 2000, Vol. 87, pp. 1–26).
He read the Sentences (the standard requirements to become a Master of Theology) from 1392 to 1394. Part of the preparation for this commentary was most likely done in Paris from 1367 to 1377. (Hoenen and Braakhuis 1993, pp. 39–57; Santos Noya 2000, Vol. 87, pp. 31–32).
Marsilius was a nominalist on universals. Like Ockham and Buridan he did not believe that universals exist outside the soul, and that the direct object of each science is merely the proposition in the mind. Real objects, he believed, are the objects of sciences via the signification of the proposition. Marsilius's logic and semantics can be described reliably as Buridanist, albeit with some points of dissent and less detail. As well, he differed from Buridan on the division of supposition, the signification of chimera, his definitions of ampliatio and appellatio, and his non-adoption of suppositio naturalis (Bos 1983, p. 254).
Marsilius's natural philosophy is empiricist; he holds that the starting point of natural philosophy is sense data and per se known principles. From this point he then leaps from singular observations to a universal proposition if there is no expectation of a counterexample—due to the mind's inclination to truth. Thus, a causal connection can be held to be universal, though one has not experienced all its instances.
In his theology, he criticized both the Scotistic position that the Divine Ideas are formally distinct from the Divine Essence, and the Ockhamist thesis that the Ideas are identical with the objects that are known. He held the Thomistic theses that God's Ideas of created things are not distinct from his essence and that the difference between the divine attributes exists only in the human mind due to its finitude. He also held that natural reason can prove that God is the cause of all and knows created things. Marsilius brought together the critical semantico-logical tradition of the fourteenth century and the themes of thirteenth century theologians such as Aquinas and Bonaventure (Hoenen 1993, pp. 235–253).
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, he was regarded as a great advocate of nominalism, and grouped with Buridan, Ockham and Gregory of Rimini. His logical treatises exist in many manuscripts, and were widely used as textbooks in the fifteenth century. His theology of grace and divine foreknowledge was well known and quoted by late-scholastic writers such as Vitoria, De Soto, Molina, and Suarez. His Aristotelian commentaries were also well known and cited up to the early-modern period. For example, both Leonardo da Vinci and Gallileo Galilei refer to his commentary on Aristotle's De Generatione et Corruptione.
Buridan, John; Thomas Aquinas, St.; William of Ockham.
Bibliography
Works by Marsilius of Inghen
Quaestiones super quattuor libros Sententiarum. Super primum quaestiones 1–7 and 8–21, edited by Manuel Santos Noya, et al. (Studies in the History of Christian Thought, vols. 87–88.) Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1999–.
Treatises on the Properties of Terms. A first critical edition of the Suppositiones, Ampliationes, Apellationes, Restrictiones and Alienationes, with introduction, translation, notes, and appendices by Egbert P. Bos. (Synthese Historical Library, vol. 22.) Dordrecht, Netherlands: D. Reidel, 1983.
Works About Marsilius of Inghen
Braakhuis, H. A. G., and Maarten J. F. M. Hoenen, eds. Marsilius von Inghen. Acts of the International Marsilius of Inghen Symposium. Nijmegen, Netherlands: Ingenium, 1992.
Hoenen, Maarten J. F. M. Marsilius of Inghen: Divine Knowledge in Late Medieval Thought. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1993.
Hoenen, Maarten J. F. M., and Paul J. J. M. Baakker, eds. Philosophie und Theologie des ausgehenden Mittelalters: Marsilius von Inghen und das Denken seiner Zeit. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2000.
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