The Intercultural Roots of Early Scholasticism: Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Latin

The late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries represent a dynamic period in Western intellectual history. These were years, before Aristotle’s works were fully digested, during which philosophical works written in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic were becoming available in Latin for the first time, skewing understanding of Aristotle considerably and introducing themes into Latin thought in their own right. The proposed workshop seeks to better understand the phenomenon of the confluence of Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic sources that influenced early scholastic interpretations of Aristotle as well as Latin authorities like Augustine by investigating more closely those sources and the phenomenon of their transmission into Latin. In this connection, papers will be offered on various aspects of the Greek/Arabic/Hebrew tradition that had an influence on early scholastic thought particularly in the late twelfth and first half of the thirteenth century.