The fundamental theme of this essay is the historical-theoretical analysis of the particular conditions which characterize the speculative activity (philosophical, scientific, and theological) during the medieval period. It refers, in particular, to the notion of «paradigm», which designates a determinate speculative model, which comprises a complex, but organic constellation of convictions, values, intellectual orientations and procedures. The results have led to a working hypothesis—which can be proposed as a historiographical theory—that the complexity of the relationship between philosophical-scientific truth and religious truth is the speculative «paradigm» which strongly characterizes the entirety of medieval civilization. As a result of the shared and pervasive mental attitude which oriented Medieval thought toward the acceptance of the truths of the predominant religion, the relationship—which was dynamic, reciprocal, and not necessarily resolved in a theological sense—between rational investigation and religious belief exercised anyway a significant form of conditioning in the various spheres of scientific-rational production. Such a model is recognizable in as far as it involves some constant forms of intellectual orientation which remain in force over a lengthy period of time. Historians of thought must hold this «general paradigm» in order to assure an adequate comprehension of the philosophical output and, in general, of the directions and results of the intellectual activity between the fourth and fifteenth centuries. Therefore, one can also identify numerous «particular paradigms»—which carry out some specified and graduated effects of the «general» one—, which are distinct and diversely articulated actualizations of it, variously dominating in the diverse fields of scientific research, in the different epochs and in the manifold social and institutional situations.
Between Larissa and Damascus. Philosophical Paradigm and Medieval Tought; a Historiographical Theory
D'ONOFRIO, Giulio
2012-01-01
Abstract
The fundamental theme of this essay is the historical-theoretical analysis of the particular conditions which characterize the speculative activity (philosophical, scientific, and theological) during the medieval period. It refers, in particular, to the notion of «paradigm», which designates a determinate speculative model, which comprises a complex, but organic constellation of convictions, values, intellectual orientations and procedures. The results have led to a working hypothesis—which can be proposed as a historiographical theory—that the complexity of the relationship between philosophical-scientific truth and religious truth is the speculative «paradigm» which strongly characterizes the entirety of medieval civilization. As a result of the shared and pervasive mental attitude which oriented Medieval thought toward the acceptance of the truths of the predominant religion, the relationship—which was dynamic, reciprocal, and not necessarily resolved in a theological sense—between rational investigation and religious belief exercised anyway a significant form of conditioning in the various spheres of scientific-rational production. Such a model is recognizable in as far as it involves some constant forms of intellectual orientation which remain in force over a lengthy period of time. Historians of thought must hold this «general paradigm» in order to assure an adequate comprehension of the philosophical output and, in general, of the directions and results of the intellectual activity between the fourth and fifteenth centuries. Therefore, one can also identify numerous «particular paradigms»—which carry out some specified and graduated effects of the «general» one—, which are distinct and diversely articulated actualizations of it, variously dominating in the diverse fields of scientific research, in the different epochs and in the manifold social and institutional situations.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
