Étienne Tempier
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Étienne Tempier (French:
Life
Born in
He served as bishop of Paris from 7 October 1268 until his death on 3 September 1279. Tempier had been a master in the faculty of theology.
Condemnations
In 1270 Tempier, encouraged by
On 7 March 1277, Tempier expanded the number of condemned doctrines to 219. He was assisted by a commission of theologians from the University. Henry of Ghent sat on Tempier's episcopal commission (assessores episcopi) of sixteen masters, which produced the syllabus of 219 propositions condemned by Tempier on 7 March 1277. The condemnations against Aristotelianism in Paris involved Giles of Rome, Siger of Brabant, the arts faculty, and certain doctrines of Thomas Aquinas.[5] The forty-ninth item on the list was the assertion that God is incapable of moving the universe because it implies the existence of a void.[6]
Tempier also overturned Aristotle on one point: God could have created more than one world (given His omnipotence) yet we know by revelation He made only one. Tempier's stress on God's omnipotence also opened up all kinds of possibilities for the understanding of the cosmos. In his effort to defend the abilities and unique rights of the Creator, Tempier's propositions led to the new approach taken to understand the workings of celestial and terrestrial bodies. By rejecting that astral bodies were animated, incorruptible and eternal, refuting the idea that their motion was the result of something comparable to animal desires and denying that stars had any influence over individuals, he showed that Christians were prepared to refute Aristotle's world view along with some basic assumptions held by Greek learning.
It is not clear what Tempier's intentions were in issuing this condemnation. Nevertheless, scholars have written that "the Parisian Condemnation of 1277 is symbolic of an intellectual crisis in the University. It is indicative of fundamental shifts in speculative thought and cultural perception which occurred in the late 13th century, which portend aspects of modern thought."[7]
Opposition to and repeal
Tempier's prohibitions did not curtail the free discussion of
See also
References
- ISBN 90-70265-40-0.
- ^ a b de Wulf, Maurice (1951). History of Mediæval Philosophy. New York: Nelson. p. 356.
- ISBN 0-15-603009-8.
- ISBN 0-8018-8401-2.
- ISBN 0-415-05377-3.
- ^ W.W. Norton & Company, 2000, pg. 102.
- ISBN 3-11-016933-9.
Sources
- Bernd Goebel (2003). "Tempier, Étienne (Stephanus von Orléans)". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 22. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1332–1339. ISBN 3-88309-133-2.
- Economist.com: "Millennium issue: The church and science" (in English)
- Philosophy Pages: Scholasticism's End (in English)
- Lettres d'Étienne Tempier, évêque de Paris, datées de 1277
- Hans Thijssen (2003) "Condemnation of 1277". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy(Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).