Peter Abelard Quotes on Knowledge
Peter Abelard (1079–1142), the most original French logician and theologian of the early twelfth century, gave the period its sharpest contributions to the problem of universals in the Logica Ingredientibus and the Glosses on Porphyry and to the methodology of theology in the Sic et Non (Yes and No, c. 1120). The conceptualist position on universals — words signify real common natures only through the mental abstraction by which the intellect constructs the corresponding concepts from the resemblances of particulars — frames Abelard's broader epistemological programme, and the Sic et Non systematizes the dialectical procedure of juxtaposing the strongest patristic authorities on each side of the disputed questions of theology so that rational analysis can resolve them.
Quotes
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“By doubting we are led to inquiry, and by inquiry we discern the truth.”
I have ventured to bring together various dicta of the holy fathers, as they came to mind, and to formulate certain questions which were suggested by the seeming contradictions in the statements. These questions ought to serve to excite tender readers to a zealous inquiry into truth and so sharpen their wits. The master key of knowledge is, indeed, a persistent and frequent questioning. Aristotle -
“The first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning.”
I have ventured to bring together various dicta of the holy fathers, as they came to mind, and to formulate certain questions which were suggested by the seeming contradictions in the statements. These questions ought to serve to excite tender readers to a zealous inquiry into truth and so sharpen their wits. The master key of knowledge is, indeed, a persistent and frequent questioning. Aristotle -
Attributed to Peter Abelard:
“I have learnt that the name of philosopher signifies a lover of wisdom.”
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“Bonam quippe intentionem, hoc est, rectam in se dicimus, operationem vero non quod boni aliquid in se suscipiat, sed quod ex bona intentione procedat. Unde et ab eodem homine cum in diversis temporibus idem fiat, pro diversitate tamen intentione eius operatio modo bono modo mala dicitur.”
In fact we say that an intention is good, that is, right in itself, but that an action does not bear any good in itself but proceeds from a good intention. Whence when the same thing is done by the same man at different times, by the diversity of his intention, however, his action is now said to be good, now bad. Ethica, seu Scito Teipsum , Bk. 1; translation by D E Luscombe from Peter Abelard's E -
“O quanta qualia sunt illa sabbata, quae semper celebrat superna curia.”
How mighty are the Sabbaths, How mighty and how deep, That the high courts of heaven To everlasting keep. "Sabbato ad Vesperas", line 1; translation from Helen Waddell Mediaeval Latin Lyrics ( 1933) p. 163 -
“The purpose and cause of the incarnation was that He might illuminate the world by His wisdom and excite it to the love of Himself.”
As quoted in "The Abelardian Doctrine Of The Atonement" (1892), published in Doctrine and Development : University Sermons (1898) by Hastings Rashdall, p. 138 -
“Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom … For through doubting we are led to inquire, and by inquiry we perceive the truth .”
Sic et Non(1120) | Prologue as translated in A History of Education During the Middle Ages and the Transition to Modern Times (1918) by Frank Pierrepont Graves; 2005 edition, p. 53 -
“Q3 Is there any knowledge of things unseen, or not?”
Sic et Non(1120)