Bernard of Chartres

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Bernard of Chartres (Bernardus Carnotensis) (d. 1125 ^[1][2]) was a twelfth-century French Neo-Platonist philosopher, scholar, and administrator. The date and place of his birth are unknown, although it is believed that he was of Breton origin. He is thought to have been the elder brother of Thierry of Chartres.

Bernard is recorded at the cathedral school of Chartres before 1117 and was chancellor until 1124.

Contents 1 Sources 2 Doctrines 2.1 Metaphysics 2.2 Cosmology 3 Works 4 References 5 Further reading

[edit] Sources

Gilbert de la Porrée and William of Conches were students of his, and most of what we know about his work comes through their writings, as well as the writings of John of Salisbury. According to John of Salisbury, Bernard composed a prose treatise De expositione Porphyrii, a metrical treatise on the same subject, a moral poem on education, and probably a fourth work in which he sought to reconcile Plato with Aristotle. Fragments of these treatises are to be found in John's Metalogicon (IV, 35) and Policraticus (VII, 3).^[3] Hauréau^[4] confounds Bernard of Chartres with Bernard Silvester, and assigns to the former works which are to be ascribed to the latter.

The earliest attribution of the phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants" is to Bernard (by John of Salisbury):

"We are like dwarfs standing [or sitting] upon the shoulders of giants, and so able to see more and see farther than the ancients."

[edit] Doctrines

Bernard, in common with others of his school, devoted more attention to the study of the Timaeus and the works of the Neo-Platonists than to the study of Aristotle's dialectical treatises and the commentaries of Boethius. Consequently, he not only discussed the problem of universals (distinguishing between the abstract, the process, and the concrete—exemplified, for instance, by the Latin words albedo, albet, and album) but also occupied himself with problems of metaphysics and cosmology.

[edit] Metaphysics

According to Bernard, there are three categories of reality: God, matter, and idea. God is supreme reality. Matter was brought out of nothingness by God's creative act and is the element which, in union with Ideas, constitutes the world of sensible things. Ideas are the prototypes by means of which the world was from all eternity present to the Divine Mind; they constitute the world of Providence ("in qua omnia semel et simul fecit Deus"), and are eternal but not coeternal with God. According to John of Salisbury, Bernard also taught that there exist native forms—copies of the Ideas created with matter—which are alone united with matter. It is difficult, however, to determine what was Bernard's doctrine on this point. It is sufficient to note that he reproduced in his metaphysical doctrines many of the characteristic traits of Platonism and Neo-Platonism: the intellect as the habitat of Ideas, the world-soul, eternal matter, matter as the source of imperfection, etc.

[edit] Cosmology

Bernard argued that matter, although caused by God, existed from all eternity. In the beginning, before its union with the Ideas, it was in a chaotic condition. It was by means of the native forms, which penetrate matter, that distinction, order, regularity, and number were introduced into the universe.

[edit] Works

• P.E. Dutton discussed the attribution of the commentary Glosae super Platonem in a publication in 1984 (see P.E. Dutton, Medieval Studies XLVI [1984]).
• De expositione Porphyrii

[edit] References

1. ^ "Bernard Sylvester of Chartres". Catholic Encyclopedia.
2. ^ Turner, William (1903). History of Philosophy. Boston: The Athenaeum Press. 
3. ^ Migne, Patrologia Latina, Vol. CXLIX, coll. 938 and 666.
4. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia, I, 408

[edit] Further reading

• Jeauneau, Edouard. (1970). "Bernard of Chartres". Dictionary of Scientific Biography 2: 19-20. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

This article is part of the Medieval Philosophers series

Augustine of Hippo | Boëthius | John Scotus Eriugena | Rhazes | Roscelin | Avicenna | Algazel | Anselm of Canterbury | Bernard of Chartres | Peter Abélard | Gilbert de la Porrée | Hugh of St. Victor | Richard of St. Victor | Maimonides | Alexander of Hales | Averroës | Alain de Lille | Robert Grosseteste | Albertus Magnus | Roger Bacon | Bonaventure | Thomas Aquinas | Ramon Llull | Godfrey of Fontaines | Henry of Ghent | Giles of Rome | John Duns Scotus | William of Ockham | Jean Buridan | Nicole Oresme | George Gemistos Plethon | Johannes Bessarion | Francisco de Vitoria