Hartford, Connecticut, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
History of Western Philosophy
  •  192
  •  136
    The rediscovery of Peter Abelard's philosophy
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 44 (3): 331-351. 2006.
    My article surveys philosophical discussions of Abelard over the last twenty years. Although Abelard has been a well-known figure for centuries, his most important logical works were published only in the twentieth century and, so I argue, the rediscovery of him as an important philosopher is recent and continuing. I concentrate especially on work that shows Abelard as the re-discoverer of propositional logic (Chris Martin); as a subtle explorer of problems about modality (Simo Knuuttila, Herber…Read more
  •  98
    This book examines the medieval tradition of Aristotelian logic from two perspectives.
  •  94
    The Oxford Handbook to Medieval Philosophy (edited book)
    Oxford Up. 2011.
    This Handbook is intended to show the links between the philosophy written in the Middle Ages and that being done today.
  •  92
    Divine prescience and contingency in Boethius's Consolation of philosophy
    Rivista di Storia Della Filosofia 68 (1): 9-21. 2013.
  •  75
    Boethius
    Oxford University Press. 2003.
    This book offers a brief, accessible introduction to the thought of Boethius. After a survey of Boethius's life and work, Marenbon explicates his theological method, and devotes separate chapters to his arguments about good and evil, fortune, fate and free will, and the problem of divine foreknowledge. Marenbon also traces Boethius's influence on the work of such thinkers as Aquinas and Duns Scotus.
  •  74
    Abelard, Ens and Unity
    Topoi 11 (2): 149-158. 1992.
    Although Abelard arrived at a view ofens nearer to Aristotle''s than his sources would suggest, unlike thirteenth-century thinkers he did not work out a view of transcendentals in terms ofens, its attributes and their convertibility. He did, however, regard unity (though not goodness or truth) as an attribute of every thing. At first, Abelard suggested that unity, being inseparable, could not be an accident according to Porphyry''s definition (that which can come and leave a subject without the …Read more
  •  73
    Boethius and the Problem of Paganism
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 78 (2): 329-348. 2004.
    “Problem of paganism” is my name for the set of questions raised for medieval thinkers and writers, and discussed by some of them (Abelard, Dante, and Langland are eminent examples), by the fact that many people—especially philosophers—from antiquity were, they believed, monotheists, wise and virtuous and yet pagans. In this paper, I argue that Boethius, though a Christian, was himself too much part of the world of classical antiquity to pose the problem of paganism, but that his Consolation of …Read more
  •  71
    Introduction to Medieval Philosophy combines and updates the scholarship of the two highly successful volumes Early Medieval Philosophy (1983) and Late Medieval Philosoph y (1986) in a single, reliable, and comprehensive text on the history of medieval philosophy. John Marenbon discusses the main philosophers and ideas within the social and intellectual contexts of the time, and the most important concepts in medieval philosophy. Straightforward in arrangement, wide in scope, and clear in style,…Read more
  •  63
    Peter Abelard: Collationes (edited book)
    with Giovanni Orlandi
    Clarendon Press. 2001.
    Peter Abelard was one of the most influential writers and thinkers of the twelfth century, famed for his skill in logic as well as his romance with Heloise. His Collationes - or Dialogue between a Christian, a Philosopher, and a Jew - is remarkable for the boldness of its conception and thought.
  •  61
    Abelard’s Changing Thoughts on Sameness and Difference in Logic and Theology
    American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 81 (2): 229-250. 2007.
    The discussion of sameness and difference in the three versions of the Theologia has been analyzed by a number of recent writers. Despite some disagreements, they concur that Abelard’s views are best expressed in the Theologia christiana and that he is putting forward a theory that—perhaps adapted—can help philosophers now in considering the material constitution of objects. By contrast, I argue that his views, which should be seen as developing and reaching their final form in the Theologia “sc…Read more
  •  59
    The philosophy of Peter Abelard
    Cambridge University Press. 1997.
    This book offers a major reassessment of the philosophy of Peter Abelard (1079-1142) which argues that he was not, as usually presented, a predominantly critical thinker but a constructive one. By way of evidence the author offers new analyses of frequently discussed topics in Abelard's philosophy, and examines other areas such as the nature of substances and accidents, cognition, the definition of 'good' and 'evil', virtues and merit, and practical ethics in detail for the first time. The book …Read more
  •  45
    Later Medieval Philosophy (1150-1350) provides an introduction to philosophy in the Latin West between 1150 and 1350. Part I describes the medieval thinker's intellectual and historical context, by examining the structure of courses in the medieval universities, the methods of teaching, the forms of written work, and the translation and availability of ancient Greek, Arab, and Jewish philosophical texts. Part II examines the nature of intellectual knowledge by explaining the arguments given by A…Read more
  •  38
    Anicius manlius severinus Boethius
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.
  •  32
    Aquinas
    International Philosophical Quarterly 45 (4): 495-496. 2005.
  •  30
    Why Study Medieval Philosophy?
    In Marcel Ackeren, Theo Kobusch & Jörn Müller (eds.), Warum Noch Philosophie?: Historische, Systematische Und Gesellschaftliche Positionen, De Gruyter. pp. 65-78. 2011.
  •  28
    This study is the first modern account of the development of philosophy during the Carolingian Renaissance. In the late eighth century, Dr Marenbon argues, theologians were led by their enthusiasm for logic to pose themselves truly philosophical questions. The central themes of ninth-century philosophy - essence, the Aristotelian Categories, the problem of Universals - were to preoccupy thinkers throughout the Middle Ages. The earliest period of medieval philosophy was thus a formative one. This…Read more
  •  27
    The specialized essays in this collection study whether non-Aristotelian traditions of ancient logic had a role for medieval logicians. Special attention is given to Stoic logic and semantics, and to Neoplatonism.
  •  27
    Relations and the Historiography of Medieval Philosophy
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 24 (3): 387-404. 2016.
    This is the first special issue of the British Journal of the History of Philosophy to be devoted to the thought of the Middle Ages. Its topic is relations. The articles have been chosen to give an...
  •  20
    The Cambridge Companion to Boethius (edited book)
    Cambridge University Press. 2009.
    Boethius, though a Christian, worked in the tradition of the Neoplatonic schools, with their strong interest in Aristotelian logic and Platonic metaphysics. He is best known for his Consolation of Philosophy, which he wrote in prison awaiting execution. His works also include a long series of logical translations, commentaries and monographs and some short but densely-argued theological treatises, all of which were enormously influential on medieval thought. But Boethius was more than a writer w…Read more
  •  20
    Boèce, Porphyre et les variétés de l’abstractionnisme
    Laval Théologique et Philosophique 68 (1): 9-20. 2012.
    According to Alain de Libera, Boethius replies to Porphyry’s famous three questions about universals by using a theory of abstraction. Universals can exist only in thought, although they derive, through abstraction, from what is common in things. I contrast this “neutral abstractionism” with a “realist abstractionism” — the view that it is only by conceiving universals that humans are able properly to grasp the form or likeness according to which particulars belong to a given species or genus. I…Read more
  •  19
    What should you know about medieval philosophy?
    The Philosophers' Magazine 60 38-43. 2013.
  •  18
    Medieval philosophy (edited book)
    Routledge. 1998.
    Combining the latest scholarship with fresh perspectives on this complex and rapidly changing area of research, this work considers the rich traditions of medieval Arab, Jewish and Latin philosophy. Experts in the field provide comprehensive analyses of the key areas of medieval philosophy and its most influential figures, including: Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides, Eriugena, Anselm, Abelard, Grosseteste, Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus, Peter Aureoli, William of Ockham, Wyclif, Suarez, and …Read more