(i) Abelard
Pierre Abelard (1079-1142), Frenchman. He learned from the logician Roserin, the realist William of Xiangpu, and Anselm of Laon. He became a theological teacher at the episcopal school of Notre-Dame de Paris in 1115 and was enthusiastically welcomed by his students.
Notre-Dame Bishop Firmer arranged for Abelard to be his niece Eloise (1101-1164), who was both talented and beautiful. Abelard fell in love with Eloise and later eloped together, and after giving birth to their son Astraebus, he married Abelard. However, their relationship angered Firmer, who hired men to attack and castrate Abelard. In 1118, Elois was sent to a convent as a nun and Abelard became a monk.
In 1136 he returned to Paris to teach at the Cathedral School. The synod of Bishops of Sens, convened in 1140, condemned his doctrine. Benard wrote an article entitled "The Mistake of Abelard", listing his sixteen counts. The Pope condemned his doctrine as heretical. He fell ill and died. His body was given to Eloise for burial.
The love letters between Abelard and Eloise have survived and have become literary classics.
(b) Nothing can be believed except to be understood.
His Logical Progress and Dialectics focus on Aristotle's Interpretation, Categories, and Boetheus's five works. Philosophically, it adopts conceptual theory, which opposes both extreme realism and extreme nominalism, and believes that co-existence is a concept that exists in the human mind to express the commonality of things. In his first work, Introduction to Theology, he proposed that faith should be based on reason, in response to Anselm's theory of "belief before understanding". - "Nothing can be believed except to be understood first." In Yes or No, he says, "By doubting we enter into inquiry, and through inquiry we discover truth." ”
The primary task of dialectics is not to prove and explain, but to explore and criticize. Dialectics can be applied to theology because of the uncertainty in faith. "Truth does not oppose truth" is the slogan used to reconcile dialectics with faith, philosophy and theology.
(3) The Jews crucified Jesus without sin
In the book "Self-Knowledge", it is emphasized that motives determine the good and evil of actions, and that God considers human intentions, and that the actions themselves do not matter whether they are good or bad. Sin consists in approving what we consider to be evil—being willing to do what we know to be wrong—and therefore an activity of free will. In other words, morality is a matter of conscience. As long as the actor's actions are consistent with his conscience and with what he believes to be right, he may make a mistake, but he cannot commit a crime. But the actor's actions are truly virtuous only when he thinks that what is right is right, when his subjective beliefs are consistent with the objectively correct principles.
The Jews crucified Jesus, but the Jews thought they were doing the right thing and acting in harmony with their conscience, so they were only making mistakes, not sinning.
The cemetery of Abelard and Eloise in Paris
(4) Abelard and Eloise
In 1164, Eloise died and was buried beside Abelard. In 1817, their bodies were buried together in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. Abelard is undoubtedly one of the most personal and legendary figures among medieval philosophers. He was a victim of asceticism and ideological absolutism.