Medieval thinker’s ideas about order and chaos

  • Alexandr Kulik Oles Honchar Dnipro National University
Keywords: Order, Chaos, History of Philosophy, History of medieval philosophy

Abstract

The analysis and systematization of medieval thinker’s ideas about order and chaos are made. It is stated that in Middle Ages the majority of authors declared order to be necessary existence condition of any thing or phenomenon. The idea of ordering was used to corroborate Christianity postulate about the omnipotence of God and other dogmata. It is grounded that nearly all the thinkers of Middle Ages spoke about divine origin of order. It is shown that in Medieval Philosophy the attitude of denying even the slightest possibility of chaos existing was domineering (Origen, Saint Anselm of Canterbury, John Duns Scotus, etc). Many medieval authors (such as Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius) justify the presence in Philosophy ideas about existing of inordinate with mistakes in thinking. It is argued that a number of medieval thinkers conceded possibility of chaos existing (Bernard Silvestris, Ramon Lull, etc). Saint Thomas Aquinas’s reflections concerning “disorder of human will”, Meister Eckhart’s words about “disorderly love”, and Heinrich Suso’s criticism of “ disordered life” are analyzed. Two philosophical strategies that are offered by medieval thinkers towards disorder are pointed out: A strategy of rational ordering of disorder (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Bernard Silvestris, etc) and a strategy of delimitation a person from chaos (Ramon Lull)

Author Biography

Alexandr Kulik, Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

PhD., Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy of the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

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Published
2014-04-29
How to Cite
Kulik, A. (2014). Medieval thinker’s ideas about order and chaos. IDEAS. PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC ISSUES, (1(3), 37-45. Retrieved from https://ideas.academyjournal.org/index.php/IDEI/article/view/59
Section
History of Philosophy