Epicureanism and the death of the soul in the high middle ages
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Epicureanism and the Death of the Soul in the High Middle Ages demonstrates that from the twelfth to the fourteenth century discussion and debates about the death of the human soul took place from the highest to the lowest social levels of Latin Christendom. The evidence examined reveals that the discussion tended to focus upon the moral consequences of holding that the human soul died with the body. Epicurus's famed mortalism, coupled with his ethic based on pleasure made him and his philosophy a touchstone within medieval conversations about these issues. In many sources, a belief that affirming the death of the soul would lead to amoral behavior on the part of mortalists is on display, as is the fear that the presence of contemporary mortalists—often branded "Epicureans"—would threaten key aspects of medieval society, such as politics, the church, and the universities. The sources analyzed exhibit a fear that new social, institutional, and economic developments taking place from the twelfth to the fourteenth century were leading their contemporaries to abandon the Christian faith and embrace a "worldly" and/or "carnal" life. The sources further show that Dante's decision to condemn Epicurus and all those who embraced his teachings in his Inferno X triggered a debate among early humanists that led to a renewed interest in the ancient Greek philosopher.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2022; ©2022 |
| Publication date | 2022; 2022 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Bacich, Christopher George |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Findlen, Paula |
| Thesis advisor | Findlen, Paula |
| Thesis advisor | Dorin, Rowan |
| Thesis advisor | Griffiths, Fiona J |
| Degree committee member | Dorin, Rowan |
| Degree committee member | Griffiths, Fiona J |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of History |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Christopher G. Bacich. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of History. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/mc187zd7213 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2022 by Christopher George Bacich
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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