Dear Organlearners,
Greetings to all of you.
Universities are dear to me. Some are still "organisations for learning",
although i know of no one which is a Sengian "learning organisation".
Sadly, many has become degraded into "organisations for information
mongering".
The first two universities ever were those of Bologna in Italy (ca 1158)
and Paris in France (ca 1160). Official recognition of them by charter
were given in 1253 to U Bologna and 1256 to U Paris. We may think that
universities just sprung up because of necessity. But how did people
become aware that universities were necessary? Some persons had to set the
example that profound learning were far better than off-hand tradition or
sheer ignorance.
One such a person was Peter Abelard (1079-1142). Fellow learners may find
a translation of Abelard's own vivid account of his life "Historia
Calamitatum -- The Story of My Misfortunes" at
< http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/abelard-histcal.html >
A shorter account may be found in the Catholic Encyclopaedia at
< http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01036b.htm >
By the way, the site
< http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html >
has a fantastic collection of source books from ancient, medieval and
modern history. For example, since I had read that Roger Bacon in
medieval times recommended that both the Greek Aristotle and the
Arab Averroes should be studied, I tried in vain to get hold of any of
Averroes' writings. This site has a translation of Averroes' (Ibn Rushd,
1126-1198)
"Religion & Philosophy" (c. 1190 CE)
< http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1190averroes.html >
Abelard was born close to Nantes in France as the eldest son of a noble
family. Already as a boy he had a passion for learning rather than
following a career typical to his birth. He sought to solidify his
experiences in the teaching of Rocellin and the books which he had. He
began to wander daringly from school to school, seeking exercise and
instruction, reading whatever manuscripts he could lay his hands upon.
(Remember that it was before the invention of the printing press so that
books were very rare.) Before the age of twenty, already a learned person,
he came to Paris at the cathedral school of Notre Dame to benefit from the
teaching of William of Champeaux, a realist.
He soon stepped forward and overcome his celebrated master in dialectical
discussions, thus creating many followers and his first enemy. He sought a
position of reason between realism and nominalism. Dialectic (the name for
logic in medieval times, not Hegel's dialecticism) had to be grounded in
universals rather than copying scholars of the past (nominalism) or
invoking unsubstantiated claims of the present (realism). He strove to
advance the scope and utility of Aristotelian logic as a science. It need
not only be the science of disputation, but can also be the science of
discovery by examining with reason the information obtained in studies of
nature. In this he reminds me much of Roger Bacon.
In competition to William he established a school at Melun which he soon
moved to Corbeil near Paris. His lectures were attended by crowds of
students. In simple language, but with rich grace of exposition, he won
thousands of converts. He stressed that learning cannot be enslaved to
nominalism nor realism, but that it has to follow a wholesome growing
path. Thousands of students from many countries flocked around him to hear
what he had to say. This fuelled his vanity. Meanwhile several envious
teachers began to plan his demise. They eventually found the following
opportunity.
The cannon Fulbert of Notre Dame took care of his young, fair and
intelligent niece Heloise, born in 1101. She already had mastered Latin,
Greek and Hebrew when she went to listen to Abelard's teachings. They fell
in love without the knowledge or consent of Fulbert. Abelard became a
regular visitor to the household. When she found herself pregnant, not yet
twenty, Abelard took her in secret to Brittany to give birth to a son.
Abelard, now aged forty and with much vanity, went to Fulbert and proposed
a secret marriage to Heloise since an open marriage would interfere with
his public work and intended clerical career.
Fulbert became furious upon learning what had happened to Heloise as well
as this preposterous proposal. That night some men broke into the
apartment of Abelard and mutilated the sleeping man brutally by castrating
him.. He had to flee and take up life as a monk at the abbey St Denis.
Heloise realised that any marriage to Abelard would be impossible. So she
sacrificed her love for him and became a non.
After a year and many requests, Abelard moved to the priory of Miasoncelle
to reopen the school there. Soon hundreds of students came too listen to
him. This made his enmities jealous again. They charged him with the
heresy of Sabelius, made him burning his manuscript and jailed him in the
convent of St Medard. Once again he had to flee, but now to a deserted
forest near the Seine. There he built himself a wooden cabin to became a
hermit.
When his recluse became known, hundreds of students came from Paris,
putting up their tents close to his cabin in the wilderness, seeking his
teaching. They built an oratory for him which he named the Paracleta. But
once again his adversaries could not stand the students' thirst for
learning under the watchful eyes of Abelard. Foremost among them was
Bernard of Clairveaux. Abelard had to flee once again to the remote abbey
St Gildas-de-Rhuys in the inhospitable lower region of Brittany. There he
spent the last ten years of his life under wretched circumstances, yet
writing several manuscripts which made him even more famous.
Obviously, Bernard could not swallow this fame. So he got a condemnation
from Rome against the so-called heresies of Abelard. Abelard decided to go
to Rome to defend his case self. But on his way he broke down. Friends at
the abbey of Cluni took care of him. After a few months, by then very ill,
he was removed to the priory of St Marcel where he died. His remains was
buried at the Paraclete. When his beloved Heloise died, her remains was
buried next to his too.
What was so great about Abelard's teaching? Every writing had to be
questioned by the mind, from those of the scholastic nominalists to those
of the speculative realists. When he laid eyes on Aristotle's Organon, he
realised that what teachers claimed about Greek philosophies and what
these philosophers had written self were much different. Only authentic
documents had authority. He became deeply under the impression that all
branches of learning have to be united by logic. When John of Salisbury
heard him lecturing six years before his death, he praised Abelard as the
foremost rational thinker with a most humble spirit in all of Europe. The
shrewd conspiracies of his adversaries and his fleeing from them taught
him humbleness as well as to study and practise ethics deeply.
Eighteen years after Abelard's death some of his students began to set up
informally the University of Paris. His teaching, although initially with
vanity, had not been in vain. All of philosophy, theology, ethics, logic
and science were explored with passion. I wonder what he would say of
today's universities?
With care and best wishes,
--At de Lange <amdelange@postino.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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