Abelard and Finding the True Career - Essay Example

Abelard and Finding the True Career This paper encompasses a discussion of Abelard and Finding the True Career from The letters of Abelard and Heloise. The true career will be examined and the examination will encompass the first five letters from the book. In order to examine Aberland, Heloise, the letters and finding the true career it is first important to know more about all of them. Aberland was a dialectician, philosopher, and theologian, born 1079; died 1142. Peter Abelard was born in the little village of Pallet, about ten miles east of Nantes in Brittany. His father, Berengar, was lord of the village, his mother's name was Lucia; both afterwards entered the monastic state. Peter, the oldest of their children, was intended for a military career, but, as he himself tells us, he abandoned Mars for Minerva, the profession of arms for that of learning. Accordingly, at an early age, he left his father's castle and sought instruction as a wandering scholar at the schools of the most renowned teachers of those days. Among these teachers was Roscelin the Nominalist, at whose school at Locmenach, near Vannes, Abelard certainly spent some time before he proceeded to Paris. Although the University of Paris did not exist as a corporate institution until more than half a century after Abelard's death, there flourished at Paris in his time the Cathedral School, the School of Ste. Genevive, and that of St. Germain des Pr, the forerunners of the university schools of the following century. The Cathedral School was undoubtedly the most important of these, and thither the young Abelard directed his steps in order to study dialectic under the renowned master (scholasticus) William of Champeaux. Soon, (New Advent) however, the youth from the province, for whom the prestige of a great name was far from awe-inspiring, not only ventured to object to the teaching of the Parisian master, but also attempted to set up as a rival teacher. Finding that this was not an easy matter in Paris, he established his school first at Melun and later at Corbeil. This was, probably, in the year 1101. The next couple of years Abelard spent in his native place "almost cut off from France", as he says. The reason of this enforced retreat from the dialectical fray was failing health. On returning to Paris, he became once more a pupil of William of Champeaux for the purpose of studying rhetoric. When William retired to the monastery of St. Victor, Abelard, who meantime had resumed his teaching at Melun, hastened to Paris to secure the chair of the Cathedral School. Having failed in this, he set up his school in Mt. Ste. Genevieve (1108). There and at the Cathedral School, in which in 1113 he finally succeeded in obtaining a chair, he enjoyed the greatest renown as a teacher of rhetoric and dialectic. Before taking up the duty of teaching theology at the Cathedral School, he went to Laon where he presented himself to the venerable Anselm of Laon as a student of theology. Soon, however, his petulant restiveness under restraint once more asserted itself, and he was not content until he had as completely discomfited the teacher of theology at Laon as he had successfully harassed the teacher of rhetoric and dialectic at Paris. Taking Abelard's own account of the incident, it is impossible not to blame him for the temerity which made him such enemies as Alberic and Lotulph, pupils of Anselm, who, later on, appeared against Abelard. The "theological studies" pursued by Abelard at Laon were what we would nowadays call the study of exegesis. (New Advent) After examination of the information regarding Aberland's life it is clear that his intended role in life was one of the son of a wealthy man yet he chose teaching The question that needs to examined next is, as his true destiny to be a wealthy son and in charge of the military and arms or was his true calling to be a teacher In his letters, it is easier to gain a better understanding of what his true career was. The letters from the two lovers to each other reveal some significance in the truth of the true career. Abelard spent the last years of his life, and there at last he found the peace which he had elsewhere sought in vain. He donned the habit of the monks of Cluny and became a teacher in the school of the monastery. He died at Chaln-sur-Sane in 1142, and was buried at the Paraclete. In 1817, his remains and those of Heloise were transferred to the cemetery of Pre la Chaise, in Paris, where they now rest. (Clanchy) Abelard and Heloise's letters also intended for circulation among Abelard's friends. The "Story" was written about the year 1130, and the letters during the following five or six years. In both the personal element must of course, be taken into account. Besides these we have very scanty material; a letter from Roscelin to Abelard, a letter of Fulco of Deuil, the chronicle of Otto of Freising, the letters of St. Bernard, and a few allusions in the writings of John of Salisbury. Abelard's philosophical works are "Dialectica," a logical treatise consisting of four books (of which the first is missing); "Liber Divisionum et Definitionum" (edited by Cousin as a fifth book of the "Dialectica"); Glosses on Porphyry, Boius, and the Aristotelian "Categories"; "Glossulae in Porphyrium" (hitherto unpublished except in a French paraphrase by Rmusat); the fragment "De Generibus et Speciebus", ascribed to Abelard by Cousin; a moral treatise "Scito Teipsum, seu Ethica", first published by Pez in "Thes. Anecd. Noviss". All of these, with the exception of the "Glossulae" and the "Ethica", are to be found in Cousin's "Ouvrages indits d'Ablard" (Paris, 1836). Abelard's theological works (published by Cousin, "Petri Abselardi Opera", in 2 vols., Paris, 1849-59, also by Migne, "Patr. Lat.", CLXXVIII) include "Sic et Non", consisting of scriptural and patristic passages arranged for and against various theological opinions, without any attempt to decide whether the affirmative or the negative opinion is correct or orthodox; "Tractatus de Unitate et Trinitate Divin", which was condemned at the Council of Sens (discovered and edited by Stlzle, Freiburg, 1891); "Theologia Christiana," a second and enlarged edition of the "Tractatus" (first published by Durand and Martne "Thes. Nov.," 1717); "Introductio in Theologiam" (more correctly, "Theologia"), of which the first part was published by Duchesne in 1616; "Dialogus inter Philosopher, Judaism, et Christiano"; "Sentential Petri Abselardi", otherwise called "Epitome Theologia Christiane", which is seemingly a compilation by Abelard's pupils (first published by Reginald, Berlin, 1535); and several exegetical works hymns, sequences, etc. In philosophy, Abelard deserves consideration primarily as a dialectician. For him, as for all the scholastic philosophers before the thirteenth century, philosophical inquiry meant almost exclusively the discussion and elucidation of the problems suggested by the logical treatises of Aristotle and the commentaries thereon, chiefly the commentaries of Porphyry and Botius. Perhaps his most important contribution to philosophy and theology is the method which he developed in his "Sic et Non" (Yea and Nay), a method germinally contained in the teaching of his predecessors, and afterwards brought to more definite form by Alexander of Hales and St. Thomas Aquinas. It consisted in placing before the student the reasons pro and contra, on the principle that truth is to be attained only by a dialectical discussion of apparently contradictory arguments and authorities. In the problem of Universals, which occupied so much of the attention of dialecticians in those days, Abelard took a position of uncompromising hostility to the crude nominalism of Roscelin on the one side, and to the exaggerated realism of William of Champeaux on the other. What, precisely, was his own doctrine on the question is a matter which cannot with accuracy be determined. (The Catholic Encyclopedia Volume 4) In conclusion and after perusal of the letters between Aberland and Heloise it is difficult to pinpoint the true career in question. Although hints exist that seem to reveal the true care nothing is conclusive. It s clear that Abelard's doctrine, while expressed in terms of a modified Nominalism, was very similar to the moderate Realism which began to be official in the schools about half a century after Abelard's death. In ethics Abelard laid such great stress on the morality of the intention as apparently to do away with the objective distinction between good and evil acts. It is clear that these doctrines were significant to his life and could have been what is intended to be referred to as his true career. It is not the physical action itself, he said, nor any imaginary injury to God, that constitutes sin, but rather the psychological element in the action, the intention of sinning, which is formal contempt of God. With regard to the relation between reason and revelation, (Clanchy) the sciences -- including philosophy -- and theology, Abelard incurred in his own day the censure of mystic theologians like St. Bernard, whose tendency was to disinherit reason in favour of contemplation and ecstatic vision. . And it is true that if the principles "Reason aids Faith" and "Faith aids Reason" are to be taken as the inspiration of scholastic theology, Abelard was constitutionally inclined to emphasize the former, and not lay stress on the latter. Works Cited Clanchy, Michael. "The Letters of Aberland and Heloise" 1984 Penguin Publishing. New Advent. "Peter Aberland" (2005) As viewed on the worldwide web at URL http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01036b.htm The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume I 1907 by Robert Appleton Company Read More