De discretione artium.
The Divine Origin of Wisdom
Philosophy is the love of divine wisdom, the eternal and living mind in which all things were formed, and all arts aim to restore this divine likeness in us.
Philosophy is the love of wisdom, which, needing nothing, is a living mind and the sole original principle of things. This definition looks more toward the etymology of the name. For philos in Greek is called amor in Latin, that is, sophia, that is, sapientia; and from there philosophy is derived, that is, the love of wisdom. But what is added — that it, needing nothing, is a living mind and the sole original principle of things — signifies divine wisdom, which is therefore said to need nothing because it lacks nothing at all, but beholds all things at once and together: past, present, and future.1 It is called a living mind because whatever has once been held in the divine plan can never be erased by any forgetfulness. It is the original principle of things because all things were formed in its likeness. Some say that the source from which all arts draw their activity should always endure. Therefore all arts aim at this and intend this: that the divine likeness be restored in us, which is our form by nature, and God's nature; and the more we are conformed to it, the wiser we become.2
Many Faces of Philosophy
Philosophy is described in turn as the art of arts, the meditation on death, and the reasoned investigation of divine and human principles.
Then it begins to shine again within us — that which has always existed in his reason — and what passes away in us finds its permanent place in him. In another sense: philosophy is the art of arts and the discipline of disciplines — that is, the one to which all arts and disciplines are directed. It can be called an art when it's a body of knowledge grounded in the precepts and rules of a craft — as the full discipline found in Scripture, or as it's found in formal teaching. Or it can be called an art when something plausible and opinion-based is being explored, and a discipline when something is being settled through rigorous reasoning about matters that can't be otherwise. This is the distinction that Plato and Aristotle wanted to draw between art and discipline. Or art can refer to what is produced in a given material and developed through practice, like architecture; whereas discipline refers to what rests in contemplation and is developed through reasoning alone, like logic. In another sense: philosophy is the meditation on death — and this is what suits Christians most, those who have trampled on the world's ambition and now live in disciplined conduct, as citizens of the homeland that is to come. In another sense: philosophy is the discipline that investigates, with reasoned probability, the principles of all things divine and human.
Philosophy as the Goal of All Study
All studies find their direction in philosophy, which pertains to all things without being limited to any single management.
In this way the method of all studies looks toward philosophy. Not every management is philosophical, and so philosophy is said in some way to pertain to all things.
The Great Division of Knowledge
Philosophy is divided into theoretical, practical, mechanical, and logical branches, with the theoretical further subdivided through Boethius's framework of the intellectible, intelligible, and natural.
Philosophy is divided into the theoretical, the practical, the mechanical, and the logical. These four contain all knowledge. The theoretical is understood as speculative; the practical as active, which they also call by another name, ethics, that is, moral philosophy, because morals consist in good action; the mechanical as adulterine, because it is occupied with human works; the logical as discursive, because it deals with words.3 The theoretical is divided into theology, mathematics, and physics. Boethius makes this division in other words, cutting the theoretical into the intellectible, the intelligible, and the natural, meaning theology by the intellectible, mathematics by the intelligible, and physics by the natural.4 Finally, he defines the intellectible as follows.
Read the original Latin
Philosophia est amor sapientiae, quae nullius indigens, vivax mens et sola rerum primaeva ratio est. haec definitio magis ad etymologiam nominis spectat. philos enim Graece, amor dicitur Latine, sophia, sapientia, et inde philosophia tracta est, id est, amor sapientiae. quod autem additur, quae nullius indigens, vivax mens, et sola rerum primaeva ratio est, divina sapientia significatur, quae propterea nullius indigere dicitur, quia nihil minus continet, sed semel et simul omnia intuetur praeterita, praesentia et futura. Vivax mens idcirco appellatur quia quod semel in divina fuerit ratione nulla umquam oblivione aboletur. primaeva ratio rerum est quia ad eius similitudinem cuncta formata sunt. dicunt quidam quod illud unde agunt artes semper maneat. hoc ergo omnes artes agunt, hoc intendunt, ut divina similitudo in nobis reparetur, quae nobis forma est, Deo natura, cui quanto magis conformamur tanto magis sapimus.
tunc enim in nobis incipit relucere, quod in eius ratione semper fuit, quodque in nobis transit, apud illum incommutabile consistit. aliter: Philosophia est ars artium, et disciplina disciplinarum, id est, ad quam omnes artes et disciplinae spectant. ars dici potest scientia, quae artis praeceptis regulisque consistit, ut est in scriptura, disciplina, quae dicitur plena, ut est in dotrina. vel ars dici potest, quando aliquid verisimile atque opinabile tractatur, disciplina, quando de his, quae aliter se habere non possunt, veris disputationibus aliquid disseritur. quam differentiam Plato et Aristoteles esse voluerunt inter artem et disciplinam. vel ars dici potest, quod fit in subiecta materia et explicatur per operationem, ut architectura, disciplina vero, quae in speculatione consistit et per solam explicatur ratiocinationem, ut logica. aliter: Philosophia est meditatio mortis, quod magis convenit Christianis, qui saeculi ambitione calcata, conversatione disciplinali, similitudine futurae patriae vivunt. aliter: Philosophia est disciplina omnium rerum divinarum atque humanarum rationes probabiliter investigans.
sic omnium studiorum ratio ad philosophiam spectat. administratio non omnis philosophica est, et ideo philosophia aliquo modo ad omnes res pertinere dicitur.
Philosophia dividitur in theoricam, practicam, mechanicam et logicam. hae quattuor omnem continent scientiam. theorica interpretatur speculativa; practica, activa, quam alio nomine ethicam, id est, moralem dicunt, eo quod mores in bona actione consistant; mechanica, adulterina, quia circa humana opera versatur; logica, sermocinalis, quia de vocibus tractat. theorica dividitur in theologiam, mathematicam et physicam. hanc divisionem Boethius facit aliis verbis, theoricen secans in intellectibilem et intelligibilem et naturalem, per intellectibilem significans theologiam, per intelligibilem, mathematicam, per naturalem, physicam. denique intellectibile ita definit.
Notes
- 1 ↩'nihil minus continet' rendered as 'lacks nothing at all' — the comparative minus with nihil produces a strong negation: it does not fall short in any respect.
- 2 ↩'quae nobis forma est, Deo natura' rendered with apposition: 'which is our form by nature, and God's nature' — the syntax is compressed; the sense is that the divine likeness is our true form and God's own nature.
- 3 ↩The term 'adulterine' (adulterina) carries a pejorative connotation in medieval thought, suggesting that mechanical arts are 'mixed' or 'impure' compared to the speculative or practical branches.
- 4 ↩The Neoplatonic distinction between 'intellectible' (intellectibilis: things known by the mind alone, like God and pure forms) and 'intelligible' (intelligibilis: things grasped by the intellect through images, like mathematical concepts) is preserved here.
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