Andreas Capellanus's Scholastic Definition of Love

Abstract

“Andreas Capellanus's Scholastic Definition of Love. Although most recent discussion of Andreas Capellanus's famous definition of love centers on the question whether it should be seen as an ironic allusion to Scripture in the patristic tradition or as a physiological description in the medical tradition, it is probably best viewed as a philosophical definition in the early scholastic tradition. Close examination of the definition in the light of Andreas's own commentary on it and of parallels from contemporary scholastic writers reveals that it conforms to Aristotelian requirements for definition and that it makes appropriate use of major concepts of medieval logic and psychology. It also appears to have been formulated implicitly in terms of Aristotelian causality, Despite certain difficulties, probably attributable to fluctuations in terminology in the early scholastic period, it is a carefully constructed, properly scientific definition drawing on a long philosophical tradition.