Medieval Ethics

Abstract

The medieval period contains an extraordinarily rich variety of approaches to ethics. Until the end of the twelfth century, much of moral philosophy was developed in the context of theological debates within the intellectual tradition of Western Christianity. Monks and teachers in cathedral schools developed the thought of the earlier Christian Fathers, which was heavily influenced by Stoicism and Neo‐Platonism. The late twelfth century saw the rise of universities, and in the thirteenth century Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics became a part of the educational tradition. Theologians and Masters of Arts developed a complicated moral philosophy and moral theology which took into account both the thought of Aristotle and the earlier Christian tradition. In particular, there were lengthy discussions of the relationship between happiness and ethics, the role of nature in the natural law, and the subject and connection of the virtues. These medieval discussions provide the background for late scholastic and early modern treatments of the relationship between happiness and the virtues, as well as the importance of will for moral obligation. The scholastic thinkers were greatly influential until the politically motivated closing of university theological faculties and religious houses of formation in the late eighteenth century.