Abstract
John of Salisbury’s Metalogicon is a defence of logic and its role as an instrument for philosophy, as well as a commented reading of Aristotle’s Organon. It presents, therefore, a didactic effort, learnt from masters, to help readers to understand the realities perceived by the senses and to obtain true, intellectual and scientific knowledge. Thus, the influence of William of Conches and Hugh of Saint Victor is revealed: John of Salisbury intends, as do they, to provide a method which will lead to the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom. For this method, memory plays a vital role, acting as a bridge between sensus and ratio, from sensory perception to rational knowledge.
Highlights
John of Salisbury’s Metalogicon is a defence of logic and its role as an instrument for philosophy, as well as a commented reading of Aristotle’s Organon
A didactic effort, learnt from masters, to help readers to understand the realities perceived by the senses and to obtain true, intellectual and scientific knowledge
The influence of William of Conches and Hugh of Saint Victor is revealed: John of Salisbury intends, as do they, to provide a method which will lead to the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom
Summary
John of Salisbury was neither a grammarian nor a rhetorician, nor did he write any work on grammar or rhetoric, yet in his works he offers valuable first-hand information on the teaching of the trivium in the twelfth-century schools He was educated in France and attended the Cathedral school of Chartres, where he soaked up its spirit of renewal of learning. Along with other key figures in the humanistic culture of the twelfth century these scholars were, as will be seen, teachers of John of Salisbury Perhaps those who encouraged him to fight against the so-called “Cornificians” (college students who wanted a reduction of courses in the curriculum, undervaluing, for example, rhetoric)[6] inspired his ideal of the totality of knowledge and of the union of sciences, but especially of the arts of speech (grammar, rhetoric and dialectic)
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