’n Nijmegenaar aan die Universiteite van Parys en Heidelberg in die latere Middeleeue: Die lewe en werk van Marsilius van Inghen (ca. 1340–1396)

Abstract

A scholar from Nijmegen at the Universities of Paris and Heidelberg in the later Middle Ages: The life and work of Marsilius of Inghen (ca. 1340–1396). This article provides an introduction to the thought of the 14th-century Dutch intellectual Marsilius of Inghen, rector of both the University of Paris (1367, 1371) and the University of Heidelberg (1386). Inghen belongs to that special group of late Medieval nominalists, who were able to set nominalism up as a steadfast alternative to realism. Characteristic of his work was his rejection of real universals outside the human mind, his strict distinction between the capabilities of natural reason and truths in faith, his rejection of a suppositio simplex (in favour of a suppositio materialis ), his defense of the possibility of an 11th Aristotelian category (‘signs’) and his critique of the Aristotelian theory of projectile motion. Enormously influential at European universities at the time, even in Spain, Inghen is described as one of the brightest minds in Medieval intellectual history – yet Inghen is sadly still bypassed and overlooked in standardised introductions to Medieval philosophy. Intradisciplinary/interdisciplinary implications: As a millennium-long discourse, Medieval philosophy functions in a Venn diagrammatical relationship with Medieval history, Church history, patristics and philosophy of religion. Whenever ‘mainstream’ or ‘canonised’ Medieval philosophy is impacted from the niche research, it may well have implications that these closely related disciplines could take note of. Such is the case in this niche-reappraisal of the works of Marsilius of Inghen.