Ars et methodus - Philipp Melanchthon's Humanist concept of philosophy

Title Page

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Body

1. Introduction

1.1 Reading the Renaissance Text

1.2 Historians of philosophy and their methodologies

1.3 Melanchthon as philosopher and his conception of philosophy

1.4 Method, material and aim of study

2. On fathers and grandfathers: Melanchthon's heritage of dialectic

2.1 Philipp Melanchthon: A Renaissance Humanist

2.1.1 The question of authority

2.1.2 The theological pressupositions

2.1.3 The question of method: the transformation of philosophy

2.2 Melanchthon between Tübingen and Wittenberg: The seeds of Reform

2.3 Aristotle's legacy: forms of knowledge and discourse

2.3.1 Dialectical argumentation

2.3.2 Scientific reasoning

2.3.3 Persuasive speech

2.3.4 Conclusion: Assessments of Aristotle's logic of argumentation

2.4 Cicero: on words and things

2.4.1 Oratory and philosophy

2.4.2 Topica: Memoria repetita conscripta

2.5 Theophrastus, Themistius, Alexander of Aphrodisias: From arguments to principles

2.6 Boethius: De topicis differentiis: The logic of producing belief

2.6.1 Discorvery (inventio) and judgment (iudicatio)

2.6.2 Ratio quae rei dubiat faciat fidem

2.7 Developments of the Topics in the Middle Ages

2.7.1 Omnis bona consequentia tenet per aliquem locum

2.7.2 Summulae Logicales

2.8 Rudolph Agricola and the all encompassing forms of probable reasoning

2.8.1 Melanchthon's encounter with Agricola's dialectic

2.8.2 Agricola's De Inventione Dialectica

2.8.3 Argumentatio fidem facere conatur

2.8.4 Dialectical instruments of proof

2.8.5 Concluding remarks

2.9 Conclusion

3. Philipp Melanchthon's Dialectic and Rhetoric: his reform of the language arts

3.1 Melanchthon as representative of Northern Humanism: His immediate predecessors

3.1.1 The “Rhetorical Turn”: The Procustean Bed of Renaissance Philosophy

3.2 The Melanchthonian Project: Dialectica et Rethorica copulatae sunt

3.2.1 Melanchthon's integrative approach: the leitmotif of his pedagogical work

3.2.2 Restoring rhetoric for the sake of dialectic

3.3 Melanchthon's De Rhetorica libri tres

3.3.1 The genus demonstrativum as a genus metodikon

3.3.2 The method of the genus metodikon.

3.3.2.1 The first part of method: the questions

3.3.2.2 The organa of invention

3.3.2.3 The questions of scientific inquiry

3.3.2.4 The dialectical perspectives

3.3.2.5 The status-theory

3.3.2.6 Stoic dialectic

3.3.2.7 Melanchthon's hermeneutics: the theory of commonplaces

3.3.2.8 The second part of method: the loci

3.3.2.9 The actual genus demonstrativum and the loci personarum

3.3.2.10 Disposition and Elocution

3.3.2.11 Conclusion

3.4 Melanchthon's Compendiaria Dialectices

3.4.1 The Aristotelian structure and the Ciceronian definition

3.4.2 The dialectical method of the simple parts

3.4.3 The simple speech: propositio

3.4.4 The forms of arguments

3.4.5 The method of invention

3.4.6 Conclusion

3.4.7 Stephen Toulmin's assessment of argumentation: A comparison

3.5 Melanchthon's Institutiones Rhetoricae

3.5.1 Dialectical invention

3.5.2 Loci personarum and loci communes

3.5.3 Eloquence

3.5.4 Conclusion: The early textbooks as a mélange of Aristotelian and rhetorical views

3.6 Melanchthon's laudatory speech on eloquence: Necessarias esse ad omne studiorum genus artes dicendi

3.6.1 Clear and distinct language

3.6.2 The usefulness of literature

3.6.3 Erudite theology

3.6.4 Conclusion

3.7 Melanchthon's Dialectica Libri Quatuor: Ars ac via docendi

3.7.1 Is Melanchthon's dialectic a Lutheran dialectic?

3.7.2 On simple speech: some epistemological considerations

3.7.3 On the method of explaining simple themes

3.7.4 On propositions

3.7.5 On arguments

3.7.6 The method of complex questions: dialectical and rhetorical loci

3.7.7 On demonstration: Demonstrative and probable loci

3.7.8 Conclusion

3.8 Melanchthon's Elementorum Rhetorices Libri Duo: Eloquentia facultas est sapienter et ornate dicendi

3.8.1 Eloquence as a guarantor of clear speech

3.8.2 The Dialectical origin of rhetoric: the genus didaskalion

3.8.3 Conclusion

3.9 Melanchthon's Erotemata Dialectices: Dialectica est ars artium, scientia scientiarum

3.9.1 Dialectic and Arithmetic

3.9.2 On method

3.9.3 On propositions

3.9.4 On Argument Forms

3.9.5 The seats of arguments: the loci

3.9.6 The sources of human certainty

3.10 Conclusion

4. On method and discourse as the criteria of Melanchthonian humanist philosophy

4.1 De Philosophia

4.1.1 Method and philosophy

4.1.2 The cycle of arts

4.1.3 For the sake of the Church and of civil order

4.2 Liber de Anima: The book on body and mind

4.2.1 The treatise on the soul: an anthropology

4.2.2 On the intellectual capacity, or mind

4.2.3 What is a notion?

4.2.4 The passive and the inventor intellect

4.2.5 The human and the divine mind

4.3 Initia doctrinae physicae: The book on man and nature

4.3.1 The multivarious topics of natural knowledge treated in the Initia

4.3.2 What is the purpose of natural philosophy?

4.3.3 What is the method of natural philosophy?

4.3.4 The language of natural philosophy

4.4 Ethicae doctrinae elementa: On natural and divine law

4.4.1 Natural and civil law

4.4.2 On natural law as divine law

4.4.3 Dialectical method in ethics

4.4.4 Conclusion

5. General Conclusion: Quae ratione philosophia tractanda sit

6. Bibliography

6.1 Primary Literature

6.2 Secondary Literature

Index of Persons

Index of Subjects