The Thomas-Institut is a research Institute whose function is to study medieval philosophy by preparing critical editions as well as historical and systematic studies of medieval authors.
General information The Thomas-Institut was founded in 1950 by Josef Koch, then Professor for medieval philosophy at the University of Cologne. Forming part of the Faculty of Humanities and, more particularly, the Philosophy Department, the Thomas-Institut is a research Institute whose function it is to serve the study of medieval philosophy by preparing critical editions and historical and systematic studies of medieval authors. The director of the Institute is the professor holding the chair in medieval philosophy at the university.
Since communicating the results of this work is an essential part of the task of the Institute, the staff gives various courses in medieval philosophy at the University of Cologne. Jointly with twenty other departments - from History and Philology to Byzantine, Jewish and Islamic Studies - the Thomas-Institute organizes an extensive programme for medieval studies, the Zentrum für Mittelalterstudien (ZfMs).
Since its beginnings the Thomas-Institut has attached importance to international cooperation and exchange, and many of the projects pursued at the Thomas-Institut are international collaborations. The Mediaevistentagung, taking place every two years, has become one of the foremost conferences on medieval studies in Europe, furthering international and interdisciplinary research. The proceedings are published in the Miscellanea Mediaevalia series, edited by the Institute and published by de Gruyter.
In addition to its own projects the Thomas-Institut sponsors several ongoing editions which are funded and organized by other institutions. The most important at present are the Averroes Latinus project of the International Union of Academies, funded by the Nordrhein-Westfäische Akademie der Wissenschaften, and the critical edition of the works of Nicolaus Cusanus with the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. The Thomas-Institut likewise participates in the Aristoteles Latinus project organized by the International Union of Academies, it hosts the Meister Eckhart Archiv and has recently started the critical edition of Durandus of St. Pourçain.
Since its beginnings the Thomas-Institut has edited the Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters (STGMA) published by Brill, one of the most renowned series in medieval philosophy and medieval studies. In 1997, together with the De Wulf-Mansion Centre in Leuven, the Thomas-Institut took over the journal Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales. For further information about the publications of the Thomas-Institut, see
Research
Main areas of expertise Conditions of Scientific Discourse in Medieval Arabic, Hebrew, Byzantine and Latin Culture
Scientific discourse in the Middle Ages has its common ground in the reception of Greek learning from late Antiquity. It is diversified, however, according to the sociological and institutional as well as religious and theological framework in which Greek science is integrated. Besides that, the processes of rationalisation taking place in various fields of knowledge exercise a considerable influence. Key-words like "Reception of Dionysius", "Reception of Aristotle", and "Averroism" refer us to a complex structure of medieval bodies of knowledge. This structure has to be understood as the result of far-reaching processes of reception and transformation, transmission and translation. Inquiries in this area demand a combination of philosophical, philological, and historiographical competences. Research at the Thomas-Institut focuses on the contexts of transmission, on the attempts to define the meaning of "philosophy" (for example in the relationship of "Philosophy and Wisdom"), and on the formation of epistemological and institutional canons.
Intellect, Mind and Soul: Concepts, Stratifications and Boundaries. A Critical Evaluation of the Medieval Debates
The debate on intellect, mind and soul is currently one of those philosophical topics generating the most innovative questions. Medieval philosophy is of central importance in this respect, since it furnishes a rich tradition of investigation in this area. The problem was dealt with in all the medieval philosophical and theological cultures and languages. While differences abounded in every milieu, some solutions were adopted across boundaries. The medieval contribution is interesting from the point of view of the history of ideas, but the reception of traditions from Antiquity also engendered new theories. The confrontation of these theories in epistemological debates from the 13th century to the Renaissance lead to the development of new models. One may think for instance of "augustinisme avicennisant", the Averroistic theory of intellect, and the combination of Aristotelian and pseudo-Dionysian noetics. When one examines the modern debate on the background just sketched, it becomes clear that medieval philosophy provides models and perspectives both richer in arguments and truly interdisciplinary. This topic has already been made the object of research by an international network of institutions working on medieval philosophy (the EGSAMP members Leuven, Amsterdam, Pisa, Lecce, Bari, Sofia) in which the Thomas-Institut participates.
Ongoing research projects The Relationship between Philosophy and Wisdom Philosophy and Wisdom in the Middle Ages A Contribution to the Development of the Western Concept of Philosophy Behind the terminological opposition of philosophy and wisdom, into whose reasons this project enquires, emerges another problem: the origin of philosophy. Thus the medieval debate is representative of a basic discourse, which always anew attempts to determine the essence of philosophy. The Middle Ages, and especially the 13th century are of prime importance for the reconstruction of the affaire de cœur of philosophy and wisdom. In the second half of this century the reception of an Aristotelian idea of philosophical wisdom sparks a major controversy about the identity of philosophy, a controversy that presages many of the questions asked in the modern era. The results which have been reached in a number of case-studies will be assembled and assessed in context.
"Rhizomatics": the Art of Living and Wisdom as Bridges for a Transcultural Philosophy In this project "rhizomatics" and nomadism as developed by the French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari are employed to address transcultural issues. At the heart of this project are the concept of philosophy, its relation to wisdom, methodology and ethics and possible forms and constructions of philosophy. Besides the French and German Literature on Deleuze the project will take into account the reception and resonance of his ideas in Spanish-American thought.
New Perspectives in the Historiography of Medieval Philosophy What is medieval philosophy? This question has been answered in a variety of ways even before Gilson's influential attempts to give a definitive reply. Such answers are always bound up with a certain idea of philosophy and its resulting mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. But if one takes into account the dynamics proper to different cultural frameworks which transferred the philosophical inheritance from late Antiquity into modernity, one must try to describe its interactions more closely, disregarding the classical narratives of medieval philosophy. In order to realise this, new methodological approaches will be attempted. This project forms part of the InterLink-project (Bari-Köln-Sofia-Leuven-Paris) "Soggetto e statuto della filosofia nel Medioevo. Nuove prospettive di ricerca nell'edizione critica dei testi e nelle metodologie di indagine storiografica".
Thomas Aquinas in Philosophical Context Thomas Aquinas, In librum Beati Dionysii De divinis nominibus expositione, Book IV, Lectiones 1-10 Thomas Aquinas's commentary on Dionysius is an exemplary case for the study of the encounter of the Latin and the Byzantine Middle Ages. Of special interest are Thomas's first ten "Lectiones" on the fourth book of his model. Here, central themes of Neoplatonism are treated: the Good, light, beauty, and love. A translation and commentary on the basis of a revised Latin text is in preparation.
Edith Stein's Translations of Aquinas's Works De veritate and De ente et essentia Edith Stein's translations of Aquinas are not only an important document for the intellectual development of Husserl's former assistant but also show in an exemplary case the encounter of Neoscholasticism and modern philosophy at the beginning of the 20th century. In the framework of the new edition of the works of Edith Stein her translation of the Quaestiones disputatae de veritate and her yet unpublished translation of De ente et essential will be edited alongside a number of further "Thomistica" (ESGA 24). Thomas Aquinas, Quaestio disputata "De libero arbitrio" (De malo VI) This text is a key to understanding Aquinas's teaching on free choice as foundation of truly human, that is to say responsible and autonomous action. A German translation of this text on the basis of the Editio Leonina is currently in preparation and will be published, together with an extensive introduction, by Reclam.
The Medieval Theory of Transcendentals The project is dedicated to the historical development of the theory of transcendentals from its formation in the thirteenth century (Philip the Chancellor) up to its treatment in the Disputationes metaphysicae by Francesco Suárez. It likewise deals with the significance of the theory of transcendentals for medieval philosophy in general.
The "Super"-Transcendental and the Splitting of Metaphysics In search of the origins and motives of the splitting of metaphysics in the 17th and 18th century into a metaphysica generalis and metaphysica specialis, conceived for the first time by Francis of Marchia at the beginning of the 14th century, this project enquires into the relationship between the first object of the human intellect and the proper object of metaphysics as they present themselves in conceptions of metaphysics after the time of Duns Scotus. Especially the attempt to define the primum obiectum intellectus as "super-transcendental" has a constitutive function for the legitimating of a twofold metaphysics.
Radicalisation in lieu of Abolition of the Science of Being. On the Development of First Philosophy from the Late Middle Ages to the 18th Century According to the account of the development of first philosophy predominant today, this discipline underwent a transformation since the late Middle Ages, in the course of which the Aristotelian theory of being was dissolved and reformed as an onto-logic of that which can be thought, thus immediately preparing Kant's transcendental philosophy. This interpretation needs to be revised in order to show that the said transformation did not exceed the boundaries of the traditional concept of science. On the contrary, in the teachings of the main representatives of the discipline up to Wolff and Baumgarten one finds a new concept of the theory of being as a theory of the universal and necessary structure of reality which is common to God and every possible world. Thus we do not encounter abolition but rather a radicalisation of tendencies which have shaped the development of first philosophy since the medieval reception of Aristotle and his Arabic interpreters. These tendencies are: the turn from a theological to an ontological concept of first philosophy, from its conception as practical wisdom to the idea of a universal theoretical science, from transcendent being as the starting point of thought to the transcategorical and thus transcendental content of being as such.
Master Eckhart: Historical and Systematical Perspectives