A History of Western Philosophy

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1945

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Book 2, Part 2, Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 11 Summary: “The Twelfth Century”

The 12th century was marked by the continuing rebirth of Western European culture. Russell identifies four points of importance:

The continued conflict between the empire and the papacy
The rise of the cities in northern Italy controlled by the Lombard tribe
The Crusades
The growth of Scholasticism, a new school of thought that attempted to harmonize Christian doctrine and classical philosophy, particularly that of Aristotle. It is notable that among ancient philosophers it is Aristotle, not Plato, who now holds pride of place—this is a decisive fact that will influence much subsequent thought.

By the 12th century, the Dark Ages were over and the Western intellectual revival was well underway. Abelard, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and John of Salisbury are among the notable thinkers of this period.

Chapter 12 Summary: “The Thirteenth Century”

Russell characterizes the 13th century as the “culmination” of the Middle Ages because of its intellectual, artistic/architectural, and political achievements. In the world of philosophy, a synthesis of classical and Christian knowledge came to a climax in the work of the Scholastics. The 13th century brought forth a number of “great men,” including St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Innocent III, and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. In the church, new religious orders were founded, including the Franciscans and Dominicans. In politics, the century saw the beginnings of constitutional government in the form of Magna Carta and the House of Commons in England, which imposed limitations on monarchical power.

Chapter 13 Summary: “Saint Thomas Aquinas”

St. Thomas Aquinas is “regarded as the greatest of Scholastic philosophers” (452). As the official philosopher of the Catholic tradition, he is also a continuing influence. Aquinas assumed the beliefs of Catholic Christianity and used philosophy (particularly the ideas of Aristotle) as a means of supporting faith. However, he made extensive use of reason and a number of his works deal with “purely philosophical” themes.

His principal works are the Summa contra Gentiles and the Summa theologiae, both of which are concerned with defending the Christian faith with rational arguments. As a whole, Aquinas’s work reflects a conviction that faith and reason are compatible. His writings use the “scholastic method,” which consists of arguing for specific propositions after fully testing opposing arguments. Aquinas’s work epitomizes the accomplishments of the High Middle Ages, with his methods preparing the way for later thinkers of many different views.

Chapter 14 Summary: “Franciscan Schoolmen”

The Franciscan order, founded by St. Francis of Assisi, produced a number of important theologians and philosophers who carried on the traditions of Scholasticism. They include Roger Bacon, John Duns Scotus, William of Occam, and St. Bonaventure. It is significant that these philosophers were as a whole less orthodox than the Dominicans (represented by Aquinas), and in general they began to move away from Aquinas’s faith/reason synthesis. In particular, Occam and Scotus began the controversy between universalism and nominalism that would affect philosophy in the next century. The significance of this school was in moving philosophy toward a more critical and skeptical mode of thought.

Chapter 15 Summary: “The Eclipse of the Papacy”

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the papacy fell into a period of corruption and decline. Disputed papal elections led to the papacy moving to Avignon in France (the so-called Babylonian Captivity), and there were at times two or even three rival popes. This caused a widespread crisis of confidence in the papacy; dissident movements began in the church, and secular governments began to eclipse the papacy. In some respects, these movements anticipated the Protestant Reformation. On the whole, there was a breakup of the harmonious intellectual and cultural synthesis of the 13th century.

Book 2, Part 2, Chapters 11-15 Analysis

This section covers the most culturally-accomplished period of the Middle Ages, the 12th and 13th centuries. Russell sees vitality and creativity in this period, which was “original and creative without knowing it” (429) and which contributed innovations to politics (city states, constitutional government) and architecture (Gothic cathedrals) as well as philosophical thought.

Philosophically, the period is dominated by the Schoolmen, or thinkers in the tradition of Scholasticism. Russell emphasizes that the Schoolmen created a powerful synthesis of ancient and Christian thought that constituted Western Europe’s intellectual recovery after the Dark Ages. More specifically, Russell argues that because Scholasticism turned the orientation of Western thought from Plato to Aristotle, it eventually brought about a more scientific point of view based on observation and empiricism. Thus, the Scholastics fit into Russell’s historical scheme as thinkers who—although they may not have intended it—paved the way for the scientific revolution of the early modern period.

Scholasticism’s major thinker is St. Thomas Aquinas. As he did with Plato and Aristotle, Russell finds some fault with Aquinas, a revered thinker. Russell sees Aquinas as lacking “the true philosophic spirit” (463) and as being too tied to religious orthodoxy to be equal to the ancient or modern philosophers. This again drives home Russell’s preference for a scientific temperament in philosophy and his dislike for religious doctrine influencing philosophy.

In Chapter 15, Russell gives a recap and big-picture view of the entire period from antiquity to the High Middle Ages. In his analysis, the entire period represented a “synthesis” of thought and civilization with many ingredients. First came the golden age of Greek philosophy with the Pre-Socratics through Aristotle; then, the “influx of oriental beliefs” (476) that paved the way for Christianity, which itself combined elements from Jewish culture with Neoplatonic beliefs and an impressive and prescribed ritual of worship.

Russell argues that by the High Middle Ages, Western Christian culture had, in a sense, come full circle by reviving and reincorporating elements of the classical Greek past into Christian thought. After a long period of turmoil and unrest during the Dark Ages, Europe had recovered much of the civilization lost since classical times. For this reason, Russell sees the 13th century as embodying a sense of stability and completeness as well as cultural and intellectual distinction.

Russell’s recap serves as a useful preliminary to the Modern period, in which the medieval synthesis of thought and belief was gradually questioned and challenged. One way in which this happened in the political realm was in the increasing “revolt against papal domination” (481) that happened from the 14th century onward and led to the Protestant Reformation—one of the seminal events of the early modern period. Russell interprets the Modern period as undoing or dismantling certain aspects of the medieval heritage while in other respects continuing or developing aspects of that heritage.