An Introduction to Medieval Philosophy: Basic Concepts [Hardcover]

This is truly fine introduction to medieval philosophy (and affordable too) - highly recommended indeed for professional academic and layman alike!

Philosophy books that are utterly simple-minded often have the merit of being utterly reliable; by never venturing into difficult, contested material, simple-minded books in philosophy are typically free of the mistakes that can be found in more sophisticated, more challenging books. This book has somehow achieved the uncommon distinction of being both utterly simple-minded and utterly unreliable at once. The author's discussions of medieval thought on God, nature, being, etc. are exceedingly over-generalized and simplistic. For anyone who already knows even a bit about medieval philosophy, the issues discussed (and the level at which they are discussed) will appear insultingly rudimentary. And even though the book is excruciatingly superficial, the author manages to be quite muddled, and simply wrong, about a number of topics. The book contains too many confusions and errors to be addressed within this brief review; but perhaps a brief sampling may be helpful here. Contrary to what the author claims:
1) it is false to say that the medieval doctrine of the transcendentals is a doctrine of the "properties" that all beings possess (according to the medieval doctrine of the transcendentals, goodness, unity, and truth are not "properties" at all, since they do not fall under any of the categories in terms of which we attribute properties to beings: "sweetness" is a property that falls under the category of quality, but "goodness" does not fall under any category at all, and thus is not a "property" in the medieval sense);
2) it is false to say that the medieval doctrine of the transcendentals is an epistemological doctrine, or is a doctrine that can underwrite epistemological conclusions about 'realism' or 'idealism';
3) it is false to say that Aquinas's thought regarding the convertibility of being and goodness depends on the claim that every being has the capacity to perfect some other being (Aquinas's thought about the convertibility of being and goodness has to do with the actuality or perfection possessed by each being, considered on its own);
4) it is false to say that for Aquinas every being, except for God, is a being that possesses an essence "shared by many individuals of a species" (see Koterski, p. 195). Very famously, Aquinas (the angelic doctor!) held that angels are not individuals that share an essence with other members of their species. See Summa Theologiae, I, Q. 50, a. 4, where Aquinas says quite plainly: "it is impossible for two angels to be of one species."
It is unfortunate that nothing positive could have been said about this book, except perhaps the following: the book does indeed have a beautiful front cover.

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