Faith and Reason: The ‘Double Truth’ in the Arabic and Latin Traditions
31 May 14:00 to 17:00
Old Library, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford Queen’s Lane, Oxford OX1 4AR
The Double Truth is a late medieval phenomenon in which someone simultaneously holds conflicting philosophical and religious ideas. It was denounced by the Bishop of Paris in the Condemnations of 1277, when he confronted scholars promoting controversial theories at the University of Paris. Later tradition attributed the origin of the Double Truth to the Muslim philosopher Averroes (d. 1198). The consensus in modern scholarship is that, given the way the bishop described the Double Truth, no one at the University of Paris can be identified who actually held it. This seminar will examine the Arabic philosophical foundations for the notion of the Double Truth often attributed to Averroes by the Latins; and it will explore the nature and the meaning of the notion in the Latin philosophical and theological traditions.
2:00
The Arabic Tradition
Richard Taylor, The Complex Philosophical Foundations of the Duality of Discourses Behind the Notion of Double Truth
3:15
Coffee Break
3:30
The Latin Tradition
Ann Giletti, The Double Truth: A Case for Its Presence among Latin Scholastics
