This volume deals with the development of moral and political philosophy in the medieval West. Professor Nederman is concerned to trace the continuing influence of classical ideas, but emphasises that the very diversity and diffuseness of medieval thought shows that there is no single scheme that can account for the way these ideas were received, disseminated and reformulated by medieval ethical and political theorists.

This volume deals with the development of moral and political philosophy in the medieval West. Professor Nederman is concerned to trace the continuing influence of classical ideas, but emphasises that the very diversity and diffuseness of medieval thought shows that there is no single scheme that can account for the way these ideas were received, disseminated and reformulated by medieval ethical and political theorists.

Despite its non-Christian origins, the scheme of the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) found wide acceptance in medieval theology, philosophy, and religious literature. The present study is the first to investigate the history of the four virtues in the Latin Middle Ages from patristic times to the late fourteenth century. It examines the position of the cardinal virtues between religious and secularized conceptions of morality and attempts to reveal some distinctly Christian aspects of medieval virtue theory notwithstanding its manifest indebtedness to ancient ethics. Exploring learned and popularizing sources alike, including much unedited material, this study covers a broad spectrum of moral debate during ten centuries of Western intellectual history.

This collection surveys the tradition of medieval commentaries on Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics" from its thirteenth-century origins to the fifteenth century, concentrating on the conception of the moral and intellectual virtues in a continuous interplay of ancient and Christian moral thought.

Philosophy in the medieval Latin West before 1200 is often thought to have been dominated by Platonism. The articles in this volume question this view, by cataloguing, describing and investigating the tradition of Aristotelian logic in the period, examining its influence on authors usually placed within the Platonic tradition (Eriugena, Anselm, Gilbert of Poitiers), and also looking at some of the characteristics of early medieval Platonism. Abelard, the most brilliant logician of the age, is the main subject of three articles, and the book concludes with two more general discussions about how and why medieval philosophy should be studied.

This book is an introduction to medieval economic thought, mainly from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, as it emerges from the works of academic theologians and lawyers and other sources - from Italian merchants' writings to vernacular poetry, Parliamentary legislation, and manorial court rolls. It raises a number of questions based on the Aristotelian idea of the mean, the balance and harmony underlying justice, as applied by medieval thinkers to the changing economy. How could private ownership of property be reconciled with God's gift of the earth to all in common? How could charity balance resources between rich and poor? What was money? What were the just price and the just wage? How was a balance to be achieved between lender and borrower and how did the idea of usury change to reflect this? The answers emerge from a wide variety of ecclesiastical and secular sources.

This volume analyses the renewal of Western moral thought in the twelfth century. This renewal was marked by a burgeoning of increasingly systematized texts, a lively reception of ancient moral philosophy and a greater emphasis on the psychology of the moral agent. Five contributions are devoted to monastic morality (Anselm of Canterbury, Bernard of Clairvaux, Hugh of Folieto, Hugh of Saint Victor, Peter Abelard); another five to (proto-)scholastic thought (John of Salisbury, Peter Abelard, Stephen Langton, the idea of natural virtue, the justification of lying); three discuss moral issues in a wider social context (liberality vs. avarice, royal justice in England, the cardinal virtues and the French monarchy). The two remaining contributions explore ethical traditions in Islamic and Jewish philosophy. With contributions by István P. Bejczy, Céline Billot-Vilandreau, Marcia L. Colish, Jeroen Laemers, John Kitchen, Cary J. Nederman, Richard G. Newhauser, Willemien Otten, Burcht Pranger, Riccardo Quinto, Ineke van ’t Spijker, Arjo Vanderjagt, Björn Weiler and George Wilkes.