Maurice De Wulf

Maurice De Wulf (1867–1947), a Belgian Thomist philosopher, professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, was one of the pioneers of the historiography of medieval philosophy.[1] His book History of Medieval Philosophy appeared first in 1900 and was followed by many other editions and translations, one them being available today online.

Life and work

Maurice Marie Charles Joseph De Wulf was born at Poperinghe, Belgium 6 April 1867. He studied at the Catholic University of Leuven, where he became a Doctor of Thomistic Theology. He taught the history of medieval philosophy, logic, and criteriology. He was named an honorary president of the 1911 International Congress of Philosophy.[2]

During the 1920s he taught at Harvard and his Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages was published at Princeton in 1922. He was a Knight of the Order of Leopold, and a member of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Brussels, and the Administrative Council of the Royal Library of Belgium. De Wulf contributed articles relative to philosophy to the Catholic Encyclopedia.[2]

Very early it was noted that "In his Histoire de la Philosophie Médievale, Mr. de Wulf departs from the common view which identifies Scholasticism with Mediaeval philosophy, and discovers in the Middle Ages two antithetical currents: Scholasticism proper, represented by Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Albert the Great, etc.; and anti-Scholasticism, of which Scotus Erigena is the father, and which is continued by the Catharists, the Albigenses and the Pantheistic schools. Mr. de Wulf's view on this point has not met with a ready acceptance. It has been rejected, among others, by Elie Blanc and Picavet. Mr. de Wulf, however, still holds the same opinion, and has defended it again in his Introduction à la Philosophie Neo scolastique."[3]

Maurice De Wulf was a close friend of Cardinal Mercier. The "De Wulf-Mansion Centre for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy" was founded (1956) at the Institute of Philosophy in Leuven.

Bibliography
  • 1892 - La Valeur Esthétique de la moralité dans l'Art
  • 1895 - Histoire de la Philosophie Scolastique dans les Pays-Bas et la Principauté de Liège, jusqu'à la Révolution française
  • 1896 - Études Historiques sur l'Esthétique de Saint Thomas d'Aquin
  • 1900 - Histoire de la Philosophie Médiévale; translated as History of Medieval Philosophy
  • 1901 - Le Traité De Unitate Formae de Gilles de Lessines (texte et étude)
  • 1904 - Un Théologien-Philosophe du XIIIe. Étude sur la Vie, les œuvres et l'Influence de Godefroid de Fontaines
  • 1910 - Histoire de la Philosophie en Belgique
  • 1915 - Guerre et Philosophie
  • 1920 - L'Œuvre d'Art et la Beauté
  • 1922 - Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages
  • 1932 - Initiation à la Philosophie Thomiste

Works in English translation

Articles

Other
  • "Scholasticism." In Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. XIII, The Macmillan Company, 1934.

See also

References
  1. Steenberghen, Fernand Van. "Maurice De Wulf, Historien de la Philosophie Médiévale," Revue Philosophique de Louvain, Vol. 46(12), 1948.
  2. "De Wulf, Maurice Marie Charles Joseph", The Catholic Encyclopedia and Its Makers, New York, the Encyclopedia Press, 1917, p. 43 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. Perrier J. L., The Revival of Scholastic Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century, New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1909 ChapterXIII
  4. Bierstedt, Robert. "A Medievalist's Medievalist," The Saturday Review, August 15, 1953.
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