[Revised entry by Eileen Sweeney on September 19, 2023.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Medieval philosophical texts are written in a variety of literary forms, many peculiar to the period, like the summa or disputed question; others, like the commentary, dialogue, and axiom, are also found in ancient and modern sources but are substantially different in the medieval period from the classical or modern instantiations of these forms. Many philosophical texts also have a highly polemical style and/or seem deferential to the authoritative sources they cite. Further, medieval philosophical thinkers operated…

Originally appeared on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Read More