Ethics of Nature in the Middle Ages: On Boccaccio's Poetaphysics

Speculum
Stone's elegant control of his material and his dazzling readings of Boccaccio's texts...powerful and innovative study will no doubt invigorate scholars...


Review
"Stone's elegant control of his material and his dazzling readings of Boccaccio's texts provide...[a] powerful and innovative study..."



Book Description
Contemporary intellectuals have banished the phrase "human nature" from their vocabulary because it seems to remove human beings from their historical situation. In this volume Gregory Stone argues that medieval thinkers had a way of calling humankind "natural" without implying that humans are bound by a universal, "ahistorical" essence. He shows that in the Middle Ages "nature" and "history" were by no means regarded (as they are by today’s literary theorists) as polar opposites. Using Boccaccio’s theory of poiesis as a focal point, Stone treats works by Saint Augustine, Cicero, Philo of Alexandria, Meister Eckhart, John Scotus Eriugena, Ramon Llull, and others. He shows that medievals formulated sophisticated, anti-mimetic theories of language and poetry. In addition, he offers fresh interpretations of the works covered, particularly of Boccaccio’s writings. The Ethics of Nature in the Middle Ages is a book packed with new and mind-expanding insights for all students of philosophy and the Middle Ages.



About the Author
Gregory Stone is Associate Professor of French, Italian, and Comparative Literature at Louisiana State University.



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Using Boccaccio's theory of poiesis as a focal point, shows how medieval thinkers did not polarize history and nature and had a way of calling humans natural without implying that they were bound by a universal or historical essence. Looks at the works of Augustine, Philo of Alexandria, Echhart, John Scotus, and others. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.


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