A to Z of Philosophers - 'A' Trivia Quiz

Answer: Archbishop of Canterbury

The philosopher and theologian St Anselm became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093 and held the post until his death in 1109. Anselm had always wanted to lead a monastic life and from 1060 until his consecration at Canterbury he lived and worked in a monastery in the north of France.

St Anselm is considered the early founder of scholasticism which formed the basis of the scholastic theology and philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas. Scholasticism was the attempt to combine 12th century through 14th century theology with Greek philosophy.

Answer: "God exists because the concept of God exists"

This is amongst the first examples of the ontological argument which can be used when debating the existence of God or when debating any other issue. The crux of the argument is that the existence of the word proves the existence of the concept; an argument that is epitomised by "God exists because the concept of God exists". An alternate way to look at ontological systems is that the existence of the concept proves absolute existence of a being. St Anselm was prompted to come up with a logical argument that proved the existence of God by his students, but, the catch was that St Anselm could not use the scripture as a proof. "God exists because the concept of God exists" was the outcome and this influenced the later philosophy of another saint, Thomas Aquinas.

"The true nature of reality ... must be that of an undivided, homogeneous, single entity" was a quote from an early philosopher called Parmenides of Elea. "Whenever we think we are doing something, God is really doing it for us" is a quote from the 17th century philosopher, Nicolas Malebranche. "The substance of God consisteth in nothing else but goodness" was stated by the 5th century philosopher, Boethius.

Answer: Bec Abbey, Normandy

St Anselm's rise through the monastic ranks was extremely fast and as such that reflected his commitment to Christian theology and subsequently his erudite interpretation of scripture and the development of his philosophy. St Anselm would eventually be released from his role of abbot at Bec Abbey (French: Abbaye Notre-Dame du Bec) which allowed him to assume the role of Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093. St Anselm died in 1109 in Canterbury, Kent.

Answer: Five Ways

The 'Five Ways' was the attempt of St Thomas Aquinas to prove the existence of God with the use of only pure logic. The First Way is a logical approach that is still very much used today and that is that for something to change, someone or something must have changed it.

This logic can be applied to the point of the very first "change" and then the possibilities suggested by religion and those suggested by science begin to diverge. St Thomas Aquinas suggests in his First Way that ultimately something must be the cause of the initial change and is thus the cause of all subsequent changes (almost like a chain reaction).

He also suggests that the source of the initial impetus, id est the first being or force to elicit a change in something, is not itself changed.

As Aquinas would put it "...if the hand does not move the stick, the stick will not move anything else" and the hand in the eyes of this respected theologian is God.

Answer: Summa Theologica

The 'Summa Theologica' was far from a theological summary. In fact, it was a large work of literature that remained unfinished. This wasn't because St Thomas Aquinas died before its completion (Aquinas died in 1274, a year after the publication of the summary) but, because he had a vision which he believed trivialised everything he had previously written.

'Thus Spake Zarathustra' was a late 19th century publication of the philosophy of the controversial German, Friedrich Nietzsche, which included the concept of the 'Übermensch' or 'superman'. 'Conjectures and Refutations' was a book published in 1963 which documented the falsificationism of the philosopher Karl Popper. 'The Order of Things' was a 1966 publication by the French philosopher Michel Foucault which dealt with psychology and sociology.

Answer: Pope John XXII

Pope John XXII (Jacques d'Euse) reigned over the Vatican from 1316 to 1334. He canonised Thomas Aquinas who was later (1568) promoted to the rank of Doctor of the Church. This position, held by very few individuals, is only awarded posthumously and the recipient must also have been canonised prior to the promotion. It signifies that the holder of this prestigious title was of great importance to the Catholic church and by the new millennium only 33 people were recognised in this way.

Innocent VI held the title of pope for a decade dating from 1352 to 1362. Alexander VII resided at the Vatican from 1655 to 1667 and Benedict XV was the head of the Catholic church from the start of World War I (1914) to 1922.

Answer: BC

The fact that Aristotle was born in 384BC and died in 322BC makes his influence and intellect all the more remarkable. One of the very few people to make a lasting impression thousands of years after his death, Aristotle was initially educated at Plato's 'Academy' in Greece. Aristotle would later form his own institute of academia and that was the 'Lyceum'.

The Lyceum promulgated a form of philosophy that was affected by observation and it is at this point that the scientific method was believed to have been initiated.

Answer: Purpose

From the concept of teleology comes the teleological argument for the existence of God. This argument suggests that as the Universe is characteristically ordered and functional there is evidence of design and subsequently a design implies a designer, id est God.

This is similar to another argument that attempts to prove the existence of God; the cosmological argument. The cosmological argument suggests that everything depends on something else for their existence (from the Oxford Dictionary of English) and therefore even such entities as the 'cosmos' must rely upon another concept that is independent of the cosmos. Again this is suggested to be God.

Answer: Golden Mean

Aristotle was quite critical of the Spartans as he considered them extreme. An example given by Wikipedia is that the Spartans would train males for combat but not the women. Aristotle believed that their lack of the 'Golden Mean' caused them later difficulties. The 'Golden Mean' is also a concept seen in Buddhist philosophy and is known as the 'Middle Way' or 'Middle Path'.

Even in the modern age this policy of moderation is implemented or at least intended in western politics. An example is the formation of the New Labour party in Britain which is based on the political philosophy coined as the 'Third Way'. This is defined by contemporary social and political commentators as a compromise between capitalism and socialism. Whether or not New Labour are truly politically central is up to the perception of the individual!

Answer: Aristotle

'Nicomachean Ethics' is probably one of the, if not the most, important pieces of work on the philosophical field of ethics. In the modern age the concept of ethics is as important as it has ever been particularly in the medical profession. Such questions as whether it is ever justifiable to perform an abortion or whether or not a doctor holds the right to promote and perform actions of euthanasia are all ethical questions that polarise society.

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