Siger of Brabant

Boethius Dacia
Born
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Occupation	Philosopher
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Siger of Brabant (Boethius de Dacia, Boethius Dacus, Boezio di Dacia, Boèce de Dacie).

Life

Siger was born about 1240 in the Duchy of Brabant. He attended the University of Paris about 1255-7. At that time the full range of Aristotle's work were being incorporated into the curriculum, after being initially banned in 1215 [N3]. By 1266 he was probably a master of arts, in which position he remained until the end of his career. He was a prominent member of a group of teachers, mostly at the Faculty of Arts in Paris, known to historians as the 'Latin Averroists' or 'secular Aristotelians', who aimed to interpret Aristotle in a secular way. They taught the eternity of the world, the unity of the passive intellect in men, collective immortality, determinism and the absence of free will.

These interpretations were felt by many to challenge Christian faith, and Siger was exposed to persecution from the Church as well as from purely philosophical opponents. Averroism was denounced by Bonaventura in 1267, and in December 1270 was condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities. In the same year, Thomas Aquinas [N4] challenged the Averroistic interpretation of De Anima proposed by Siger.

In 1276 the French Inquisition summoned Siger to appear before a tribunal at Noyon, although he seems to have been acquitted. In 1277 there was a general condemnation of Aristotelianism, instigated by the Archbishop of Paris, Stephen Tempier (known as the 'Parisian Condemnations'). These included a special clause directed against Boethius of Dacia, and Siger. Both fled to Italy.

It is not known exactly how Siger died, and there are various stories about his death. According to John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury, he perished miserably [ref needed]. A Brabantine chronicle says that he was assassinated by an insane secretary (a clerico suo quasi dementi) [. Dante, in the Paradiso (x. 134-6), says that he found 'death slow in coming'. A 13th century sonnet by Durante (xcii. 9-14) says that he was executed at Orvieto .

He is supposedly mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy - (Paradiso, canto X, 133-8), where he is located within Paradise, beside Aquinas and Isidore of Seville (a curiosity, given that Siger was a secular Aristotelian, Dante a Thomist, but perhaps Dante only knew of Siger as a persecuted philosopher, or perhaps, as Van Steenberghen has suggested, Siger's position was closer to Aquinas than his surviving works imply).

Notability

This philosopher has 9 pages in the Blackwell Companion.