Peter Abelard (1079-1142) was a Scholastic philosopher and theologian, originally from Palet in Brittany, known primarily for his controversial views regarding the concept of universals, his instrumental role in the formation of the Scholastic method and the school of nominalism, his secret love affair with his female student Héloise, and the punishment of castration which followed. He is regarded by many scholars as the greatest logician of the Middle Ages and, in that role, as an essential founder of the technique of medieval philosophy known as Scholasticism, in which the primary raison d'etre became the reconciliation of Greco-Roman philosophy (primarily Aristotle) with Christian theology.
Abelard is given credit for the creation of the school of thought known as nominalism, a proposed solution to the problem of universals, which replaced the school of realism then in vogue in European universities. The school of realism, as opposed to the modern definition of the term, asserted that ideal concepts such as "love" or "virtue" referred to "forms" in the Platonic sense and that these terms were independent of the physical world, existing only as ideals. These ideals were known in medieval times as universals, which, according to one succinct scholar of medieval philosophy, is "a functional word expressing the combined image of a word's common association within the mind," or, perhaps even more succinctly, if less descriptive, an "ideal that exists solely within the realm of ideas." In other words, a green sweater, a blade of grass, and a Green Bay Packers uniform all exhibit qualities of "green-ness" even if "green-ness" itself exists only as an ideal. Nominalists went one step further, saying that universals were not only not dependent on physical reality, but had no real existence whatsoever other than in the realm of the human mind as a way of thinking and talking about abstract concepts. This may seem a trivial difference to the modern reader, but this was vastly important to medieval Christian theologians as Christian discourse contained numerous references to abstract concepts such as Heaven, Hell, Grace, and the Trinity. If universals were real only insomuch as they were necessary for humans to linguistically express them, did this not also mean that essential Christian necessities such as the aforementioned concepts were also unreal? Abelard's controversy only begins here.
Abelard was a prolific writer during his university years and his works were, by medieval standards, among the most lively and original works of philosophy of the early 12th century. His most famous and enduring work is known as Sic et Non, or Yes and No (also sometimes translated as Thus and Otherwise or For and Against) and it was to be used as the standard scholastic textbook for much of the Middle Ages. Written around 1123, it affirmed that any dialectical or logical truth can only be regarded as true when all sides of an argument have been presented. The Scholastic method developed only a few generations before Abelard, primarily from Islamic philosophers in the East and by the Bishop Anselm of Canterbury in the West, and Abelard's work Sic et Non developed a coherent organizational procedure. Scholasticism, as mentioned earlier, was primarily concerned with the reconciliation of Christian theology with Aristotelian philosophy, and the method bequeathed to this institution by Abelard was a technique that sought specifically to use reason and logic to resolve these apparent contradictions between sources which were argued from both sides, theoretically, with an open mind. The writing consisted of essentially arguing the pros and cons (or "Yeses and Nos") of various contradictory issues of the day. Abelard is quoted in it as saying "by doubting, we come to inquiry." This ran counter to Anselm's and the Church's proclamation, fides quaerens intellectum, of first having faith and then coming to reason (see The Ontological Argument Revisited). For this, Abelard was regularly rebuked. Among Abelard's many other controversial assertions include his theory of sin, in which he argued true sin was in intention rather than action, which also ran counter to the predominant Catholic teaching of the day. Abelard also contended that one could only truly confess sins to God and no other (earning Abelard retroactive admiration by some Protestants), which would get him into entanglements with the papacy, since Catholic doctrine gave the monopoly of confession to priests, and this sidestepping of Church authority was seen as blasphemous and politically dangerous. In fact, Abelard's works were officially condemned by the Church twice: once at a council in Soissons in 1121 over his denial of a universal of the Holy Trinity and again in Sens in 1140. This latter one was conducted by Pope Innocent II himself, at the behest of the mightily influential Bernard of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monk who had been instrumental in preaching the First Crusade, and who was viewed as resoundingly anti-rationalist and anti-skeptic. Later historians would interpret Abelard and Bernard as mortal enemies. Out of all this controversy, however, it is likely his relationship with his most famous student Héloise that earned him the most infamy at the time and the most fame in later centuries. Though Héloise is mostly famous due to her association with Abelard, she was a great scholar in her own right, being proficient in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. She came from lower nobility in France and her uncle Fulbert managed to secure Abelard as a private tutor for the precocious young academic. If the contemporary sources are to be believed, they instantly and passionately fell in love. Due to the circumstances of his place in their household and the impropriety of the tutor/student relationship, their love was kept a secret, though it seems that it was secret from no one except Héloise's naive uncle. Unfortunately for them, a furious Fulbert eventually did find out and the two were forced to flee. Abelard, who still hoped for advancement within the Church, urged a secret marriage, but Héloise turned down his proposals, claiming that it would do too much to destroy Abelard's reputation should word reach his superiors. Soon thereafter, Héloise became pregnant with their child (whom they would name Astrolabe, after t
he recent astronomical invention) and she conceded to the marriage. Fulbert could not be kept in the dark forever, and when Héloise flatly denied their involvement, Fulbert took this under the assumption that he had deserted her, infuriating him even more. Eventually, he dispatched a group of knights to Abelard's bedchamber where he was tied down and slowly castrated as punishment for his licentious behavior. This effectively put an end to their relationship, and Abelard retired to St. Denis monastery until poverty forced him to resume teaching, at Paraclete, under the rank of abbot, while Héloise continued her life as a private scholar in a convent in Paris. Abelard would never again enjoy the fame and eminence he once held, and would spend much of the rest of his life moving from monastery to monastery. The two would never see each other again, though they would maintain a correspondence through letters for the rest of their lives, which many have regarded as among the most romantic love letters in the Western canon.
he recent astronomical invention) and she conceded to the marriage. Fulbert could not be kept in the dark forever, and when Héloise flatly denied their involvement, Fulbert took this under the assumption that he had deserted her, infuriating him even more. Eventually, he dispatched a group of knights to Abelard's bedchamber where he was tied down and slowly castrated as punishment for his licentious behavior. This effectively put an end to their relationship, and Abelard retired to St. Denis monastery until poverty forced him to resume teaching, at Paraclete, under the rank of abbot, while Héloise continued her life as a private scholar in a convent in Paris. Abelard would never again enjoy the fame and eminence he once held, and would spend much of the rest of his life moving from monastery to monastery. The two would never see each other again, though they would maintain a correspondence through letters for the rest of their lives, which many have regarded as among the most romantic love letters in the Western canon. Abelard's legacy is one of controversy from beginning to end--from his tumultuous academic life to the tragic end of his affair with Héloise. But it is also a legacy of the advancement of human knowledge and the stirrings of free thought emerging out of a fairly intolerant and traditionalist society. Abelard's career can be seen as philosophically paradigmatic in that he believed in the essential unity of thought, reason, skepticism, individual intellectual interpretation, and emotion and intuition as a way of understanding and having faith. Abelard came to represent the excitement and aggressiveness with which Scholasticism would tackle the philosophical problems of the Middle Ages, and he sowed an optimism in the human spirit and intellectual faculties. For this, and for his undying affection for his beloved Héloise, he is one of the most romanticized figure from the period. Indeed, in later centuries, is life and love would be fodder for numerous poets:
"How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!/ The world forgetting by the world
forgot./ Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!/ Each pray'r accepted and each wish resigned."
--Alexander Pope, from "Eloisa to Abelard" (1717)
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