Thomas Wylton: On the Intellectual Soul

Thomas Wylton's Quaestio de anima intellectiva is one of the most significant medieval treatments of the intellectual soul. This edition of the Latin text is accompanied by an en face English translation by Gail Trimble. The detailed introduction guides the reader through the intricacies of the transmission of the text as well as its philosophical contents.

Wylton's Quaestio presents a strong and controversial defence of Averroes' interpretation of Aristotelian psychology. In his comparison of Averroes' view with the Catholic doctrine of the human soul, as defined by the Council of Vienne, Wylton highlights the rationality of the Arabic philosopher's stance and raises strong arguments against the commonly accepted opinion of Catholic thinkers, such as Thomas Aquinas and his followers. Wylton's Quaestio had a strong influence on his contemporaries and in particular on the most eminent exponent of Latin Averroism, John of Jandun, who included long passages from Wylton's treatise in his commentary on Aristotle's On the Soul.

Wylton also addresses fundamental philosophical issues: the ontological status of a subsisting form, the existence of universal things as components of individuals, and the possibility of intellectual knowledge of universals as well as singulars. This combination of polemics and engaging philosophical reflection is one of the distinguishing features of Wylton's text and makes his work of significance to historians, philosophers, and theologians.

Lauge Olaf Nielsen is Professor emeritus of Church History at the University of Copenhagen and a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. He has published extensively on medieval and early modern theology and philosophy and produced several critical editions of Latin medieval philosophical and theological texts. Cecilia Trifogli is Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Fellow of the British Academy. She has published extensively on the medieval tradition of Aristotle’s natural philosophy and psychology. She is the author of a book on the English commentaries on the Physics (Oxford Physics in the Thirteenth Century, Brill 2000). She also works on the critical editions of medieval philosophical texts. For the Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi series, she edited Wylton’s Question on the Intellectual Soul (together with L. O. Nielsen and G. Trimble, ABMA 19) and Geoffrey of Aspall’s Questions on Aristotle’s Physics (together with S. Donati and J. Ashworth, ABMA 26-27).