Research Catalog

Title

Marsilius of Padua at the intersection of ancient and medieval traditions of political thought / Vasileios Syros.

Author

Syros, Vasileios.

Publication

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 305 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

• "This book focuses on the reception of classical political ideas in the political thought of the fourteenth-century Italian writer Marsilius of Padua. Vasileios Syros provides a novel cross-cultural perspective on Marsilius's theory and breaks fresh ground by exploring linkages between his ideas and the medieval Muslim, Jewish, and Byzantine traditions.
• Syros investigates Marsilius's application of medical metaphors in his discussion of the causes of civil strife and the desirable political organization. He also demonstrates how Marsilius's demarcation between ethics and politics and his use of examples from Greek mythology foreshadow early modern political debates (involving such prominent political authors as Niccolò Machiavelli and Paolo Sarpi) about the political dimension of religion, church-state relations, and the emergence and decline of the state."--

Subjects

• Philosophy, Medieval > Influence
• Philosophy, Ancient > Influence
• Political science > Philosophy > History > To 1500
• Marsilius, of Padua, -1342?

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [223]-299) and indexes.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Marsilius' Life and Works -- Major Intellectual Influences on Marsilius. Albertino Mussato and Paduan Politics ; Peter of Abano and Late Medieval Natural Philosophy and Medicine ; Averroes Goes West: John of Jandun ; Muslim and Jewish Influences. -- Marsilius' Political Theory. Marsilius and Aristotelian Teleology ; The Origins of Social Life ; Rhetoric and the Genesis of Civil Life ; The Purpose of the Political Community ; The Peace and Tranquility of the Political Community ; The Unity of the Political Community ; The Organization of the Political Community ; The Emergence of Religion and the Civic Function of the Sacerdotal Part ; Marsilius' Notion of Citizenship. -- Marsilius' Legal Theory. The Definition of the Law ; Giants on the Shoulders of Dwarfs: Legislation and a Well-ordered Political Community ; Cyclops with Many Eyes: Laws and Collective Prudence ; The legislator humanus ; Legislation and Sovereignty ; Medieval Echoes ; Beyond Aristotle. -- Marsilius' Theory of Government. The Taxonomy of Constitutions ; The Five Modes of Establishing Monarchy ; The Appointment of the Government ; The Political Community as a Living Organism. -- Conclusions.

ISBN

• 9781442641440
• 1442641444

OCLC

815853013

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library