- Walter of Mortagne
Walter of Mortagne (b. Mortagne,
Flanders , c. 1100; d.Laon , 1174) was a Scholasticphilosopher , andtheologian .He was educated in the schools of
Tournai . From 1136 to 1144 he taught at the celebrated School of StGenevieve inParis . From Paris he went to Laon and was madebishop of thatsee . His principal works are a treatise on theHoly Trinity and six "Opuscula". Of the "Opuscula" five are published inLucas d'Achéry 's "Spicilegium" (Paris, 1723) and the sixth in P.L. (CLXXXVI, 1052). A logical commentary which is contained in MS. 17813 of theBibliothèque Nationale and which was published in part byBarthélemy Hauréau in 1892 is also ascribed to him. Finally, there is extant a letter written by him toAbelard in which he expounds thePlato nic view that the body is an obstacle to the higher operations and aspirations of the soul.On the question of universals, Walter, according to
John of Salisbury , was the leader of theIndifferentist s, according to whom the universal is in itself indifferent, but becomes the predicate of an individual subject by the addition of various status, that is determinations or, at least, points of view.Socrates , for example, is an individual, aspecies (man), or agenus (animal) according to the status, or point of view, which we adopt. The significant thing about this theory is that it explicitly declares all real existence to be individual existence and implies that whatever unity there is in the universal (specific or generic) is a product of thought. It is, therefore, a protest against the exaggerated realism of the school ofWilliam of Champeaux , and, at the same time, prepares the way for themoderate realism which was definitely formulated in the thirteenth century.References
*catholic
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