Dante, Aquinas, Aristotle, And The Fences Of Truth

Walking With Dante

Before we step onto PURGATORIO's terrace of envy, the second ledge of Purgatory proper, let's pause a moment to talk about the relationship among Dante, Aquinas, and Aristotle.

We have to take this detour because Dante will increasingly incorporate scientific reasoning into his poem, changing its very nature, based on his understanding of Aristotle, which is in turn based on the work of Islamic and Jewish scholars from the Iberian caliphates.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we look at this complicated history of thought and how it finally lands in COMEDY.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:46] The collapse of the Umayyad caliphate and the inception of the Iberian schools of learning.

[07:33] The discomfort with Aristotle at the University of Paris.

[14:33] Classical Greek leaning and the disruption and/or incorporation into medieval Christianity.

[17:30] If God is the author of all truth, then how does any truth whatsoever show up in the works of a pagan philosopher?

[21:10] How does inductive truth make any sense in a deductive religion?

[25:38] COMEDY is changing from an allegorical journey of a soul across the known universe to a poetic compendium of known truth.