Name Maurice Wulf | Died 1947, Poperinge, Belgium | |
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Books An Introduction to Schola, Philosophy and civilizatio, Scholasticism old and new, The system of Thomas Aquinas, Mediaeval Philosophy Illustrated | ||
Book Review: Introduction to Scholastic Philosophy by Maurice de Wulf
Maurice De Wulf (1867–1947), a Belgian Thomist philosopher, professor of philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, was one of the pioneers of the historiography of medieval philosophy. His book History of Medieval Philosophy appeared first in 1900 and was followed by many other editions and translations, one them being available today online.
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Life and work
During the 1920s he taught at Harvard and his Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages was published at Princeton in 1922.
Very early it was noted that "In his Histoire de la Philosophie Médievale, Mr. de Wulf departs from the common view which identifies Scholasticism with Mediaeval philosophy, and discovers in the Middle Ages two antithetical currents: Scholasticism proper, represented by Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Albert the Great, etc.; and anti-Scholasticism, of which Scotus Erigena is the father, and which is continued by the Catharists, the Albigenses and the Pantheistic schools. Mr. de Wulf's view on this point has not met with a ready acceptance. It has been rejected, among others, by Elie Blanc and Picavet. Mr. de Wulf, however, still holds the same opinion, and has defended it again in his Introduction à la Philosophie Neo scolastique."
Maurice De Wulf was a close friend of Cardinal Mercier. The "De Wulf-Mansion Centre for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy" was founded (1956) at the Institute of Philosophy in Leuven.