A Place of Influence, An Inheritance of Generation: Mapping Epistemology, Authority, and Anthropology in Albertus Magnus’s DE NATURA LOCI

Abstract

This thesis investigates two sets of issues concerning Albertus Magnus’s theory of place in De natura loci: 1) the “philosophy of science” underlying Albert’s theory of place within the greater context of his natural philosophy; 2) how Albert’s philosophy of place informs his normative conceptions of human nature. Accordingly, I have divided the body of my work into two parts. PART I will address (1) by investigating Albert’s method of knowledge-making in order to both reconstruct Albert’s epistemology and contextualise his theory of place within his natural philosophy. PART II will engage in a philosophic analysis of Albert’s arguments concerning the determinism of “natural place” and its relation to what it generates.