Are there any important works of philosophy from the Middle Ages?

Miscellaneous General
1

I’ve created a reading list for my self of major philosophical works to give me a broad understanding of the field from it’s original expositors (except in one case but he agrees with him at all points and van Til was a poor author). The areas of philosophy I want to cover are epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics. At present my list jumps from Plotinus to Decartes. Are there any works by Aquinas or Augustine that are important or someone else who has skipped my mind? My list at present reads as follows:

Title Author
Euthyphro Plato
Phaedo Plato
Parmenides Plato
The Symposium Plato
Phaedrus Plato
The Republic Plato
The Laws Plato
Metaphyics Aristotle
Nichomachean Ethics Aristotle
Rhetoric Aristotle
Poetics Aristotle
The Enneads Plotinus
The Meditations and Discourses Decartes
Ethics Spinoza
Principles of Human Knowledge Berkeley
A Treatise into Human Nature Hume
Critique of Pure Reason Kant
The Groundwork of the Metaphysics or Morals Kant
The Metaphysics of Morals Kant
Science of Logic Hegel
Either Or Kierkegaard
Ego and His Own Stirner
Beyond Good and Evil Nietschze
The Genealogy of Morals Nietschze
Pragamtism James
Being and Time Heidegger
Language, Truth and Logic Ayer
Nature of Thought Blanshard
The Tractatus Wittgenstein
Major Works Wittgenstein
Being and Nothingness Sartre
A New Critique on Philosophical Thought Dooyeweerd
Foundations of Morality Hazlitt
Ontological Relativity and Two Dogmas of Empiricism Quine
The Archaeology of History Foucault
After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory MacIntyre
Van Til’s Apologetic Bahnsen
The Ethics of Liberty Rothbard
2

I mean, Augustine’s City of God and Confessions are both important (significant to Christian philosophy), they are not really from the middle ages. And Aquinas (Thomism) is popular in its own right.

The Fable of the Bees?

Francis Hutcheson has the most succinct Scottish Enlightenment (Ethics, Metaphysics, Aesthetics) and Adam Smith has his Theory of Moral Sentiments, but I guess they aren’t middle ages either.

3

Are there any particular works by Aquinas you would recommend?

4

The Summa Theologiae is probably one of the most influential books ever written.

Other important works of philosophy from the Middle Ages are:

Moreh Nevukhim by Moshe ben Maimon
Khitab al-Shifa by Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
Liber Quattuor Sententiarum by Petrus Lombardus
Dialectica by Pierre Abélard (incomplete)

There are more but I should have paid more attention in philosophy class at school…

5

Ii is but is it mainly for its theological or philosophical content. I did have the Suma down at some point to read although I considered it more in the theological rather than philosophical category.

Thanks for the other suggestions, I’ll check them out.

6

The areas of philosophy I want to cover are epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics. At present my list jumps from Plotinus to Decartes.

The middle ages were the era of scholasticism. So many of the writers in that period were monks. And we just may not the names of it. The universities taught the Trivium, which deals with grammar, logic and rhetoric and the Quadrivium, which is about the numerical arts.
Important names from the middle ages in terms of philosophy would be:

  • Anselm of Canterbury
  • Duns Scotus
  • William of Ockham
  • Albert of Saxony
  • Walter Burley
  • John Wycliffe
  • Nicholas of Autrecort

You may also be interested in the following:
http://archive.org/details/cu31924029007726 Overview on medieval thought.

Or Political theories of the middle age

I got more in store, but unfortunately hadn’t yet the opportunity to read the medieval philosophers thoroughly. But I really get the impression that this era is underappreciated.