| S. Isidorus (Etim., II, 24, 3): "Philosophiae species tripertita est: una
| naturalis, quae Graece Physica apellatur [...] altera moralis, quae Graece
| Ethica dicitur, [...] tertia rationalis, quae Graeco vocabulo Logica
| apellatur"
|
| Anyone knows who was the first that made such tripartition?
|
This classification can be traced right back to ancient Greek philosophy,
at least to Aristotle (although I think Plato also made this kind of
division). The finest survey I have come across is
James A Weisheipl, "The Nature, Scope and Classification of the
Sciences," in _Science in the Middle Ages_, ed. D C Lindberg
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), pp. 461-482.
He starts with the Greeks and moves forward right up to the late
thirteenth century. A student of Wiesheipl, Dr Betsey Price, now at MIT
(who introduced me to the world of medieval studies), touches on
this in her book _Medieval Thought_ (I can't put my hands on my
copy, so I am not exactly sure how much).
Cheers
Jim
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James R. Ginther
Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
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E-mail: Phone: +44.113.233.6749
[log in to unmask] Fax: +44.113.233.3654
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http://www.leeds.ac.uk/trs/trs.html
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