WEEK 4: QUESTIONS ON MEDIEVAL AESTHETICS / CRITICAL THEORY

PLATO CRATYLUS

  1. Is ‘naming,’ that is, the relationship between name (word) and thing, sign and referent, a purely arbitrary affair left up to the whim of the individual, according to Socrates?
  2. Is ‘naming’ a purely arbitrary affair determined by consensual or collective agreement, according to Socrates?
  3. If your answers to the two preceding questions are both ‘no,’ why is naming not an arbitrary affair, according to Socrates? 
    1. Do ideas exist in our mind before or without language?
    2. What is the twofold function of language?
    3. What originally determined the assignment of a given word or sign to a particular thing or referent by the so-called ‘name-giver’ or 'legislator,' according to Plato?
    4. Why have signs lost  their original form?
  4. Why are words unsatisfactory for Plato?

ST. AUGUSTINE ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

  1. What is the difference, according to St. Augustine, between a ‘sign’ and a ‘thing’?  What are the most important ‘things,’ according to St. Augustine?
  2. What is the difference, according to St. Augustine, between ‘natural’ and ‘conventional’ signs?
  3. What is the difference, according to St. Augustine, between ‘literal’ and ‘figurative’ signs? What is the latter responsible for?
  4. What is the difference, according to St. Augustine, between ‘oral’ and ‘written’ signs?
  5. How does St. Augustine implicitly conceive of human consciousness?  Are ideas possible without language?

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS SUMMA THEOLOGIAE

  1. Why, according to Aquinas, do some people think that figurative language has no place in the Bible? 
  2. Why, according to Aquinas, is figurative language unavoidable?
  3. What are the two levels of signification into which any passage in the Bible is divisible, according to Aquinas?
  4. Name the four subcategories into which the first level of signification is divisible, according to Aquinas.  Give an example of each.
  5. Name the three subcategories into which the second level of signification is divisible, according to Aquinas.  Give an example of each.

DANTE THE BANQUET and "LETTER TO CAN GRANDE DELLA SCALA"

  1. What are the four senses or levels of meaning of a given text, according to Dante?  Where necessary, give examples.