Daniel Joseph Kennedy

“ After the unorthodox Averroes, Albert was the chief commentator on the works of Aristotle, whose writings he studied most assiduously, and whose principles he adopted, in order to systematize theology, by which was meant a scientific exposition and defence of Christian doctrine. The choice of Aristotle as a master excited strong opposition. Jewish and Arabic commentaries on the works of the Stagirite had given rise to so many errors in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries that for several years (1210–25) the study of Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics was forbidden at Paris. ”

“ That he did not admit the possibility of making gold by alchemy or the use of the philosopher's stone, is evident from his own words: "Art alone cannot produce a substantial form". (Non est probatum hoc quod educitur de plumbo esse aurum, eo quod sola ars non potest dare formam substantialem—De Mineral., lib. II, dist. 3) .
Roger Bacon and Albert proved to the world that the Church is not opposed to the study of nature, that faith and science may go hand in hand; their lives and their writings emphasize the importance of experiment and investigation. ”

“ All inferior (natural) sciences should be the servants (ancillæ) of Theology, which is the superior and the mistress (ibid., 1 P., tr. 1, quaest. 6) . Against the rationalism of Abelard and his followers Albert pointed out the distinction between truths naturally knowable and mysteries (e.g. the Trinity and the Incarnation) which cannot known without revelation (ibid., 1 P., tr. III, quæst. 13) . We have seen that he wrote two treatises against Averroism, which destroyed individual immortality and individual responsibility, by teaching that there is but one rational soul for all men. ”

“ There he received the Doctor's degree in the university which, above all others, was celebrated as a school of theology. It was during this period of teaching at Cologne and Paris that he counted amongst his hearers St. Thomas Aquinas, then a silent, thoughtful youth, whose genius he recognized and whose future greatness he foretold. The disciple accompanied his master to Paris in 1245, and returned with him, in 1248, to the new Studium Generale of Cologne, in which Albert was appointed Regent, whilst Thomas became second professor and Magister Studentium (Master of Students) . ”

“ It will, however, be convenient to consider his skill in the experimental sciences, his influence on scholastic philosophy, his theology.
IV. Albert and the Experimental Sciences.—It is not surprising that Albert should have drawn upon the sources of information which his time afforded, and especially upon the scientific writings of Aristotle. Yet he says: "The aim of natural science is not simply to accept the statements [narrata] of others, but to investigate the causes that are at work in nature" (De Miner., lib. II, tr. ii, i) . ”

“ Psychological: "De Animâ" (5) ; "De sensu et sensato", "De Memoriâ, et reminiscentiâ", "De somno et vigiliâ", "De naturâ et origine animæ", "De intellectu et intelligibili", "De unitate intellectus" (9) . The foregoing subjects, with the exception of Logic, are treated compendiously in the "Philosophia pauperum" (5) . Moral and Political: "Ethicorum" (7) ”

“ Feret, La faculté de théologie de Paris (Paris, 1895) , II, 421–441; Finke, Die Freiburger Dominikaner und Münsterbau (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1901) , 2–18; Talamo, L'Aristotelismo della scholastica (Naples, 1873) ; Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme latin au XIIIe siècle (Freiburg, Switzerland, 1899) ; Jourdain, Recherches critiques sur l'âge et l'origine des traductions latines d'Aristotle (Paris, 1843) , 310–358; Gonzales, Studies on the Philosophy of Albert, in Histories of Philosophy, French tr. by de Pascal (Paris, 1890) ; Ueberweg (tr. New York, 1890) ; Turner (Boston, 1903) ”