William Turner

“ After a discussion as to the place which physiology and philology should occupy in this classification of philosophical sciences, the disputants passed on to the question, "What is the aim of philosophy?" Gerbert answered that the final cause of philosophical study is a knowledge of things human and divine, in other words, that philosophy is, so to speak, its own reward. ”

“ This little treatise is, therefore, the first sample of the use of the Scholastic method, which, a century later, was employed in Abelard's Sic et Non, and was perfected by the philosophers of the thirteenth century. It is by reason of its method rather than of its contents that the treatise occupies so important a place in the history of Scholastic philosophy. ”

“ Gerbert as a Philosopher. 1. Richer, a contemporary and disciple of Gerbert, gives a most interesting description of an encounter which took place at Ravenna in the year 980 between Gerbert, master of the schools at Rheims, and Otric, the most famous of the masters of the German schools. The Emperor, Otho II, and many distinguished prelates lent solemnity to the scene by their presence. Gerbert opened the discussion by defining philosophy as "divinarum et humanarum rerum comprehensio veritatis," thus identifying philosophy with knowledge. ”