Wednesday Wisdom

Who?

Flaccus Albinus Alcunuis, better known as Alcuin, was a scholar, deacon, and poet from York, Northumbria, current-day England. He lived from 735 to 805 and became the lead scholar for the Corligian court which was the Frankish noble ruling family most led notably by Charlemagne. His influence over western culture is remembered by The Episcopal Church on the 20th of May and at York College.

Charlemagne, the King of the Roman Empire, later in 800 was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III. Seeking to build and unite Europe under the ideals of Christianity, he brought the best minds and thinkers to his court. Alcuin's intelligence and wisdom stood out and he was charged with overseeing Europe's entire educational and cultural reforms in 780 AD. He became the instructor at the Palace School in Aachen is now western Germany, where he tutored Charlemagne and his sons.

What he produced

With the King's support, Alcuin established centers of learning, which almost solely focused on careful and exacting copying of ancient texts. Alcuin understood the paradoxical truth, that culture could only be advanced by looking to the past, and ironically, he looked back to pagan Ancient Athens and Rome. Counseling Charlamange on logic and reasoning, he wrote "At Athens, wise men propose, fools dispose." In another of his many correspondents with Charlamagne, Alcuin wrote "If many people follow your enthusiastic endeavors, perhaps a new Athens might be created in the land of Franks, or rather a much better one."

We also know from his correspondence with Charlamagne that the King revered his wisdom and council. When asked how to deal with heretical beliefs against the church, a seemingly enlightened Alcuin responded, “Faith is a free act of the will, not a forced act. We must appeal to the conscience, not compel it by violence. You can force people to be baptized, but you cannot force them to believe “.

Among the many pearls of wisdom, he wrote "man thinks, God directs" which has now often been quoted as "Man plans, God laughs ".

2023: Why do we care?

One of his famous quotes that have been often and recently misconstrued is The Latin proverb " Vox Populi, Vox"' which translates to "the voice of the people is the voice of God". This is a partial quote from Alcunius, who was counseling Charlemagne on governing his subjects. The full quote is; “Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit."

This translates to; "We should not listen to those who like to affirm that the voice of the people is the voice of God, for the tumult of the masses is truly close to madness."

As a student of the ancient philosophers, Alcuin was well aware of Plato and his famous book "The Republic". Plato uses the metaphor of the virtues of the soul with the virtues of the city-state, having separate functions to create a functioning society.

In Alcuin’s eyes, a king should guide and rule his realm, ensure justice, renew the church, and unify the people under his rule; being the only person who decides in a just way, defends against oppression, make laws, takes care of strangers and pilgrims, and spreads the word of Christ everywhere.

Like Plato, Alcuin stressed the importance of virtue and wisdom in leaders and perhaps even gives a warning, in its absence of virtue and wisdom is anarchy.

And now you know;

Philosophy is the art of thinking, the building block of progress that shapes critical thinking across economics, ethics, religion, and science.

METAPHYSICS: Literally, the term metaphysics means ‘beyond the physical.’ Typically, this is the branch that most people think of when they picture philosophy. In metaphysics, the goal is to answer the what and how questions in life. Who are we, and what are time and space?

LOGIC: The study of reasoning. Much like metaphysics, understanding logic helps to understand and appreciate how we perceive the rest of our world. More than that, it provides a foundation for which to build and interpret arguments and analyses.

ETHICS: The study of morality, right and wrong, good and evil. Ethics tackles difficult conversations by adding weight to actions and decisions. Politics takes ethics to a larger scale, applying it to a group (or groups) of people. Political philosophers study political governments, laws, justice, authority, rights, liberty, ethics, and much more.

AESTHETICS: What is beautiful? Philosophers try to understand, qualify, and quantify what makes art what it is. Aesthetics also takes a deeper look at the artwork itself, trying to understand the meaning behind it, both art as a whole and art on an individual level. A question an aesthetics philosopher would seek to address is whether or not beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

EPISTEMOLOGY: This is the study and understanding of knowledge. The main question is how do we know? We can question the limitations of logic, how comprehension works, and the ability (or perception) to be certain.