Philosophy in the late Latin West

Abstract

In the late antique Latin west and thereafter a new conception of philosophy emerged, as primarily related to the meanings of texts. My aim here is to infer when and how this conception arose, eventually to replace the older sense of philosophy as a way of life. Elsewhere I have discussed the influence of Cicero's philosophical texts, but in this paper I will focus on three further important contemporary elements in the transformation: the disappearance of competence in Greek language in the Latin west; the cultural form in which Greek philosophical developments were accepted into the Latin tradition; and the influence of Christianity.