Siger de Brabant

Siger de Brabant , fl. 1260-77, French theologian, head of the movement known as Latin Averroism. At the Univ. of Paris he taught that the individual soul had no immortality and that only the universal "active intellect" was immortal. He maintained also that the world had existed from eternity. In an attempt to reconcile these beliefs with Christian faith, Siger adopted the Averroist notion of "double truth" —that something could be true in rational philosophy but false in religious belief. St. Thomas Aquinas vigorously attacked Siger's teachings, and the doctrines were condemned in Paris in and after 1270. Siger died in Italy.

Siger of Brabant (c.1240–c.1284), Averroist philosopher. By 1266 he was teaching in Paris. He was involved in the condemnation of 13 errors by the Bp. of Paris in 1270 and in that year St Thomas Aquinas wrote his De Unitate Intellectus contra Averroistas, which was directed chiefly against him. In 1276 he was cited for heresy by Simon du Val, Inquisitor of France; it is not known whether he was acquitted or had already fled the kingdom.

Siger's most substantial works were commentaries and quaestiones on Aristotle's Metaphysics and works on natural philosophy which had recently been included in the curriculum at Paris. He regarded it as his task not to conceal Aristotle's views, even if these were contrary to revealed truth. The chief doctrines in question were the eternity of the world and the unity of the intellect in the human race, which involved the denial of personal immortality and of rewards and punishments in a future life. Critics accused him of holding that some tenets might be true in theology and false in philosophy; this he would have disputed, though it is not clear from his writings how far he resolved the status of philosophical truths.