Medieval Thought Experiments

Poetry, Hypothesis, and Experience in the European Middle Ages

Edited by Jonathan Morton Edited by Daniel Reeve Edited by Philip Knox

Book cover: Medieval Thought Experiments

Extent: 339, 339 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Literary Studies, Medieval Studies

Series: Disputatio

Series volume number: 31

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(August 2018)

ISBN: 9782503576213

Price: $125.00

In stock

Throughout the Middle Ages, fictional frameworks could be used as imaginative spaces in which to test or play with ideas without asserting their truth. The aim of this volume is to consider how intellectual problems were approached-if not necessarily resolved-through the kinds of hypothetical enquiry found in poetry and in other text


Throughout the Middle Ages, fictional frameworks could be used as imaginative spaces in which to test or play with ideas without asserting their truth. The aim of this volume is to consider how intellectual problems were approached–if not necessarily resolved–through the kinds of hypothetical enquiry found in poetry and in other texts that employ fictional or imaginative strategies. Scholars working across the spectrum of medieval languages and academic disciplines consider why a writer might choose a fictional or hypothetical frame to discuss theoretical questions, how a work’s truth content is affected and shaped by its fictive nature, or what kinds of affective or intellectual work its reading demands. By reading literary, philosophical, and spiritual texts from England, France, and Italy alongside each other, this collection offers a new interdisciplinary approach to the history of medieval thought.

  • Edited by Jonathan Morton
  • Edited by Daniel Reeve
  • Edited by Philip Knox