Routledge History of Philosophy Volume IV

390 GLOSSARY
attribute:
Averroism:
Calvinism:
causality, rationalist
theory of:
which would establish rules for inquiry and do away
with the need for individual genius or flair on the part
of the inquirer. This ‘art’ was traditionally
distinguished from the ‘ars judicandi’, the ‘art of
judgement’; this was used to test the truth of
propositions that were proposed to one, and involved
syllogistic (q.v.).
in its basic sense, an ‘attribute’ is that which is
attributed to, or predicated of, something. Descartes
held that each substance (q.v.) has a principal
attribute—extension in the case of corporeal
substance, thought in the case of mental substance—
which constitutes the substance’s essence (q.v.). This
view is related to (though by no means the same as)
Spinoza’s theory that thought and extension are two
attributes of the one substance.
the theories of the Islamic philosopher Ibn Rushd
(Averroes: 1126–98). A much-cited commentator on
Aristotle, Averroes was probably best known for his
interpretation of what Aristotle said about the ‘active
intellect’ in De Anima, III, 5. Averroes argued that the
active intellect is divine, and as such is one. The
human being does not enjoy personal immortality;
human beings are immortal only in so far as the divine
intellect is present in them. Not surprisingly, this view
was condemned by many medieval Catholic
theologians; however, it survived until the
Renaissance.
the theology of the French Protestant theologian John
Calvin (1509–64). From a philosophical point of
view, Calvinism is interesting as a deterministic
system (see ‘determinism’), based on the absolute
predestination of God, whose eternal decree has
predestined some of his creatures to salvation and
some to eternal damnation. Calvin also declared that
the state was subordinate to the Church, as opposed
to Luther (1483–1546) who argued that the state is
supreme over religion.
a theory about the nature of causal necessity. It is
commonly held that if E is the cause of F, then given
E, F must occur. The rationalist theory of causality
argues that causal necessity is logical necessity; that
is, that to say that E causes F is to say that F is the