Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-274).

Habilitationsschrift--Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, 1974. / Includes index. Bibliography: p. [417]-427.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 240-246).

For almost five centuries Enrique de Villena (1384-1434) has been branded as a sorcerer and dismissed as both incredulous and superstitious because of his interest in the so-called "occult" sciences. Partly for this reason, until very recently, his writings have attracted little serious scholarly attention, and an edition of his complete works has only been available since 1994. The present thesis is an overall study of Villena's works within a conceptual framework which reflects the ideological bases wich served as Villena's own point of departure. Drawing on studies of traditional societies by specialists such as Ren6 Gu6non and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, we are able to formulate a well-defined paradigm that explains not just the philosophical foundations of Ancient and Medieval science and literature, but of all human activity in societies which regard their ultimate foundations as resting on a set of divinely-revealed precepts. Chapter 1 provides a critical review of the main contributions to Villena studies, and defines seven fundamental characteristics of traditionalism (also known as the Philosophia perennis) which, in Chapter 2, we are able to identify in Villena's works. Chapter 3 illustrates the existence in the works of Villena of the two classes of traditional authors, and eight of the most common synonyms for their cognitive organs. Chapter 4 presents the function of the restorer and eleven aspects of the traditional author's modus scribendi as found both in traditionalism and in Villena's works. Chapter 5 selects some distinctive notions which characterize five branches of traditional science so as to illustrate their presence in the scientific works of Villena. This thesis demonstrates that the works of Enrique de Villena can only be fully understood when read in the light of traditional philosophy. It also shows that Villena was attempting to revive this Philosophia perennis in the first half of the fifteenth century, a Philosophia which, because of its faith-based tenets and the need for a special intellectual initiation into the comprehension of its precepts, was being rejected by the increasing rationalism of the age. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Protosciences, or new sciences trying to establish their legitimacy, are ubiquitous in literature. In the old stories we hear of alchemists who can only dream of the discoveries that modern chemists take for granted, and in the new stories we hear of travelers moving faster than light as our greatest physicists attempt to make that fantasy a reality. Limiting our viewpoint to the modern scientific reductionist view of the universe not only makes little sense if we consider Michael Polanyi's theories of emergence and 'personal knowledge', but it robs medieval scholars for the conceptual credit they are due for theories they could not satisfactorily explain by the future's standards, and stifles the sorts of fantastic possibilities that are opened by the great science-fiction authors. Medieval authors' expositions of protoscientific thought laid the ground work for our own modern disciplines, and by reexamining how this happened we can develop a new appreciation for the power of the imagination. / by Robert James Leivers. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Habilitationsschrift--Munich. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-297) and index.

Thesis-Zürich. / Vita. Includes index. Bibliography: p. v.

Habilitationsschrift--Munich. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-297) and index.

Thesis--ha-Universiṭah ha-ʻivrit bi-Yerushalayim. / Added t.p.: The thought of R. Zerahiah b. Isaac b. Shealtiel Hen & the Maimonidean-Tibbonian philosophy of the 13th century. Includes English summary. Bibliography: leaves 293-301.

Thesis--Zürich. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. v) and index.