Siger de Brabant

Siger de Brabant (sēzhā` də bräbäN`), 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.

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Siger de Brabant

(born 1240, duchy of Brabant—died between 1281 and 1284, Orvieto, Tuscany) French philosopher. He taught at the University of Paris and was a leader of the school of radical Aristotelianism. From c. 1260 he and others gave lectures on the works of Greek, Arabic, and medieval philosophers without regard for church teaching, which had blended Aristotelianism with the Christian faith. Some of his teachings were condemned in 1270 by the bishop of Paris, and in 1277 many more were condemned by the bishop. When summoned by the Inquisition (1276), he fled to Italy. Dante, in The Divine Comedy, put Siger in the Heaven of Light.