Porphyry and the 12th Century Scholastic Psychology

The article analyzes the influence of Porphyry on the 12(th) century scholastic psychology. The treatises lsagoge and Commentaries on Aristotle's Ctegories by Porphyry gave foundations not only for medieval logic but also for psychology. Medieval thinkers, while commenting Porphyry's treatises, paid special attention to those meanings and significances of terms which were used as predicates in the discussion on the universals. This discussion encompassed the relation between thinking and being, hierarchical structure of the world, functions of spiritual powers and led towards the discovery of introspection. The psychological introspection stimulated the development of personal self-awareness and the interest in the research of human nature. It also shaped new axiological attitudes towards God and neighbors. Medieval scholastic psychology paid much attention to the soul-body relation and to the transcendence, which it interpreted by metaphysical concepts.