Background
Van Steenberghen, Fernand was born on February 13, 1904 in Sin-Josse-ten Noorde.
Van Steenberghen, Fernand was born on February 13, 1904 in Sin-Josse-ten Noorde.
University of Louvain, tnfts: Aquinas. Aristotle and De Wulf.
1939-1974, Professor of the History of Medieval Philosophy, University of Louvain.
Van Steenberghen’s Epistemology (1945) and Ontology (1946) were standard student texts in Louvain and elsewhere in the middle decades of the century, and represent a Thomism enlarged by its sympathy with Husserlian phenomenology. His most interesting work is Dieu caché ( 1961 ), a brilliant and penetrating critique of Aquinas’s ‘five ways' and other proofs of the existence of God. His medieval studies are of permanent value, not least his two-volume work on Siger of Brabant. He engaged in a long controversy with Gilson about the possibility of ‘Christian philosophy’, a phrase which Van Steenberghen regards with the utmost distrust. Van Steenberghen’s reputation as a historian of thirteenth-century philosophy is unsurpassed. Sources: Dizionario dei Filosof dei Novecento; Enciclopedia Filosofea.