SYGERIUS] SIGIERI SIGER DE

BRABANT [SIGhIER  , French philosopher of the 13th century . About the facts of his life there has been much difference of opinion . In 1266 he was attached to the Faculty of Arts in the University of Paris at the time when there was a great conflict between the four " nations." The papal legate decided in 1266 that Siger was the ringleader, and threatened him with death . During the succeeding ten years he wrote the six works which are ascribed to him and were published under his name by P . Mandonnet in 1899 . The titles of these treatises are: De anima intellectiva (1270); Quaestiones logicales; Quaestiones naturales; De aeternitate mundi; Quaestio utrum &tee sit' vera; Homo est animal nullo homine existente; Impossibilia . In 1271 he was once more involved in a party struggle . The minority among the " nations " chose him as rector in opposition to the elected candidate, Aubri de Rheims . For three years the strife continued, and was probably based on the opposition between the Averroists, Siger and Pierre Dubois, and the more orthodox schoolmen . The matter was settled by the Papal Legate, Simon de Brion, afterwards Pope Martin IV . Siger retired from Paris to Liege . In 1277 a general condemnation of Aristotelianism included a special clause directed against Boetius of Denmark and Siger of Brabant .

Again Siger and Bernier de

Nivelles were summoned to appear on a charge of heresy, especially in connexion with the Impossibilia, where the existence of God is discussed . It appears, however, that Siger and Boetius fled to Italy and, according to John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury, perished miserably, The manner of Siger's death, which occurred at Orvieto, is not known . A Brabantine chronicle says that he was killed by an insane secretary (a clerico suo quasi dementi) . Dante, in the Paradiso (x . 134-6), says that he found " death slow in coming," and tome have concluded that this indicates death by suicide . A 13th-century sonnet by one Durante (xcii . 9-14) says that he was executed at Orvieto: a ghiado it fe' morire a gran dolore, Nella corte di Roma ad Orbivieto . The date of this may have been 1283–1284 when Martin IV. was in residence at Orvieto . In politics he held that good laws were better than good rulers, and criticised papal infallibility in temporal affairs . The importance of Siger in philosophy lies in his acceptance of Averroism in its entirety, which drew upon him the opposition of Albertus Magnus and Aquinas . In December 1270 Averroism was condemned by ecclesiastical authority, and during his whole life Siger was exposed to persecution both from the Church and from purely philosophic opponents . In view of this, it is curious that Dante should place him in Paradise at the side of Aquinas and Isidore of Seville .

Probably Dante knew of him only from the chronicler as a persecuted philosopher . See P . Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme (

clan du XIIIe siecle (Fribourg, 1899) ; G . Paris, " Siger de Brabant " in La Poesie du moyen age (1895); and an article in the Revue de Paris (Sept . ISt, 1900) .