 siger of brabant (sigerus, sighier, sigieri or sygerius de brabantia; c. 1240 &ndash; before 10 november 1284) was a 13th-century philosopher from the southern low countries who was an important proponent of averroism. he was considered a radical by the conservative members of the roman catholic church, but it is suggested that he played as important a role as his contemporary thomas aquinas in the shaping of western attitudes towards faith and reason. little is known about many of the details of his life. in 1266, he was attached to the faculty of arts in the university of paris at the time when a riot erupted between the french and picard "nations" of studentsâa series of loosely organized fraternities. the papal legate threatened siger with execution as the ringleader of the picard attack on the french, but no further action was taken. during the succeeding 10 years, he wrote the six works which are ascribed to him and were published under his name by pierre mandonnet in 1899. the titles of these treatises are: *de anima intellectiva (1270) *quaestiones logicales *quaestiones naturales *de aeternitate mundi *quaestio utrum haec 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 liÃ¨ge. averroism was controversial because it taught aristotle in its original form with no reconciliation with christian belief. siger was accused of teaching "double truth"âthat is, saying one thing could be true through reason, and that the opposite could be true through faith. because siger was a scholastic, he probably did not teach double truths but tried to find reconciliations between faith and reason. in 1277, a general condemnation of aristotelianism included a special clause directed against boetius of dacia and siger of brabant. again siger and bernier de nivelles were summoned to appear on a charge of heresy, especially in connection 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.
1240_births 1280s_deaths 13th-century_Latin_writers Belgian_philosophers Scholastic_philosophers University_of_Paris_alumni