bernard of chartres (bernardus carnotensis) (died after 1124) was a twelfth-century french neo-platonist philosopher, scholar, and administrator. == life == the date and place of his birth are unknown. he was believed to have been the elder brother of thierry of chartres and to be of breton origin, but research has shown that this is unlikely.paul edward dutton (ed.), the glosae super platonem of bernard of chartres, toronto 1991, p. 40-42. he is recorded at the cathedral school of chartres by 1115 and was chancellor until 1124. there is no proof that he was still alive after 1124.for the date of his death see dutton p. 32-33. == sources == gilbert de la porrÃ©e and william of conches were students of his, and some information about his work comes through their writings, as well as the writings of john of salisbury. according to john of salisbury, bernard composed a prose treatise de expositione porphyrii, a metrical treatise on the same subject, a moral poem on education, and probably a fourth work in which he sought to reconcile plato with aristotle. fragments of these treatises are to be found in john's metalogicon (iv, 35) and policraticus (vii, 3).migne, patrologia latina, vol. cxlix, coll. 938 and 666. haurÃ©aucatholic encyclopedia, i, 408 confounds bernard of chartres with bernard silvestris, and assigns to the former works which are to be ascribed to the latter. the earliest attribution of the phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants" is to bernard (by john of salisbury):  == doctrines == bernard, in common with others of his school, devoted more attention to the study of the timaeus and the works of the neo-platonists than to the study of aristotle's dialectical treatises and the commentaries of boethius. consequently, he not only discussed the problem of universals (distinguishing between the abstract, the process, and the concreteâexemplified, for instance, by the latin words albedo, albet, and album) but also occupied himself with problems of metaphysics and cosmology. === metaphysics === according to bernard, there are three categories of reality: god, matter, and idea. god is supreme reality. matter was brought out of nothingness by god's creative act and is the element which, in union with ideas, constitutes the world of sensible things. ideas are the prototypes by means of which the world was from all eternity present 
1120s_deaths 12th-century_French_writers 12th-century_philosophers 12th-century_theologians French_philosophers Scholastic_philosophers