Philosophy
blooms
But in the
midst of these armed engagements, the 1100s has been an age
of philosophy. The Chinese philosopher Zhu Xi blended Confucian
themes of correct moral behavior and Buddhist ideas about the meaning
of suffering and death into a new school of thought called neo-Confucianism.
The Indian philosopher Ramanuja taught that devotion to the Hindu
god Vishnu would lead to personal salvation. In his efforts to formulate
a rational understanding of the world, the Spanish Muslim philosopher
Ibn Rushd drew on the works of Aristotle, recently translated into
Arabic. Peter Abelard and other Western European thinkers, influenced
by the methods of classical Greece, shone the light of logic and
reason onto philosophical and theological matters.
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