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Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy pp 1–11Cite as

School of Salamanca

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Abstract

The term “School of Salamanca” is used to refer to a group of Spanish theologians and jurists from the sixteenth to seventeenth century, ranging roughly from Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546) to Francisco Suárez (1548–1617). There is a rather broad agreement that the works of this group of authors are, in one way or another, of great importance in the process of the emergence of modern practical philosophy. But there is little agreement with regard to both the content of the concept of the School of Salamanca and its exact extension. In this entry, we would like to offer an account of the controversies that surround this concept: We will first identify three central aspects of the historical context in which the School of Salamanca is usually situated and offer a preliminary profile of the School. We will then describe how, i.e., by what features and in what fields, the works of these authors are thought to be relevant for an adequate understanding of the emergence of modern practical philosophy. Finally, we will try to sort the different strands of reception of the School and the different strategies of defining it and of assessing its impact and enduring relevance according to stakes that are often implicit in scholarly literature on the School of Salamanca. Our goal is to show how the very identification of the School is a matter of locating the decisive points of rupture and heritage on the part of today’s scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Andreas Wagner & Anselm Spindler

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  1. Andreas Wagner
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  2. Anselm Spindler
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Correspondence to Anselm Spindler .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Philosophy a. Cultural Heritage, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Dept. of Philosophy a. Cultural Heritage, Venezia, Italy

    Marco Sgarbi

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  1. Faculty of Arts. Building B, Campus UAB, Department: Catalan Language, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola), Barcelona, Spain

    Alejandro Coroleu ICREA-Research Professor

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Wagner, A., Spindler, A. (2018). School of Salamanca. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_692-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_692-1

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