DE WULF, MAURICE

Historian of medieval philosophy; b. Poperinge, Belgium, April 6, 1867; d. there, Dec. 23, 1947. As a student at the University of Louvain, De Wulf followed the courses given by D. mercier on the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, during the years from 1885 to 1891. Following the suggestion of Mercier he wrote a thesis on Henry of Ghent; he received the title "docteur en philosophic selon saint Thomas" (1893), and was immediately named professor at the "Institut supérieur de Philosophie" at Louvain (1893–1939).

In 1900, De Wulf published the Histoire de la philosophie médiévale, which promoted the scholastic revival by pointing out the essence of scholasticism, and not just by providing a collection of facts about scholastic philosophy. By scholasticism, De Wulf meant a body of original doctrine of a metaphysical nature, arrived at by reason; despite secondary divergences, this was common to the great thinkers of the Middle Ages and found its most adequate expression in the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. De Wulf devoted particular studies to some of the medieval philosophers who came from his own country: Henry of Ghent, Giles of Lessines, and Godfrey of Fontaines. In 1910 he published a Histoire de la philosophie en Belgique. Following upon his wartime conferences in the U.S. and Canada, De Wulf held a chair of the history of medieval philosophy at Harvard, which he occupied from 1920 until 1927. Through these courses and his lectures at other universities (Princeton, etc.) he played an important role in the development of medieval studies in America.

See Also: scholasticism; scholastic philosophy; neoscholasticism and neothomism

Bibliography: l. noËl, "L'Oeuvre de Monsieur de Wulf," Revue néo-scolastique de philosophie 36 (1934) 11–38. p. harmignie, "La Carrière scientifique de Monsieur le Professeur de Wulf," ibid. 39–66. f. van steenberghen, "Les 'Beiträge' dans la tourmente," Revue philosophique de Louvain 46 (1948) 481–490.

[a. wylleman]