SOURCE: Bukowski, Thomas P. “The Eternity of the World according to Siger of Brabant: Probable or Demonstrative?” Recherches de Théologie ancienne et médiévale 36 (1969): 225-29.

In the following essay, Bukowski explains how recent discoveries of works by Siger have forced a reappraisal of his views on the eternity of the world.

As a result of a new discovery of works by Siger of Brabant, the question of Siger's relationship to Thomas Aquinas has taken on greater interest¹. With regard to that question, it is clearly opportune to direct attention to an interpretation developed some years ago by J. P. Muller, O.S.B., and commended by that extraordinarily competent scholar Anneliese Maier². According to Dom Muller, Siger regards his own apparently anti-Christian positions as based on probable rather than demonstrative reasoning. It is easy to see that such an interpretation is relevant to determining just how...