Ramon Llull
Ramon Llull , sometimes anglicized as Raymond Lully, was a Mallorcan Catholic philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, apologist and former knight. He invented a philosophical system known as the Art, conceived as a type of universal logic to prove the truth of Christian doctrine to interlocutors of all faiths and nationalities. The Art consists of a set of general principles and combinatorial operations. It is illustrated with diagrams.
A prolific writer, he is also known for his literary works written in Catalan, which he composed to make his Art accessible to a wider audience. In addition to Catalan and Latin, he also probably wrote in Arabic. His books were translated into Occitan, French, and Castilian during his lifetime.
Although his work did not enjoy huge success during his lifetime, he has had a rich and continuing reception. In the early modern period his name became associated with alchemical works. More recently he has been recognized as a precursor of the modern field of social choice theory, 450 years before Borda and Condorcet's investigations reopened the field. His ideas also prefigured the development of computation theory.
Venerated as a saintly figure in the Catholic Church, he was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1847. He was a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis.
Life
Early life and family
Llull was born in Palma into a wealthy family of Barcelona patricians who had come to the Kingdom of Majorca in 1229 with the conquering armies of James I of Aragon. James I had conquered the formerly Almohad-ruled Majorca as part of a larger move to integrate the territories of the Balearic Islands into the Crown of Aragon. Llull was born there a few years later, in 1232 or 1233. Muslims still constituted a large part of the population of Majorca and Jews were present in cultural and economic affairs.In 1257 Llull married, with whom he had two children, Domènec and Magdalena. Although he formed a family, he lived what he would later call the licentious and worldly life of a troubadour.
Religious calling
In 1263 Llull experienced a series of visions. He narrates the event in his autobiography Vita coaetanea :The vision came to Llull five times in all and inspired in him three intentions: to give up his soul for the sake of God's love and honor, to convert the Saracens to Christianity, and write the best book in the world against the errors of the unbelievers.
Following his visions he sold his possessions on the model of Saint Francis of Assisi and set out on pilgrimages to the shrines of Saint Mary of Rocamadour, Saint James, and other places, never to come back to his family and profession. When he returned to Majorca he purchased a Muslim slave in order to learn Arabic from him. For the next nine years, until 1274, he engaged in study and contemplation in relative solitude. He read extensively in both Latin and Arabic, learning both Christian and Muslim theological and philosophical thought.
In 1270 Llull founded the hermitage of the Holy Trinity in Mallorca, known as Miramar.
Between 1271 and 1274 Llull wrote his first works, a compendium of the Muslim thinker Al-Ghazali's logic and the Llibre de contemplació en Déu, a lengthy guide to finding truth through contemplation.
In 1274, while staying at a hermitage on Puig de Randa, the form of the great book Llull was to write was finally given to him through divine revelation: a complex system that he named his Art, which would become the motivation behind most of his life's efforts.
Missionary work and education
Llull urged the study of Arabic and other languages in Europe, in order to convert Muslims and schismatic Christians. He travelled through Europe to meet popes, kings, and princes, trying to establish special colleges to prepare future missionaries. In 1276 a language school for Franciscan missionaries was founded at Miramar, funded by the King of Majorca.About 1291 he went to Tunis, preached to the Saracens, disputed with them in philosophy, and after another brief sojourn in Paris, returned to the East as a missionary. Llull travelled to Tunis a second time in about 1304, and wrote numerous letters to the king of Tunis, but little else is known about this part of his life.
He returned in 1308, reporting that the conversion of Muslims should be achieved through prayer, not through military force. He finally achieved his goal of linguistic education at major universities in 1311 when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris, and Salamanca as well as at the Papal Court.
Death
In 1314, at the age of 82, Llull traveled again to Tunis, possibly prompted by the correspondence between King James II of Aragon and al-Lihyani, the Hafsid caliph, indicating that the caliph wished to convert to Christianity. Whereas Llull had been met with difficulties during his previous visits to North Africa, he was allowed to operate this time without interference from the authorities due to the improved relations between Tunis and Aragon.His last work is dated December 1315 in Tunis. The circumstances of his death remain unknown. He probably died sometime between then and March 1316, either in Tunis, on the ship on the return voyage, or in Majorca upon his return. Llull's tomb, created in 1448, is in the Franciscan church in Palma, Majorca.
Veneration
Venerated as a saintly figure, Llull was officially considered for canonization after his death. He was beatified on 11 September 1847 by Pope Pius IX.Works
Llull's ''Art''
Llull's Art is at the center of his thought and undergirds his entire corpus. It is a system of universal logic based on a set of general principles activated in a combinatorial process. Its intent is to prove statements about God and creation. Often the Art formulates these statements as questions and answers. It works cumulatively through an iterative process; statements about God's nature must be proved for each of God's essential attributes in order to prove the statement true for God.What sets Llull's system apart is its unusual use of letters and diagrams, giving it an algebraic or algorithmic character. He developed the Art over the course of many decades, writing new books to explain each new version. The Arts trajectory can be divided into two main phases, although each phase contains numerous variations. The first is sometimes called the Quaternary Phase and the second the Ternary Phase. This terminology was coined by Anthony Bonner.
Quaternary Phase
The two main works of the Quaternary Phase are Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem and Ars demonstrativa. The Ars demonstrativa has 12 main figures. A set of 16 principles, or "dignities" comprise the general foundation for the system's operation. These principles are displayed in the first figure and assigned letters. The rest of the figures are intended to enable the user to combine these principles to demonstrate the truth of statements. Figure T, for instance, contains "relative principles", also assigned letters. Figure S displays the Augustinian powers of the soul and their acts.Ternary Phase
Llull inaugurated the Ternary Phase with two works written in 1290: Ars inventiva veritatis and Ars amativa. The culmination of this phase came in 1308 with a finalized version of the Art called Ars generalis ultima. In the same year, Llull wrote an abbreviated version called the Ars brevis. In these works, Llull revised the Art to have only four main figures. He reduced the number of divine principles in the first figure to nine. Figure T also now has nine relational principles, reduced from 15. Llull kept the combinatorial aspect of the process.Correlatives
Llull introduced an aspect of the system called the "correlatives" just before the final transition to the Ternary Phase. The correlatives first appear in a work called the Lectura super figuras Artis demonstrativae and came to undergird his formulation of the nature of being. The doctrine of correlatives stipulates that everything, at the level of being, has a threefold structure: agent, patient, and act. For example, the divine principle "goodness" consists of "that which does good", "that which receives good", and "to do good". Llull used a system of Latin suffixes to express the correlatives, e.g. for bonitas : bonificans, bonificatus, and bonificare, respectively. This became his basis for attempting to prove that the divine principles are distinct yet equivalent in God. This supports the combinatorial operation of the Art; for example, in God, goodness greatness and greatness goodness, goodness eternity and eternity goodness, etc. It is also the basis of the Lullian approach to proof of the Trinity, and proof of the Incarnation.Within this framework, Liber Chaos – a section of the Lectura – explores the concept of primordial chaos as the initial state of creation, whereat divine principles had yet to impose order upon formless potential. Llull's treatment of chaos aligns with his system of correlatives, suggesting that chaos itself contains within it the active force of divine causation, the passive potential of undifferentiated being, and the act of transformation by which it becomes structured reality. This concept – though philosophical, in Llull’s system – bears a striking resemblance to alchemical notions of prima materia, the raw substance from which all transmutations were said to arise.