This Handbook is especially intended to show the links between the philosophy written in the Middle Ages and that being done today. Essays by over twenty medieval specialists, who are also familiar with contemporary discussions, explore areas in logic and philosophy of language, metaphysics, epistemology, moral psychology, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy and philosophy of religion. Each topic has been chosen because it is of present philosophical interest, and yet a more or less similar set of questions was also discussed in the Middle Ages. No party-line has been set about the extent of the similarity. Some argue that there are the closest continuities. Others stress the differences. All, however, share the aim of providing new analyses of medieval texts in a manner that is clear and comprehensible to philosophers who are not medieval specialists.

The Handbook begins with eleven chapters looking at the history of medieval philosophy period by period, and region by region. They constitute the fullest, most wide-ranging and up-to-date chronological survey of medieval philosophy available. All four traditions Greek, Latin, Islamic and Jewish (in Arabic, and in Hebrew) are considered, and the Latin tradition is traced from late antiquity through to the seventeenth century and beyond.