Philip the Chancellor

He was the illegitimate son of Philippe, Archdeacon of Paris (born in 1125), and was part of a family of powerful clerics.

In particular, his uncle, Peter of Nemours, was Bishop of Paris 1208–18 and undoubtedly helped to foster Philip's ecclesiastical career.

During his academic teaching career, Philip discussed numerous theological questions that are recollected in Douai, ms. 434, and between 1225 and 1228 he wrote his principal work, Summa de bono.

[1] The Summa de bono is the first full-scale treatment of the doctrine of transcendentals in the history of Western philosophy, and it had considerable influence on the earliest generation of Parisian masters.

Philip's aim is to outline the ontological identity between the One and the Good, using the first translations of Aristotle's natural and metaphysical writings, while at the same time following the Platonic-Augustinian tradition.

Philip proposed an interesting comparison between the Good, Being, and the True, which became the effective leitmotif of his work.