Philosophy in Malta
Though Malta is not more than a tiny European island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, for the last six centuries its very small population happened to come in close contact with some of Europe's main political, academic and intellectual movements.
[5] Today, mainly due to easier access to data sources and to enhanced communication networks, such philosophical inquiries and pursuits are more extensive in prevalence as in content.
Before the advent of the Knights Hospitaller to Malta in the first half of the 16th century, the Maltese Islands were a forlorn place with little, if any, political importance.
Though the Counter-Reformation played an important part in every academic and intellectual institution, literature issued by the major Reformation educationalists, including Martin Luther, were available and read extensively.
[12] Though they encouraged higher learning by giving protection to the various colleges and universities that were established (especially by Catholic religious orders), they also kept a very strict surveillance on all aspects of scholarship.
Though the philosophical contributions of these masters are fascinating in themselves,[15] prevalent control and restrictions on intellectual activity hardly ever left them room for originality and innovation.
[16] During this period intellectual circles were practically all part of the great movement of Scholasticism, almost giving godlike status to Aristotle.
During the 18th-century part of the period of the Knights Hospitaller, science and the scientific method began to make head-way over the trenches of the Scholastics.
Towards the end of the period of the Hospitallers in Malta, ideas which had been explosive through the French Revolution of 1789 began to make way into some intellectual circles susceptible to them.
However, this time around, it was the Thomist version which prevailed almost exclusively, even if circumstances, along two centuries and a half of British rule, changed drastically over the years.
[28] The chair of philosophy was established in 1771 by the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, Manuel Pinto da Fonseca, when he transformed the Collegium Melitense (Maltese College) of the Jesuits into the University of Malta.
[32] Archival work revealed names and manuscripts and personalities,[33] text-books were published (1995; 2001) and courses were read at the University of Malta (1996/97; 2012/13; 2013/14) and at other institutions of higher education.
Although the philosophy of many of them did not affect social or political life, some interacted lively with current affairs and sometimes even stimulated societal change.
Peter Serracino Inglott gave it an extraordinary new breath of life by widening its horizon, diversifying its interests and firmly propelling it into social and political action.
