Akademik

(or Llull, c. 1232–1316)

Spanish Franciscan philosopher and crusader. Lull's life was a relentless attempt to convert the heathen Muslims and Jews. To this end he designed his ‘Art’, published in the Ars Magna (c. 1274) and the Ars Generalis Ultima (1308). It is an elaboration of Neoplatonism, with a rigorous attempt at identifying the categories (‘dignities’) making up the absolute principles of God. These unfold into triads of agent, patient, and action. Lull shared the belief of both Jewish and Muslim thinkers of his time in secret numerical and geometrical knowledge whereby the elect can understand the nature of the cosmos. The Art of combinations is therefore regarded as a first attempt at a logically perfect language in which proofs of the correctness of Christianity may be framed. His position may have been an influence on Leibniz's later ambition to develop a characteristica universalis . Lull was killed campaigning against infidels in North Africa.