Michael Falkener was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 Scholastic

Scholasticism

Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...

 philosopher..

Life

Michał Falkener was born in Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

. In Latin—the language favored by medieval European scholars, and used in his works—he is sometimes referred to as "Vratislaviensis" or "Wratislaviensis" ("the Wrocławian") in addition to "Michaelis de Vratislauia" ("Michael of Wrocław"). In Polish he is, respectively, "Wrocławczyk" and "Michał z Wrocławia" ("Michael of Wrocław"). In German, the place identifier is "of Breslau"—"von Breslau" or "aus Breslau."

Falkener defended his master's thesis at the Kraków Academy in 1488. Later he lectured there on astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

, astrology

Astrology

Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...

, mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

, logic

Logic

In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...

 and Aristotle's philosophy

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

. His students included Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....

.

Falkener's first printed astrological predictions were published for the years 1494–95; 1506 saw the first edition of his Introductorium astronomiae Cracoviensis elucidans almanach.

Falkener was a Thomist but an incomplete one since, in addition to Peripatetic-Thomist proofs for the existence of God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

, he also accepted St. Anselm's proofs.

See also

• History of philosophy in Poland
• List of Poles

Works

• Iudicium Cracoviense, Leipzig
  Leipzig
  Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
  
  , 1494 http://www.digital-collections.de/index.html?c=autoren_index&l=en&ab=Falkener%2C+Michael http://www.picturedesk.com/de/preview/medium/search/INF00573804.html
• Introductorium astronomie Cracoviense‎, 1507 http://de.scientificcommons.org/michael_falkener
• Introductorium Dyalecticae‎, Nuremberg
  Nuremberg
  Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
  
  , 1511 http://de.scientificcommons.org/michael_falkener, Argentoratum/Strasbourg
  Strasbourg
  Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
  
  1515 http://www.digital-collections.de/index.html?c=autoren_index&l=en&ab=Falkener%2C+Michael

Literature

• Ludwik Nowak, Michael Falkener de Vratislavia, Congestum logicum, Introductonium dialecticae, published by Akademia Teologii Katolickiej (Academy of Catholic Theology), 1990.