Metaphysics Through Semantics The Philosophical Recovery Of The Medieval Mind

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Metaphysics Through Semantics: The Philosophical Recovery of the Medieval Mind

Author : Joshua P. Hochschild
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031150260
Total Pages : 415 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (311 download)

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Book Synopsis Metaphysics Through Semantics: The Philosophical Recovery of the Medieval Mind by : Joshua P. Hochschild

Download or read book Metaphysics Through Semantics: The Philosophical Recovery of the Medieval Mind written by Joshua P. Hochschild and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-04-27 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “More than any other living scholar of medieval philosophy, Gyula Klima has influenced the way we read and understand philosophical texts by showing how the questions they ask can be placed in a modern context without loss or distortion. The key to his approach is a respect for medieval authors coupled with a commitment to regarding their texts as a genuine source of insight on questions in metaphysics, theology, psychology, logic, and the philosophy of language—as opposed to assimilating what they say to modern doctrines, or using medieval discussions as a foil for ‘new and improved’ conceptual schemes.” Jack Zupko, University of Alberta “Gyula Klima is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on thirteenth and fourteenth-century Latin philosophy, with his own, distinctive analytic approach, which brings out both the similarities and differences between medieval and contemporary logic and semantics.” John Marenbon, Trinity College, University of Cambridge “Gyula Klima has been a towering figure in the field of medieval philosophy for decades. His influence comprises not only the scholarly results of his work, but also intense and generous mentorship of students and junior colleagues. This volume is a perfect reflection of the esteem that he enjoys around the world, collecting excellent pieces by established as well as up-and-coming scholars of medieval philosophy.” Catarina Dutilh Novaes, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam “For four decades now, Gyula Klima has been setting the standard among medievalists for philosophical sophistication and historical rigor. This collection of wide-ranging studies from leading scholars in the field offers a worthy tribute to that legacy.” Robert Pasnau, University of Colorado Boulder Gyula Klima is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, and Senior Research Fellow, Consultant, and the Director of Institute for the History of Ideas of the Hungarian Research Institute in Budapest. In 2022, the President of Hungary awarded him the Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, “in recognition of his outstanding academic career, significant research work and exemplary leadership.” In this volume, colleagues, collaborators, and students celebrate Klima’s project with new essays on Plotinus, Anselm, Aquinas, Buridan, Ockham and others, exploring specific questions in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and logic. No contemporary surpasses Kripke and Klima in semantics and metaphysics, but only Gyula Klima’s thought ranges flawlessly over classical philosophy as well. The volume is a fitting tribute to the master. David Twetten, Marquette University

Medieval Metaphysics, or is it "Just Semantics"? (Volume 7

Author : Gyula Klima
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1443834203
Total Pages : 105 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Medieval Metaphysics, or is it "Just Semantics"? (Volume 7 by : Gyula Klima

Download or read book Medieval Metaphysics, or is it "Just Semantics"? (Volume 7 written by Gyula Klima and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09-22 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval semantic theories develop out of Aristotle’s On Interpretation, in which he notes that “Spoken sounds are symbols of affections in the soul, and written marks symbols of spoken sounds” (tr. J. L. Ackrill, OUP 1984). The medieval commentary tradition elaborates on Aristotle’s theory in light of various epistemological and metaphysical commitments, including those entailed by the doctrine of the transcendentals that emerges from the tradition in the writings of Philip the Chancellor (d. 1236). Transcendental attributes such as unity, truth and goodness (properties that figure into most if not all accounts of the transcendentals) characterize every being as such, and hence the doctrine of the transcendentals promised some knowledge of God. This hope, together with the general medieval consensus that the cognitive acts by which we grasp extra-mental entities are veridical (i.e., in most cases, these acts represent what the cognizing subject takes them to represent) encouraged medieval thinkers to devote considerable effort to discerning how concepts latch onto reality. Medieval Metaphysics, or Is It “Just Semantics”? follows these attempts as concerns the signification of theological discourse in general and Trinitarian semantics in particular, the proper object of the intellect, and what is signified through quidditative or essential definition.

The Immateriality of the Human Mind, the Semantics of Analogy, and the Conceivability of God (Volume 1

Author : Gyula Klima
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1443833908
Total Pages : 120 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis The Immateriality of the Human Mind, the Semantics of Analogy, and the Conceivability of God (Volume 1 by : Gyula Klima

Download or read book The Immateriality of the Human Mind, the Semantics of Analogy, and the Conceivability of God (Volume 1 written by Gyula Klima and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09-22 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Immateriality of the Human Mind, the Semantics of Analogy, and the Conceivability of God brings together the work of experts in the field of medieval philosophy to consider the nature of God and the soul, what can be known of the divine essence and the semantics of theological discourse from the perspectives of medieval theology (both natural and revealed), logic and natural philosophy. In his capacity as an arts master commenting on a work of natural philosophy, Aristotle’s De Anima, John Buridan discusses the immateriality of the intellect against the background of the competing, mutually exclusive views of Alexander of Aphrodisias and Averroes. Aquinas takes up the same issue, but in a more properly theological setting, in his Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, where Aquinas argues that the being of the intellect is independent of matter. Thomas de Vio Cajetan considers the semantics of theological discourse or ‘God talk’ in order to derive a proper means to speak of the divine essence in his De Nominum Analogia; and Anselm of Canterbury’s Proslogion seeks with unaided reason to develop a single proof whereby those who think seriously of anything as ‘that than which nothing greater can be thought’ may know that God exists.

Categories, and What Is Beyond (Volume 2

Author : Gyula Klima
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1443834106
Total Pages : 135 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Categories, and What Is Beyond (Volume 2 by : Gyula Klima

Download or read book Categories, and What Is Beyond (Volume 2 written by Gyula Klima and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09-22 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For medieval thinkers, the distinction between intentional and extra-mental reality does not precipitate a Kantian turn to the subject. Rather, they allow that metaphysics and natural philosophy study things as they are and leave to logic the investigation of things as conceived. Within this broad scheme, there is much room for debate regarding whether and to what extent Aristotle’s categories comprise an accurate picture of what types of things exist. Closely tied to consideration of what types of things exist are questions concerning how language reflects the relations that hold among these things. For instance, both substances and the accidents parasitic on their existence are said to be, but not in the same way. The essays in Categories, and What is Beyond draw on the philosophical traditions of late antiquity and the middle ages to study what types of things there are, the extent to which our knowledge of these entities is accurate, how (and whether) the semantics of analogy are competent to adjust for the difference and diversity found amongst analogates, and some ways in which these considerations bear on our ability to learn and speak of God.

Knowledge, Mental Language, and Free Will (Volume 3

Author : Gyula Klima
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1443834092
Total Pages : 115 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Knowledge, Mental Language, and Free Will (Volume 3 by : Gyula Klima

Download or read book Knowledge, Mental Language, and Free Will (Volume 3 written by Gyula Klima and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09-22 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knowledge, Mental Language, and Free Will traverses the medieval philosophical landscape of metaphysics, logic and natural philosophy. Alexander W. Hall discusses Thomas Aquinas’s interpretation of Aristotle’s doctrine of per se predication as it occurs in the conclusion of scientific demonstrations, i.e., of arguments producing scientific knowledge in the strict sense. Henrik Lagerlund and Catarina Dutilh Novaes take up medieval studies of mental language in the writings of Peter of Ailly and William Ockham. Works in this genre seek to discern what concepts are concepts of, the ontological status of concepts as entities, and how concepts stand for and represent things in the world. Lastly, Walter Redmond comments on and translates the prologue to and first chapter of the Mexican Jesuit Father Matías Blanco’s (d. 1734) The Three-Stranded Cord [Funiculus triplex], where Blanco treats the antinomy between freedom and determination, modal semantics, tense logic and the logical status of counterfactuals in an attempt to reconcile human freedom with God’s causality and omniscience.

Modalities in Medieval Philosophy

Author : Simo Knuuttila
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429621345
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (296 download)

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Book Synopsis Modalities in Medieval Philosophy by : Simo Knuuttila

Download or read book Modalities in Medieval Philosophy written by Simo Knuuttila and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1993, Modalities in Medieval Philosophy looks at the idea of modality as multiplicity of reference with respect to alternative domains. The book examines how this emerged in early medieval discussions and addresses how it was originally influenced by the theological conception of God acting by choice. After a discussion of ancient modal paradigms, the author traces the interplay of old and new modal views in medieval logic and semantics, philosophy and theology. A detailed account is given of late medieval discussions of the new modal logic, epistemic logic, and the logic norms. These theories show striking similarities to some basic tenets of contemporary approaches to modal matters. This work will be of considerable interest to historians of philosophy and ideas and philosophers of logic and metaphysics.

Intentionality, Cognition, and Mental Representation in Medieval Philosophy

Author : Gyula Klima
Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
ISBN 13 : 0823262766
Total Pages : 374 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (232 download)

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Book Synopsis Intentionality, Cognition, and Mental Representation in Medieval Philosophy by : Gyula Klima

Download or read book Intentionality, Cognition, and Mental Representation in Medieval Philosophy written by Gyula Klima and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2015-02-02 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is commonly supposed that certain elements of medieval philosophy are uncharacteristically preserved in modern philosophical thought through the idea that mental phenomena are distinguished from physical phenomena by their intentionality, their intrinsic directedness toward some object. The many exceptions to this presumption, however, threaten its viability. This volume explores the intricacies and varieties of the conceptual relationships medieval thinkers developed among intentionality, cognition, and mental representation. Ranging from Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham, and Buridan through less-familiar writers, the collection sheds new light on the various strands that run between medieval and modern thought and bring us to a number of fundamental questions in the philosophy of mind as it is conceived today.

The Metaphysics and Theology of the Eucharist

Author : Gyula Klima
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031402502
Total Pages : 469 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (314 download)

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Book Synopsis The Metaphysics and Theology of the Eucharist by : Gyula Klima

Download or read book The Metaphysics and Theology of the Eucharist written by Gyula Klima and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024-01-01 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is about the most mind-boggling sacrament of the Christian faith, also referred to as the Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist: in its Roman Catholic interpretation, the conversion of the substance of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ for Holy Communion. The challenge of providing a rational interpretation of this doctrine of faith proved to be one of the most contentious issues in the Western history of ideas, apparently going against self-evident metaphysical principles (requiring accidents existing without a substance, and a body in several places at the same time, etc.), and dividing schools of thought, indeed, eventually, warring religious factions. The volume addresses both the metaphysical, theoretical issues involved in this challenge and the historical, theological developments of how meeting this challenge played out first in the schools and even later in religious schisms, leading to the paradigmatic shift from medieval to modern forms of thought. The essays of the volume derive from the lectures of an eponymous international conference held in Budapest, Hungary, which was also the occasion of founding the Society for the History of European Ideas (SEHI); accordingly, the book is the first volume of the annual Proceedings of the SEHI. This book is aimed just as much at laymen and religious scholars seeking a better understanding of their faith as at anyone seeking this understanding with a non-religious attitude.

The Metaphysics of Christology in the Late Middle Ages

Author : Richard Cross
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198880723
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis The Metaphysics of Christology in the Late Middle Ages by : Richard Cross

Download or read book The Metaphysics of Christology in the Late Middle Ages written by Richard Cross and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-07-12 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The late middle ages was a period of great speculative innovation in Christology, within the framework of a standard Christological opinion established by the Franciscan John Duns Scotus and the Dominican Hervaeus Natalis. According to this view, the Incarnation consists in some kind of dependence relationship between an individual human nature and a divine person. The Metaphysics of Christology in the Late Middle Ages: William of Ockham to Gabriel Biel explores ways in which this standard opinion was developed in the late middle ages. Theologians offered various proposals about the nature of the relationship—as a categorial relation, or an absolute quality, or even just the divine will. Author Richard Cross also considers alternative positions: Peter Auriol's claim that the divine person is a 'quidditative termination' of the human nature; the homo assumptus theology of John Wyclif and Jan Hus; and the retrieval of a truly Thomistic Christology in the fifteenth century in the thought of John Capreolus and Denys the Carthusian. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were pre-eminently the age of nominalism, and this book examines the impact of nominalism on Christological discussions, as well as the development of Thomist and Scotist theology in the period. It also provides essential background for the correct understanding of Reformation Christology.

Through Language to Reality

Author : L. M. de Rijk
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (243 download)

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Book Synopsis Through Language to Reality by : L. M. de Rijk

Download or read book Through Language to Reality written by L. M. de Rijk and published by Routledge. This book was released on 1989 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor de Rijk's interest here is in the views on reality put forward by the medieval thinkers from Boethius to William of Ockham, but especially in the 12th-14th centuries, the period from Abelard onwards.Theology was naturally a key influence, but sematic theories - the philosophical theories on how terms signify, or how a name has its meaning and how this is affected by its context - were fundamental as the starting point of ontological speculation. The categories formulated in order to differentiate various types of context and their impact on the semantics of the verb esse, 'to be', and its related forms. De Rijk's aim is to understand how these medieval thinkers interpreted reality according to their own semantic views, and to see how their own particular concerns - for instance William of Ockham's application of the 'principle of parsimony' to ontology - shaped the nature of their thought.

Later Medieval Metaphysics

Author : Charles Bolyard
Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
ISBN 13 : 0823244725
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (232 download)

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Book Synopsis Later Medieval Metaphysics by : Charles Bolyard

Download or read book Later Medieval Metaphysics written by Charles Bolyard and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2013-02 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book begins with standard ontological topics--such as the nature of existence--and of metaphysics generally, such as the status of universals, form, and accidents. What is the proper subject matter of metaphysical speculation? Are essence and existence really distinct in bodies? Does the body lose its unifying form at death? Can an accident of a substance exist in separation from that substance? Are universals real, and, if so, are they anything more than general concepts? Among the figures it examines are Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Walter Chatton, John Buridan, Dietrich of Freiburg, Robert Holcot, Walter Burley, and the 11th-century Islamic philosopher Ibn-Sina (Avicenna).There is also an emphasis on metaphysics broadly conceived. Thus, additional discussions of connected topics in medieval logic, epistemology, and language provide a fuller account of the range of ideas included in the later medieval worldview.

Philosophy of Mind in the Early and High Middle Ages

Author : Margaret Cameron
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429019599
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis Philosophy of Mind in the Early and High Middle Ages by : Margaret Cameron

Download or read book Philosophy of Mind in the Early and High Middle Ages written by Margaret Cameron and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-07-06 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophy of Mind in the Early and High Middle Ages provides an outstanding overview to a tumultuous 900-year period of discovery, innovation, and intellectual controversy that began with the Roman senator Boethius (c480-524) and concluded with the Franciscan theologian and philosopher John Duns Scotus (c1266-1308). Relatively neglected in philosophy of mind, this volume highlights the importance of philosophers such as Abelard, Duns Scotus, and the Persian philosopher and polymath Avicenna to the history of philosophy of mind. Following an introduction by Margaret Cameron, twelve specially commissioned chapters by an international team of contributors discuss key topics, thinkers and debates, including: mental perception; Avicenna and the intellectual abstraction of intelligibles; Duns Scotus; soul, will, and choice in Islamic and Jewish contexts; perceptual experience; the systematization of the passions; the complexity of the soul and the problem of unity; the phenomenology of immortality; morality; and the self. Essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of mind, medieval philosophy, and the history of philosophy, Philosophy of Mind in the Early and High Middle Ages is also a valuable resource for those in related disciplines such as Religion.

The Language of Thought in Late Medieval Philosophy

Author : Jenny Pelletier
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319666347
Total Pages : 463 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (196 download)

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Book Synopsis The Language of Thought in Late Medieval Philosophy by : Jenny Pelletier

Download or read book The Language of Thought in Late Medieval Philosophy written by Jenny Pelletier and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume presents new lines of research dealing with the language of thought and its philosophical implications in the time of Ockham. It features more than 20 essays that also serve as a tribute to the ground-breaking work of a leading expert in late medieval philosophy: Claude Panaccio. Coverage addresses topics in the philosophy of mind and cognition (externalism, mental causation, resemblance, habits, sensory awareness, the psychology, illusion, representationalism), concepts (universal, transcendental, identity, syncategorematic), logic and language (definitions, syllogisms, modality, supposition, obligationes, etc.), action theory (belief, will, action), and more. A distinctive feature of this work is that it brings together contributions in both French and English, the two major research languages today on the main theme in question. It unites the most renowned specialists in the field as well as many of Claude Panaccio’s former students who have engaged with his work over the years. In furthering this dialogue, the essays render key topics in fourteenth-century thought accessible to the contemporary philosophical community without being anachronistic or insensitive to the particularities of the medieval context. As a result, this book will appeal to a general population of philosophers and historians of philosophy with an interest in logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics.

Philosophy of Mind in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance

Author : Stephan Schmid
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 042901953X
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis Philosophy of Mind in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance by : Stephan Schmid

Download or read book Philosophy of Mind in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance written by Stephan Schmid and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-07-06 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Characterized by many historically significant events, such as the invention of the printing press, the discovery of the New World, and the Protestant Reformation, the years between 1300 and 1600 are a remarkably rich source of ideas about the mind. They witnessed a resurgence of Aristotelianism and Platonism and the development of humanism. However, philosophical understanding of the complex arguments and debates during this period remain difficult to grasp. Philosophy of Mind in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance provides an outstanding survey of philosophy of mind in this fascinating and still controversial period and examines the thought of figures such as Aquinas, Suárez, and Ficino. Following an introduction by Stephan Schmid, thirteen specially commissioned chapters by an international team of contributors discuss key topics, thinkers, and debates, including: mind and method, the mind and its illnesses, the powers of the soul, Averroism, intentionality and representationalism, theories of (self-)consciousness, will and its freedom, external and internal senses, Renaissance theories of the passions, the mind–body problem and the rise of dualism, and the ‘cognitive turn’. Essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of mind, medieval philosophy, and the history of philosophy, Philosophy of Mind in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance is also a valuable resource for those in related disciplines such as religion, literature, and Renaissance studies.

Medieval Philosophy

Author : John Marenbon
Publisher : Psychology Press
ISBN 13 : 9780415308755
Total Pages : 556 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (87 download)

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Book Synopsis Medieval Philosophy by : John Marenbon

Download or read book Medieval Philosophy written by John Marenbon and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a scholarly introduction to authors and issues involved in the philosophical discourse of the medieval era.

Maimonides on God and Duns Scotus on Logic and Metaphysics (Volume 12

Author : Gyula Klima
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1443881503
Total Pages : 205 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis Maimonides on God and Duns Scotus on Logic and Metaphysics (Volume 12 by : Gyula Klima

Download or read book Maimonides on God and Duns Scotus on Logic and Metaphysics (Volume 12 written by Gyula Klima and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-04 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moses Maimonides and John Duns Scotus are key figures as regards the thirteenth-century philosophical tradition that developed out of the Western Christian reception of the Neo-Platonized Aristotelianism of Islamic and Jewish thinkers. Whereas the writings of Maimonides count among the received works that inaugurate and shape this span, the variety of conceptual instruments developed by Scotus arguably signal its end, preparing the way for the emergence of diverse fourteenth-century philosophical worldviews. Maimonides on God and Duns Scotus on Logic and Metaphysics explores the eponymous thinkers’ work across a variety of fields. In the domain of natural theology, Maimonides presses for creation de novo, adapting from the Islamic Kalām tradition what has come to be known as the Argument from Particularity, which deduces intelligent design when science seems, in principle, unable to account for states of affairs that conceivably needn’t obtain (to take an example from modern physics, the strength of the four fundamental forces). Part one of this volume contrasts Maimonides’s and Aquinas’s parallel treatments of this and other proof strategies still employed by contemporary philosophers. Part two, on Scotus, includes discussion of the authenticity of the logical writings attributed to him, the evolution of his thought in this field against the backdrop of various thirteenth-century developments, the types of Aristotelian universals theorized by Scotus, his semantics of theological discourse and ontology of possible entities.

John Buridan

Author : Gyula Klima
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019029194X
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis John Buridan by : Gyula Klima

Download or read book John Buridan written by Gyula Klima and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-12-23 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Buridan (ca. 1300-1362) has worked out perhaps the most comprehensive account of nominalism in the history of Western thought, the philosophical doctrine according to which the only universals in reality are "names": the common terms of our language and the common concepts of our minds. But these items are universal only in their signification; they are singular entities like any other in reality. This book examines what is most intriguing to contemporary readers in Buridan's medieval philosophical system: his nominalist account of the relationship between language, thought and reality. The main focus of the discussion is Buridan's deployment of the Ockhamist conception of a "mental language" for mapping the complex structures of written and spoken human languages onto a parsimoniously construed reality. Concerning these linguistic structures, this book carefully analyzes Buridan's conception of the radical conventionality of written and spoken languages, in contrast to the natural semantic features of concepts. The discussion pays special attention to Buridan's token-based semantics of terms and propositions, his conception of existential import, ontological commitment, truth, and logical validity. Finally, the book presents a detailed discussion of how these logical devices allow Buridan to maintain his nominalist position without giving up Aristotelian essentialism or yielding to skepticism, and pays special attention to contemporary concerns with these issues.