Investigating Medieval Philosophy - Böcker

During a career spanning four decades, Sten Ebbesen has produced a body of work which stands as a remarkable and important contribution to the field of medieval philosophy. Combining philological expertise and textual work with a deep philosophical understanding and a broad historical outlook, his vast output deftly penetrates and analyses often difficult and complex issues. The present volume pays homage to this body of work by investigating topics relevant to its two most central themes: logical and linguistic analysis. True to the work it seeks to honour, these closely connected themes are explored from both historical and philosophical perspectives and within both the Latin and Greek philosophical traditions.Contributors are Fabrizio Amerini, E. Jennifer Ashworth, E.P. Bos, Laurent Cesalli, Alessandro Conti, Silvia Donati, Sten Ebbesen, Jakob L. Fink, K. Margareta Fredborg, Frédéric Goubier, Heine Hansen, Katerina Ierodiakonou, Yukio Iwakuma, Alain de Libera, C.H. Kneepkens, Simo Knuuttila, Roberto Lambertini, John Magee, John Marenbon, Costantino Marmo,Christopher J. Martin, Ana Maria Mora-Márquez, Calvin Normore, Paloma Pérez-Ilzarbe, Mary Sirridge, Paul Thom, Christina Thomsen Thörnqvist and Luisa Valente.

In Walter Chatton on Future Contingents, Jon Bornholdt presents the first full-length translation, commentary, and analysis of the various attempts by Chatton (14th century C.E.) to solve the ancient problem of the status and significance of statements about the future. At issue is the danger of so-called logical determinism: if it is true now that a human will perform a given action tomorrow, is that human truly free to perform or refrain from performing that action? Bornholdt shows that Chatton constructed an original (though problematic) formal analysis that enabled him to canvass various approaches to the problem at different stages of his career, at all times showing an unusual sensitivity to the tension between formalist and metaphysical types of solution.

In Animal Rationality: Later Medieval Theories 1250-1350, Anselm Oelze offers the first comprehensive and systematic exploration of theories of animal rationality in the later Middle Ages. Traditionally, it was held that medieval thinkers ascribed rationality to humans while denying it to nonhuman animals. As Oelze shows, this narrative fails to capture the depth and diversity of the medieval debate. Although many thinkers, from Albert the Great to John Buridan, did indeed hold that nonhuman animals lack rational faculties, some granted them the ability to engage in certain rational processes such as judging, reasoning, or employing prudence. There is thus a whole spectrum of positions to be discovered, many of which show interesting parallels with contemporary theories of animal rationality.

Paul Thom’s book presents Kilwardby’s science of logic as a body of demonstrative knowledge about inferences and their validity, about the semantics of non-modal and modal propositions, and about the logic of genus and species. This science is thoroughly intensional. It grounds the logic of inference on that in virtue of which the inference holds. It bases the truth conditions of propositions on relations between conceptual entities. It explains the logic of genus and species through the notion of essence.Thom interprets this science as a formal logic of intensions with its own proof theory and semantics. This comprehensive reconstruction of Kilwardby’s logic shows the medieval master to be one of the most interesting logicians of the thirteenth century.

In our daily lives, we are surrounded by all sorts of things – such as trees, cars, persons, or madeleines – and perception allows us access to them. But what does ‘to perceive’ actually mean? What is it that we perceive? How do we perceive? Do we perceive the same way animals do? Does reason play a role in perception? Such questions occur naturally today. But was it the same in the past, centuries ago? The collected volume tackles this issue by turning to the Latin philosophy of the 13th and 14th centuries. Did medieval thinkers raise the same, or similar, questions as we do with respect to perception? What answers did they provide? What arguments did they make for raising the questions they did, and for the answers they gave to them? The philosophers taken into consideration are, among others, Albert the Great, Roger Bacon, William of Auvergne, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, John Pecham, Richard Rufus, Peter Olivi, Robert Kilwardby, John Buridan, and Jean of Jandun.Contributors are Elena Băltuță, Daniel De Haan, Martin Klein, Andrew LaZella, Lukáš Lička, Mattia Mantovani, André Martin, Dominik Perler, Paolo Rubini, José Filipe Silva, Juhana Toivanen, and Rega Wood.

Calculating Ethics in the Fourteenth Century addresses a moment in the history of ethics, when discoveries in natural philosophy blurred the boundary between the possible and the impossible, and made the impossible a preferred territory in discussions on practical reason. The volume studies the onset and expansion of a new movement in constructing ethics, as the methods, arguments, and cases adopted from logic and natural philosophy came to be extensively applied at Oxford and swiftly disseminated among other Oxonians eventually making their way outside Oxford. It shows how the Oxford Calculators triggered a unique and durable transformation in ethics.Contributors are Pascale Bermon, Valeria Buffon, Michael W. Dunne, Marek Gensler, Simon Kemp, Edit A. Lukács, Monika Michałowska, and Andrea Nannini.

Do you have to learn a language to speak with yourself? Can you know something but be uncertain about whether you know that thing? Are you responsible for your own happiness (or lack thereof)? And what about the more basic acts of your soul, such as perception or digestion? These are some of the questions addressed by this volume, which brings together contributions in the history of logic, philosophy of mind, and ethics. With papers dealing with both mediaeval and early modern authors, the book highlights long-term historical developments and surprising connections between the three domains.Contributors are Tuomo Aho, Guido Alt, Susan Brower-Toland, Deborah Brown, Tomas Ekenberg, Jari Kaukua, Taneli Kukkonen, Henrik Lagerlund, Vili Lähteenmäki, John Marenbon, Calvin Normore, Martina Reuter, Sonja Schierbaum, Filipe Silva, Juhana Toivanen, and Sara Uckelman.

Are artefacts, that is, human-made objects, distinct from the natural things that they are made out of? For example, is a chair a thing distinct from the pieces of wood used in making it? This question is intensely debated in contemporary metaphysics, but it is little known that there was an equally heated and sophisticated debate concerning this issue in the late Middle Ages.This book provides the first comprehensive reconstruction, analysis, and evaluation of this discussion, looking at both the most famous figures such as William of Ockham as well as dozens of previously unstudied texts available in manuscript form only.

This book takes readers through an exploration of fundamental discussions that redefined mathematics and its philosophical significance in the centuries foregoing modernity. From William of Auvergne’s paradoxes of infinity to Christoph Clavius’ interpretation of Euclidean principles, it examines the evolving understanding of central issues among which continuity, the existence of mathematical objects such as numbers, and the way humans can make true statements regarding such things. Each chapter sheds light on how premodern scholars bridged mathematics and philosophy, forging concepts and approaches that continued to influence early modern thought. A compelling read for historians, philosophers, and anyone intrigued by the origins and enduring legacy of mathematical ideas as both tools for inquiry and objects of reflection.Contributors are Joël Biard, Stephen Clucas, Clelia V. Crialesi, Vincenzo De Risi, Daniel Di Liscia, André Goddu, Kamil Majcherek, Paolo Mancosu, Aurélien Robert, Sabine Rommevaux, Sylvain Roudaut, and Cecilia Trifogli.

Alberic of Paris was one of the leading philosophers of the 12th century. He was the main rival to Peter Abelard and, according to John of Salisbury, “a most fierce opponent of the nominalist school.” But although he was an important figure in his time, Alberic is almost completely unknown today.This collection of essays is the first ever dedicated to exploring and contextualizing the views of Alberic and his followers, the Albricani. It discusses topics such as universals, time, mereology, divine foreknowledge, fallacies, and modal logic, and shows that Alberic was an original thinker in a vibrant intellectual milieu.Contributors are Andrew W. Arlig, Enrico Donato, Sten Ebbesen, Charles Girard, Heine Hansen, Peter King, John Marenbon, Sofia Orsino, Boaz Faraday Schuman, Caterina Tarlazzi, Paul Thom, and Wojciech Wciórka.