Later Medieval Metaphysics. Ontology, Language, and Logic

327 Pages·2013·0.89 MB·

by  Charles Bolyard, and Rondo Keele (editors)

later medieval metaphysics

Medieval Philosophy
texts and studies
series editorS
Gyula Klima
Fordham University
editorial board
Richard Cross
Brian Davies
Peter King
Brian Leftow
John Marenbon
Robert Pasnau
Giorgio Pini
Richard Taylor
Jack Zupko

Later Medieval
Metaphysics
Ontology, Language,
and Logic
Edited by
Charles Bolyard
Rondo Keele
and
Fordham University Press • New York • 2013
Copyright © 2013 Fordham University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Later medieval metaphysics : ontology, language,
and logic / edited by Charles Bolyard and Rondo
Keele. — First edition.
p. cm. — (Medieval philosophy)
I ncludes bibliographical references (p. ) and
index.
ISBN 978- 0- 8232- 4472- 0 (cloth : alk. paper)—
ISBN 978- 0- 8232- 4473- 7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Metaphysics— Early works to 1800.
I. Bolyard, Charles, editor. II. Keele, Rondo,
1968– , editor.
BD111.L28 2013
110—dc23
2012036566
Printed in the United States of America
15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
This volume is dedicated to Paul Vincent Spade, Emeritus Professor of Phi-
losophy at Indiana University. Professor Spade spent his entire academic
career at Indiana, after having earned an A.B. from Wabash College, a Licenti-
ate of Mediaeval Studies from the Pontifi cal Institute of Mediaeval Studies
in Toronto, and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.
Professor Spade’s scholarly work focuses primarily on medieval logic and
semantic theory, especially during the fourteenth century. Figures such as
Walter Burley, William of Ockham, and Thomas Bradwardine are frequent
subjects of his research, but he has published on a wide range of topics and
thinkers. Over the course of his career, he has authored or edited 10 books,
and just shy of 100 scholarly articles, shorter translations, and shorter critical
editions. In addition, he has written numerous reviews and made freely avail-
able a large number of translations, critical editions, and classroom lecture
materials. He is an innovator in the use of the internet as a means of dissemi-
nating philosophical material, having won awards for his Medieval Logic and
Philosophy web page, and having served for many years as a member of the
editorial board of the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
For those lucky enough to have been his students, Professor Spade is best
remembered for his masterful teaching. His lectures showed great philo-
sophical depth and technical detail, all while being delivered in his trade-
marked quirky and entertaining style. Lucid expositions of the most recondite
doctrines were sprinkled with strange tidbits of “lore and gossip,” as he put
it, about the phi los o phers under discussion. One learned not only the intri-
cacies of supposition theory, for example, but also how death by quill pen
could end an otherwise promising career. Thankfully, the storyteller himself
has not yet shared that fate.
Paul Vincent Spade is a teacher, scholar, jazz connoisseur, and a true lover
of wisdom. And though he would deny it if asked, he is a giant upon whose
shoulders many stand. May this volume of essays stand as a witness to their
gratitude.

Contents
Ac know ledg ments xi
Introduction 1
Charles Bolyard and Rondo Keele
part i essence, existence, and the nature
of metaphysics
1 Duns Scotus on Metaphysics as the Science
of First Entity 11
Rega Wood
2 Aquinas vs. Buridan on Essence and Existence 30
Gyula Klima
part ii form and matter
3 The Form of Corporeity and Potential and Aptitudinal
Being in Dietrich von Freiberg’s Defense of the Doctrine
of the Unity of Substantial Form 47
Brian Francis Conolly
4 Accidents in Scotus’s Metaphysics Commentary 84
Charles Bolyard
part iii universals
5 Avicenna Latinus on the Ontology of Types
and Tokens 103
Martin Tweedale
6 Universal Thinking as Pro cess: The Metaphysics
of Change and Identity in John Buridan’s
Intellectio Theory 137
Jack Zupko
x Contents
part iv language, logic, and metaphysics
7 Can God Know More? A Case Study in Later Medieval
Discussions of Propositions 161
Susan Brower- Toland
8 The Power of Medieval Logic 188
Terence Parsons
9 Iteration and Infi nite Regress in Walter Chatton’s
Metaphysics 206
Rondo Keele
10 A nalogy and Metap hor from Thomas Aquinas to Duns
Scotus and Walter Burley 223
E. Jennifer Ashworth
Notes 249
List of Contributors 3 01
Index 303