Table Of ContentTopics in LaTin phiLosophy
from The 12Th–14Th cenTuries
Sten Ebbesen has contributed many works in the field of ancient and medieval
philosophy over decades of dedicated research. His crisp and lucid style and his
philosophical penetration of often difficult concepts and issues is both clear and
intellectually impressive. Ashgate is proud to present this thematically arranged
three volume set of his collected essays, each thoroughly revised and updated.
Volume Two: Topics in Latin Philosophy from the 12th–14th Centuries explores
issues in medieval philosophy from the time nominalists and other schools competed
in twelfth-century Paris to the mature scholasticism of Boethius of Dacia, Radulphus
Brito and other ‘modist’ thinkers of the late thirteenth century and, finally, the new
nominalism of John Buridan in the fourteenth century.
ASHGATE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
Series Editors
John Marenbon, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK
Scott MacDonald, Cornell University, USA
Christopher J. Martin, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Simo Knuuttila, Academy of Finland and the University of Helsinki, Finland
The study of medieval philosophy is flourishing as never before. Historically precise
and philosophically informed research is opening up this large but still relatively
unknown part of philosophy’s past, revealing – in many cases for the first time – the
nature of medieval thinkers’ arguments and the significance of their philosophical
achievements. Ashgate Studies in Medieval Philosophy presents some of the best of
this new work, both from established figures and younger scholars. Chronologically,
the series stretches from c.600 to c.1500 and forward to the scholastic philosophers of
sixteenth and early seventeenth century Spain and Portugal. The series encompasses
both the Western Latin tradition, and the Byzantine, Jewish and Islamic traditions.
Authors all share a commitment both to historical accuracy and to careful analysis of
arguments of a kind which makes them comprehensible to modern readers, especially
those with philosophical interests.
Other titles in the series:
Greek–Latin Philosophical Interaction
Collected Essays of Sten Ebbesen Volume 1
Sten Ebbesen
ISBN 978-0-7546-5837-5
Representation and Objects of Thought in Medieval Philosophy
Edited by Henrik Lagerlund
ISBN 978-0-7546-5126-0
Mind, Cognition and Representation
The Tradition of Commentaries on Aristotle’s De Anima
Edited by Paul J.J.M. Bakker and Johannes M.M.H. Thijssen
ISBN 978-0-7546-3084-5
Angels in Medieval Philosophical Enquiry
Their Function and Significance
Edited by Isabel Iribarren and Martin Lenz
ISBN 978-0-7546-5803-0
Topics in Latin Philosophy
from the 12th–14th centuries
Collected Essays of Sten Ebbesen Volume 2
STEN EBBESEN
SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
First published2009 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprintof the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2009 Sten Ebbesen
Sten Ebbesen has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage orretrieval s ystem,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Ebbesen, Sten
Topics in Latin philosophy from the 12th–14th centuries. – (Collected essays of Sten
Ebbesen ; v. 2)
(Ashgate studies in medieval philosophy)
1. Philosophy, Medieval
I. Title
189
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ebbesen, Sten.
Topics in Latin philosophy from the 12th–14th centuries / Sten Ebbesen.
p. cm. – (Collected essays of Sten Ebbesen ; v. 2)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes.
ISBN 978-0-7546-5836-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Philosophy, Medieval.
2. Nominalism. 3. Scholasticism. I. Title.
B721.E25 2008
189–dc22
2008009055
ISBN 9780754658368 (hbk)
ISBN 9781138265332 (pbk)
contents
Foreword vii
1 Early Supposition Theory (12th–13th centuries) 1
2 The Present King of France Wears Hypothetical Shoes with
Categorical Laces 15
3 Oxynat: A Theory about the Origin of British Logic 31
4 The Semantics of the Trinity according to Stephen Langton and
Andrew Sunesen 43
5 What Must One Have an Opinion About 69
6 Porretaneans on Propositions 85
7 Albert (the Great?)’s Companion to the Organon 95
8 Concrete Accidental Terms: Late Thirteenth-Century Debates about
Problems Relating to Such Terms as ‘album’ 109
9 Boethius of Dacia: Science is a Serious Game 153
10 The Man who Loved Every. Boethius of Dacia on Logic and
Metaphysics 163
11 Radulphus Brito. The Last of the Great Arts Masters.
Or: Philosophy and Freedom 179
12 Radulphus Brito on the Metaphysics 197
13 Proof and its Limits According to Buridan Summulae 8 209
Bibliography 221
Index of Manuscripts 235
Index of Names and Subjects 237
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foreword
The essays that constitute this book fall into two main groups. Chapters 1–6 deal
with issues in twelfth-century logic and semantics, while chapters 8–12 deal with the
“modist” philosophers of the late thirteenth century. One main thesis is that not only
were the foundations of terminist logic laid in the twelfth century, but they were laid
at a time when the Ars Nova (Analytics, Topics, Elenchi) was still unknown or little
known. Only after a robust “native” Western tradition of how to do logic had been
developed did the schoolmen seriously start to use the Ars Nova. as the thirteenth
century progressed, they gradually became intimately acquainted with the whole
of the Aristotelian corpus, as well as with Avicenna and Averroes, and their focus
of interest changed. They retained a strong interest in logic and semantics, but the
terminist approach, while never forgotten, ceased to be dominant, at least in Paris,
while it seems to have continued to enjoy a strong position in Oxford, whence it was
to return in a modernized form in the fourteenth century.
The theory of knowledge and science was a major interest of late-thirteenth-
century Parisian scholars. They took their cue from Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics,
while at the same time finding his natural philosophy convincing, and taking the
main message of his Ethics to be that there is a humanly attainable happiness in
this world, a happiness consisting in the acquisition of knowledge. This raised the
problem of whether their science/philosophy was reconcilable with Christian faith.
The best proposal for how to solve the problem was put forward by Boethius of Dacia,
who designed his theory of knowledge in a way to make it immune to theological
objections. The theory is sketched in chapter 9, while chapters 8 and 10 demonstrate
the close connection between logic, epistemology and ontology in Boethius and his
co-modists. Chapters 10–11 treat the last great modist, Radulphus Brito, who in
many ways continued the tradition from Boethius of Dacia, while at the same time
being acutely aware of a number of problems that beset modistic theories.
One generation after Radulphus, an Ockham-inspired nominalism, which clearly
built on the terminist tradition, reached Paris in the shape of John Buridan. The new
kind of philosophy demanded a new theory of knowledge and proof, and hence a
radical re-interpretation of Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics. Buridan undertook that
re-interpretation, as is shown in chapter 13.
Chapter 7, on Albert the Great’s logic, falls between the two main groups of
essays, since Albert was neither a twelfth-century man nor a modist. His logic had
to be investigated because it used to be thought that it was very influential, and thus
he might be an important link between the older Western tradition and the newer
one represented by the modists. What the article basically shows is that Albert was
extremely dependent on his fellow-Dominican Robert Kilwardby, but a much lesser
logician than he, and not an influential one either – Albert was good to quote, because
anyone could find in him whatever he wanted, but he was not the man to shape the
logical convictions of a scholar from the late thirteenth century.
viii Topics in Latin Philosophy from the 12th–14th centuries
Provenance of the single chapters
The thirteen chapters have each their own origin. I thank the original publishing houses
for consenting to the present reprint. The essays have the following provenances:
Chapter 1: Histoire Épistémologie Langage 3.2 (1981) 35–48. By kind permission
of the journal.
Chapter 2: Medioevo 7 (1981): 91–113. By kind permission of the journal.
Chapter 3: The Rise of British Logic. Acts of the Sixth European Symposium on
Medieval Logic and Semantics, ed. P. Osmund Lewry (Papers in Mediaeval Studies
7), 1–17. By kind permission of the publisher. 1985 by the Pontifical Institute of
Mediaeval Studies, Toronto.
Chapter 4: Gilbert de Poitiers et ses contemporains. Aux origines de la logica
modernorum. Actes du septième symposium européen d’histoire de la logique
et de la sémantique médiévales, ed. Jean Jolivet and Alain de Libera, History
of Logic 5, pp. 401–35. 1987 by Bibliopolis – Edizioni di filosofia e scienze,
Napoli. By kind permission of the publisher.
Chapter 5: Vivarium 30/1: 62–79. Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden 1992. By kind
permission of the publisher.
Chapter 6: Medieval Theories on Assertive and Non-Assertive Language, Acts
of the 14th Symposium on Medieval Logic and Semantics, ed. A. Maierù and
L.Valente (Firenze: Olschki 2004), pp. 129–39. 2004 by Istituto per il Lessico
Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee (CNR, Roma) e Leo S. Olschki editore,
Firenze. By kind permission of Mssrs Olschki.
Chapter 7: A. Zimmermann, ed., Albert der Grosse: seine Zeit, sein Werk, seine
Wirkung, Miscellanea Mediaevalia 14, pp. 89–103. 1981 by Walter de Gruyter,
GmbH & KG, D–10785 Berlin. By kind permission of the publisher.
Chapter 8: Norman Kretzmann, ed., Meaning and Inference in Medieval Philosophy.
Studies in Memory of Jan Pinborg, Synthese Historical Library 32 (Dordrecht-
Boston-London: Kluwer, 1988), pp. 107–74. 1988 by Kluwer Academic
Publishers. With kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media.
Chapter 9: Theoria 66 (2000): 145–58. By kind permission of the journal.
Chapter 10: The Modern Schoolman 82: 235–50. 2005 by The Modern
Schoolman, William C. Charron. By kind permission of the journal.
Chapter 11: Jan A. Aertsen and Andreas Speer, eds, Geistesleben im 13. Jahrhundert,
Miscellanea Mediaevalia 27, pp. 231–51. 2000 by Walter de Gruyter, GmbH &
KG, D–10785 Berlin. By kind permission of the publisher.
Chapter 12: J. Aertsen, K. Emery, Jr. and A. Speer, eds, Nach der Verurteilung
von 1277, Philosophie und Theologie an der Universität von Paris im letzten
Viertel des 13. Jahrhunderts. Studien und Texte, Miscellanea Mediaevalia 28, pp.
456–92. 2001 by Walter de Gruyter, GmbH & KG, D–10785 Berlin. By kind
permission of the publisher.
Chapter 13: Z. Kaluza and P. Vignaux, eds, Preuve et raisons à l’Université de
Paris. Logique, ontologie et théologie au XIVe siècle, pp. 97–110. Librairie
Philosophique J. Vrin, Paris, 1984. By kind permission of the publisher.
Foreword ix
The original pagination is indicated by means of bold numbers in square
brackets, i.e. ‘[117]’.
The text of the reprinted articles has been left unchanged with the following
exceptions: (1) Typographical errors have been corrected – if detected. (2) Endnotes
have been changed into footnotes. (3) All bibliographies have been merged into one,
and abbreviated references have been changed so as to agree with the new consolidated
bibliography. I have not, however, tried to iron out all the differences in reference style
between the several publications. (4) References to forthcoming publications have been
changed if they have now appeared in print. (5) Various sorts of addenda et corrigenda
have been added in the footnotes. Such additions appear in square brackets: […].
I owe warm thanks to Dr David Bloch for proof-reading much of the volume at
a stage when it still contained far too many errors due to the process of scanning old
prints of essays written before I acquired a computer in 1987.
