ASHGATE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY Ockham on Concepts Series Editors John Marenbon, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK Scott MacDonald, Cornell University, USA Christopher J. Martin, University ofAuckland, New Zealand Simo Knuuttila, Academy ofFinland and the University ofHelsinki, 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 of1teir philosophical CLAUDE PANACCIO achievements. Ashgate Studies in Medieval Philosophy presents some of the best of University ofQuebec in Montreal, Canada 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: Theology at Paris, 1316-1345 Peter Auriol and the Problem of Divine Foreknowledge and Future Contingents Chris Schabel ISBN 0 7546 0204 4 Medieval Modal Systems Problems and Concepts Paul Thom ISBN 0 7546 08336 ASHGATE © Claude Panaccio 2004 .. Contents All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. ix The author has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Acknowledgements Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Abbreviations xi 1 Published by Introduction Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Notes 3 Gower House Suite 420 5 Croft Road, Aldershot 101 Cherry Street 1: Intuition, Abstraction and Mental Language Hampshire GUll 3HR Burlington, VT 05401-4405 1..Intuitive and abstractive cognitions 5 England USA 2. Mental language 8 IAshgate website: http://www.ashgate.com I 3. Abstraction and universals 9 11 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data 4. Intuition and singular terms Panaccio, Claude, 1946- 5. Mixed cognitions and singular terms of the third type 14 Ockham on concepts. - (Ashgate studies in medieval philosophy) 6. Ockham's representationalism 15 1. William of Ockham, ca. 1285-ca. 13492. Concepts 1. Title Notes 17 189.4 2: Intellectual Acts 21 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 1. Mental acts and habitus 21 Panaccio, Claude, 1946- 23 Ockham on concepts / Claude Panaccio. 2. From the fictum to the actus p. cm. - (Ashgate studies in medieval philosophy) 3. The rejection of intelligible species 27 Includes bibliographical references and index. 3.1 Species as preconditions for intellectual acts 28 ISBN 0-7546-3228-8 (alk. paper) 1. William, of Ockham, ca. 1285-ca. 1349. 2. Philosophy, Medieval. 3.2 The razor argument against intelligible species 29 3. Concepts. 31 1. Title. II. Series. 4. Combining acts 4.1 Simple and complex units 31 B765.034P36 2004 32 121 '.4-dc22 2004008560 4.2 Propositional acts 4.3 Iudicative acts 35 ISBN 0 7546 32288 Notes 36 Printed and bound in Great Britain·by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire Typeset by DC Graphic Design Ltd, Swanley, Kent ,.-. vi OCKHAM ON CONCEPTS OCKHAM ON CONCEPTS vii 3: Concepts as Signs 45 7: Concepts as Similitudes 119 1. The problem: how can a concept ever be a sign? 45 1. Similitude sustained 119 2. The two meanings of signum 47 2. Acts and similarities 122 3. Conceptual roles 51 3. Varieties of conceptual representation 125 4. Atomism or propositionalism? 53 3.1 Absolute specific quality concepts 126 5. Types and tokens 55 3.2 Specific concepts of substances 126 Notes 58 3.3 Simple connotative concepts 129 4: Connotative Terms in Mental Language 63 3.4 Simple generic concepts 131 1. Connotative terms 64 4. Two problems about absolute concepts 133 2. Mental connotation 66 4.1 Klima's objection 133 3. Synonymy and nominal definitions 69 4.2 Brown's puzzle 136 4. Connotative terms and exponible propositions 73 Notes 139 Appendix: A reply to Richard Gaskin 74 H: Logical Concepts 145 Notes 77 I. The earlier theory: logical words internalized 146 5: The Role of Nominal Definitions 85 2. Logical constants in the actus-theory 151 1. Four theses about nominal definitions 86 3. Prepositions and non-standard copulas 155 2. What defining amounts to: a reconstruction 89 Notes 158 3. Some consequences 93 l): The Meaning of Words 165 3.1 Definitions and abbreviations 93 I. Subordination 165 3.2 Possession of concepts and knowledge of definitions 94 2. Types and tokens again 171 3.3 Real orderings 95 3. Reverse subordination? The instructive case of proper names 173 Notes 97 Notes 176 6: Cognition and Connotation 103 Conclusion 181 1. Spade's questions 103 Notes 186 2. The acquisition of simple connotative concepts 106 Bihliography 187 3. The adequacy of nominal definitions 110 Index 195 4. Ockham and the Classical View 113 Notes 116 Acknowledgements Most of this book was written between the winter of 2002 and the fall of 2003, as I was releaSed from my regular teaching load; first by a sabbatical leave from the University of Quebec in Trois-Riyieres, and then by a Killam Scholarship from the Canadian. Council for the Arts. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada also greatly contributed to the fulfilmel)t of the project by awarding it a three-year research grant from 2000 to 2003. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to all three organizations for their generous support. It should be mentioned that some of the developments to be read here partly correspond to previously published papers of mine: • Chapter 1 is closely based on an article originally written in French (,Intuition, abstractionet langage mental dans la theorie occamiste de la connaissance', Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale, 97/1,1992, pp. 61-81). •A preliminary version of chapter 4 has circulated for quite some time among specialists in an informal 'prepublication' format ('Connotative terms in Ockham's mental language', Cahiers d' epistemologie, no. 9016, Montreal, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, 1990, p. 21), and a slightly different one later appeared in French 'in an Italian journal ('Guillaume d'Ockham, les connotatifs et Ie langage mental', Documenti e studi sulla tradizioneJilosojka medievale, 11,2000, pp. 297-316). • Chapter 5 freely makes use of ideas about nominal definitions that I originally presented at the XIIIth European Symposium for Medieval Logic and Semantics held in Avignon in June 2000, in a contribution that was subsequently published in the acts ('Connotative concepts and their definitions in Ockham's nominalism', in La tradition medievale des Categories, Joel Biard and Irene Rosier-Catach, eds, Leuwen: Peeters, 2003, pp. 141-55). • Section 1 of chapter 9 is a revised version of a recent paper in French (,Guillaume d'Ockham et les syncategoremes mentaux: la premiere theorie', Histoire, Epistemologie, Langage, 25/2, 2003, pp. 145-60). I am grateful to the editOJ;s and publishers involved for their role in the original dissemination of this material. The fact is that this book found its motivation in the extraordinarily stimulating - if sometimes critical - reactions these publications, especially the first two ones, elicited, both in print and in private conversations, from a number of outstanding scholars whose names will be found again and again in the following pages. Let me single out at this point those of Joel Biard, Elizabeth Karger, Calvin Normore and Paul Vincent Spade in particular, to whom this whole work, while disagreeing with them on certain points (and sometimes crucial ones), remains in the end deeply indebted, Several portions of the nook have neen orally presented to various audiences in France. Italy. Greece. Ukraine. the US and Canada. and have greatly nenefited from x OCKHAM ON CONCEPTS 'the numerous remarks, questions and objections that were raised on these occasions Abbreviations by colleagues and students. Chapters 3, 5, 6 and 7, most saliently, are elaborations on the Pierre-Abelard Lectures I gave at the University ofParis 4-Sorbonne in March 2001. Special thanks are due, in this respect, to Cyrille Michon, who not only organized these lectures, but who also provided useful and penetrating commentaries on each one of them when they were delivered. Exp. in Perih. Expositio in Librum Perihermenias Aristotelis Expositio in Libros Physicorum Aristotelis Most of all, finally, I should like to thank Cecile Juneau for her remarkably Exp. in Phys. Exp. in Porph. Expositio in Librum Porphyrii de Praedicabilibus patient and professional secretarial work upon the whole manuscript over the years, Exp. in Praedic. Expositio in Librum Praedicamentorum Aristotelis and my beloved companion Claude-Elizabeth Perreault for her constant and Exp. sup. Elench. Expositio super Libros Elenchorum affectionate support day after day whileI was - often single-mindedly! - working at OPh Guillelmi de Ockham Opera Philosophica it. Ord. Ordinatio. Scriptum in Librum Primum Sententiarum OTh Guillelmi de Ockham Opera Theologica Quaest. in Phys. Quaestiones in Libros Physicorum Aristotelis Quaest. Var. Quaestiones Variae Quodl. Quodlibeta Septem Rep. Reportatio. Quaestiones in Libros II, III, IV Sententiarum SL Summa Logicae Summ. Phil. Nat. Summula Philosophiae Naturalis Tract. de Corp. Chr. Tractatus de Corpore Christi Tract. de Quant. Tractatus de Quantitate Introduction This book is an exercise in interpretation. My background conviction is that William of Ockham's nominalism, even if elaborated in the d,istant context of the early fourteenth century, still provides a challenging and fruitful body of theory to be in dialogue with today.