INTRODUCTION
. Life and works
John Buridan was one of the most talented and influential philosophers in fourteenth-century Paris.1 His fame extended well into the seventeenth century. As with many medieval thinkers, details about his life are scant. He first emerges from the documents on February , , as rector of the University of Paris. Given that the usual term for a rector was three months, Buridan may have been elected rector in December .2 The position of rector was only open to regent masters of arts, and the minimum age for the master’s degree was twenty-one. On the (plausi- ble) assumption that Buridan did not become rector immediately after graduation, it is generally conjectured that Buridan was born sometime between and (or even as early as ), and started his aca- demic teaching career at the Arts Faculty around . John Buridan originated from the diocese of Arras. This made him belong to the Picard Nation at the University of Paris. The often repeated tradition that he was born in the town of Béthune is spurious. Buridan’s
1 The most complete and most reliable biography of John Buridan and survey ofhis works is still B. Michael, Johannes Buridan: Studien zu seinem Leben, seinen Werken und zur Rezeption seiner Theorien im Europa des späten Mittelalters, PhD dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin, ( vols.). See also O. Weijers, Le travail intellectuel à la faculté des arts de Paris: textes et maîtres (ca. –), , Turnhout (Studia artistarum, ), –, for a listing of Buridan’s works and a bibliographical guide. An updated short biography and list of publications is also provided by J.M.M.H. Thijssen, ‘Buridan, John (Jean),’ in: N. Koertge (ed.), New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Detroit , : –. Biographical information about Buridan’s financial situation is provided in W.J. Courtenay, ‘Philosophy’s Reward. The Ecclesiastical Income of Jean Buridan,’ Recherches de théologie et philosophie médiévale, (), –. Surveys of Buridan’s philosophical views are given by J. Zupko, John Buridan: Portrait of a Fourteenth-Century Arts Master, Notre Dame (in) (Publications in mediaeval studies), and G. Klima, John Buridan, Oxford (Great medieval thinkers). 2 See S. Sechler, Rectors of the Fourteenth-Century University of Paris: An Institutional and Prosopographical Study, doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison (wi), , –. introduction university education is not documented. During his training at the Arts Faculty, he belonged to the Collège du Cardinal Lemoine, which provided him with a roof and financial support. According to its statutes, Buridan must have leftthe college as soon as he started to perform administrative functions at the university, such as rector at the end of . In , Buridan was elected rector of the university for a second time. On the basis of indirect evidence, it is plausible that he also held other important functions within his nation, such as that of proctor and of treasurer, although it is unknown when precisely he did so. At some date before , Buridan visited the papal court at Avignon. There is also evidence for a second visit, around . During one of these trips (or possibly still other trips which are not documented), Buridan made the observations reported in his commentary on Aristotle’s Mete- ora about the Cévennes and about the height of Mont Ventoux.3 Buri- dan’s name is last mentioned in a university document of July , , which settles a jurisdictional dispute between the Picard and the English nations. He probably died around October , , but no later than June , , on which date one of his benefices had received a new owner. Buridan did not belong to a religious order, and, as far as we know, he never sought to obtain a degree in theology. For these reasons, he has been presented as an independent, ‘real’ philosopher. Independent, because he was not involved in any of the doctrinal disputes of the religious orders, and a ‘real’ philosopher, because he made philosophy into a career in itself, which lasted almost forty years. Over the past decade, much work has been done in editing and study- ing John Buridan’s works. From this work it emerges that Buridan was a prolific and important philosopher. Yet, many particular aspects of his thoughtareasyetunexamined.HismostimportantworksaretheSum- mulae de dialectica, a voluminous compendium of logic and semantics (presented as a commentary on the author’s revised version of Peter of Spain’s Tractatus), the Questions on Aristotle’s Physics (Quaestiones super libros Physicorum, secundum ultimam lecturam), and the Questions on Aristotle’s Ethics.4 Certain parts of the Summulae are now dated to around
3 Cf. Buridan’s Quaestiones in libros Meteorologicorum Aristotelis, I, qq. and . See also Michael, Johannes Buridan, : , n. , and E. Faral, Jean Buridan. Maître ès arts de l’Université de Paris, Paris (Histoire littéraire de la France, /), –. 4 Buridan’s main work of logic, the Summulae de dialectica, consists of eight treatises (tractatus). Buridan presented his Sophismata as the ninth treatise of the Summulae, but it is clear that the work had an independent origin. A new edition of the Summulae