DOCSLIB.ORG

INTRODUCTION . Life and Works John Buridan Was One of the Most

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
INTRODUCTION . Life and Works John Buridan Was One of the Most 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.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Projectile Motion Acc
    PHY1033C/HIS3931/IDH 3931 : Discovering Physics: The Universe and Humanity’s Place in It Fall 2016 Prof. Peter Hirschfeld, Physics Announcements • HW 1 due today; HW 2 posted, due Sept. 13 • Lab 1 today 2nd hour • Reading: Gregory Chs. 2,3 Wertheim (coursepack), Lindberg (coursepack) • HW/office hours 10:40 M,T, 11:45 W email/call to make appt. if these are bad Last time Improvements to Aristotle/Eudoxus Appolonius of Perga (~20 -190 BCE) : proposed: 1) eccentric orbits (planet goes in circle at const. speed, but Earth was off center) 2) epicycles (planet moves on own circle [epicycle] around a point that travels in another circle [deferent] around E. His model explained • variation in brightness of planets • changes in angular speed Ptolemy (AD 100 – c. 170): Almagest summarized ancient ideas about solar system. He himself proposed “equant point”: eccentric point about which planet moved with constant angular speed. Not true uniform circular motion, but explained data better. Ptolemaic universe (Equant point suppressed) • Note: this picture puts planets at a distance relative to Earth corresponding to our modern knowledge, but Ptolemaic system did not predict order of planets (or care!) • Exception: inner planets had to have orbits that kept them between Earth and Sun • Why epicycles? Not asked. Clicker quickies Q1: Ptolemy’s model explained retrograde motion of the planets. This means that A. Some planets moved clockwise while others moved counterclockwise along their orbits B. Some planets moved outside the plane of the ecliptic C. Some planets were observed to stop in the sky, move apparently backwards along their path, forward again D.
    [Show full text]
  • The Logic of Where and While in the 13Th and 14Th Centuries
    The Logic of Where and While in the 13th and 14th Centuries Sara L. Uckelman Department of Philosophy, Durham University Abstract Medieval analyses of molecular propositions include many non-truthfunctional con- nectives in addition to the standard modern binary connectives (conjunction, dis- junction, and conditional). Two types of non-truthfunctional molecular propositions considered by a number of 13th- and 14th-century authors are temporal and local propositions, which combine atomic propositions with ‘while’ and ‘where’. Despite modern interest in the historical roots of temporal and tense logic, medieval analy- ses of ‘while’ propositions are rarely discussed in modern literature, and analyses of ‘where’ propositions are almost completely overlooked. In this paper we introduce 13th- and 14th-century views on temporal and local propositions, and connect the medieval theories with modern temporal and spatial counterparts. Keywords: Jean Buridan, Lambert of Auxerre, local propositions, Roger Bacon, temporal propositions, Walter Burley, William of Ockham 1 Introduction Modern propositional logicians are familiar with three kinds of compound propositions: Conjunctions, disjunctions, and conditionals. Thirteenth-century logicians were more liberal, admitting variously five, six, seven, or more types of compound propositions. In the middle of the 13th century, Lambert of Auxerre 1 in his Logic identified six types of ‘hypothetical’ (i.e., compound, as opposed to atomic ‘categorical’, i.e., subject-predicate, propositions) propo- sitions: the three familiar ones, plus causal, local, and temporal propositions [17, 99]. Another mid-13th century treatise, Roger Bacon’s Art and Science of Logic¶ , lists these six and adds expletive propositions (those which use the connective ‘however’), and other ones not explicitly classified such as “Socrates 1 The identity of the author of this text is not known for certain.
    [Show full text]
  • Jean Buridan Qui a Étudié Les Arts Libéraux S’Est Intéressé Aux Dis- Cussions Sur Le Modèle De L’Univers Et Sur La Théorie Du Mouvement D’Aristote
    Jean Buridan qui a étudié les arts libéraux s’est intéressé aux dis- cussions sur le modèle de l’univers et sur la théorie du mouvement d’Aristote. Il a redécouvert et diffusé la théorie de l’impetus. Éla- borée à Alexandrie, cette théorie visait à combler une lacune de la théorie du mouvement d’Aristote. Jean Buridan 1295-1358 Jean Buridan Discussion du géocentrisme Si la terre reste toujours immobile au Jean Buridan est né à Béthune au Pas de centre du monde; ou non ... [et] si, en Calais, en 1295 et est mort vers 1358. supposant que la terre est en mouve- Il étudie à l’université de Paris où il est ment de rotation autour de son cen- un disciple de Guillaume d’Occam. Tra- tre et de ses propres pôles, tous les phé- ditionnellement, pour se préparer à une nomènes que nous observons peuvent carrière en philosophie, les aspirants étu- être sauvés? dient la théologie. Buridan choisit d’étu- dier les arts libéraux (voir encadré) plu- Peut-on, en considérant que la Terre est tôt que la théologie et il préserve son in- en rotation sur elle-même, expliquer dépendance en demeurant clerc séculier tous les phénomènes que nous obser- plutôt qu’en se joignant à un ordre reli- vons ? Buridan donne une série d’argu- gieux. ments en accord avec la rotation de la Buridan enseigne la philosophie à Pa- Terre et une autre série à l’encontre de ris et est élu recteur de Angleterre Calais Belgique cette hypothèse. Il écrit : Lille Allemagne l’Université en 1328 et en Béthune Il est vrai, sans aucun doute, que si la 1340.
    [Show full text]
  • E D I T O R I a L
    E D I T O R I A L “RETRO-PROGRESSING” As one browses through the history section of a library, one of the volumes that is likely to catch one’s attention is The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin.1 It is an impressive, 700-page volume. Published in 1983, it chronicles in a semi-popular style selected aspects of man’s discoveries. Two chapters entitled “The Prison of Christian Dogma” and “A Flat Earth Returns” deal with the outlandish con- cept of an earth that is flat instead of spherical. Boorstin has impressive academic credentials from Harvard and Yale, and has held prestigious positions such as the Librarian of Congress, Director of the National Museum of History and Tech- nology, and Senior Historian of the Smithsonian Institution. In The Discoverers he reflects the popular view that the ancient Greeks, including Aristotle and Plato, believed Earth to be a sphere; however, after the rise of Christianity a period of “scholarly amnesia” set in which lasted from around 300 to 1300 A.D. During this time, according to Boorstin, “Christian faith and dogma replaced the useful [spherical] image of the world that had been so slowly, so painfully, and so scrupulously drawn by ancient geographers.” The “spherical” view was replaced by the concept of a flat earth, which Boorstin characterizes as “pious caricatures.”2 Boorstin bolsters his case by mentioning a couple of minor writers — Lactantius and Cosmas — who believed in a flat earth and lived during this “dark age.” He also implicates the powerful authority of St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), who “heartily agreed” that antipodes “could not exist.”3 Antipodes represented lands on the opposite side of a spherical earth where trees and men, if present, would be upside down, with their feet above their heads; hence, the “antipodes” (opposite-feet) designation.
    [Show full text]
  • Buridan-Editions.Pdf
    Buridan Logical and Metaphysical Works: A Bibliography https://www.historyoflogic.com/biblio/buridan-editions.htm History of Logic from Aristotle to Gödel by Raul Corazzon | e-mail: [email protected] Buridan: Editions, Translations and Studies on the Manuscript Tradition INTRODUCTION I give an updated list of the published and unpublished logical and metaphysical works of Buridan, and a bibliography of the editions and translations appeared after 2000. A complete list of Buridan's works and manuscripts can be found in the ' Introduction' by Benoît Patar to his edition of "La Physique de Bruges de Buridan et le Traité du Ciel d'Albert de Saxe. Étude critique, textuelle et doctrinale" Vol. I, Longueil, Les Presses Philosophiques, 2001 (2 volumes), pp. 33* - 75*. SUMMARY LIST OF BURIDAN'S LATIN WORKS ON LOGIC AND METAPHYSICS Logical Works: N. B. The treatises known as Artes Veterem and commented by Buridan were the Isagoge by Porphyry and the Categoriae (Predicamenta) and the Peri Hermeneias by Aristotle. 1. Expositio Super Artes Veterem 2. Quaestiones Super Artes Veterem 3. Expositio in duos libros Analyticorum priorum Aristotelis 4. Quaestiones in duos libros Analyticorum priorum Aristotelis 5. Expositio in duos libros Analyticorum posteriorum Aristotelis 6. Quaestiones in duos libros Analyticorum posteriorum Aristotelis 7. Quaestiones in octo libros Topicorum Aristotelis 8. Quaestiones in librum 'de sophisticis Elenchis' Aristotelis Summulae de dialectica, commentary of the Summulae logicales by Peter of Spain, composed by the following treatises: 1. De propositionibus 2. De praedicabilibus 3. In praedicamenta 4. De suppositionibus 5. De syllogismis 6. De locis dialecticis 1 di 10 22/09/2016 17:30 Buridan Logical and Metaphysical Works: A Bibliography https://www.historyoflogic.com/biblio/buridan-editions.htm 7.
    [Show full text]
  • Sauterdivineansamplepages (Pdf)
    The Decline of Space: Euclid between the Ancient and Medieval Worlds Michael J. Sauter División de Historia Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, A.C. Carretera México-Toluca 3655 Colonia Lomas de Santa Fe 01210 México, Distrito Federal Tel: (+52) 55-5727-9800 x2150 Table of Contents List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. v Preface ............................................................................................................................... vi Introduction: The divine and the decline of space .............................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Divinus absconditus .......................................................................................... 2 Chapter 2: The problem of continuity ............................................................................... 19 Chapter 3: The space of hierarchy .................................................................................... 21 Chapter 4: Euclid in Purgatory ......................................................................................... 40 Chapter 5: The ladder of reason ........................................................................................ 63 Chapter 6: The harvest of homogeneity ............................................................................ 98 Conclusion: The
    [Show full text]
  • Aquinas and Buridan on the Possibility of Scientific Knowledge
    Zita Veronika Tóth Aquinas and Buridan on the Possibility of Scientific Knowledge 1. Th is paper examines a specifi c but basic problem of Aristotelian natural philosophy which arises if we consider the following three propositions, stated as necessary requirements towards knowledge in the proper sense (quoted now from Aristotle): I. Th e soul never thinks without an image.1 II. Th e object of knowledge is of necessity and of the universal.2 III. We understand something when we know its causes.3 In the following, I deal only with the fi rst two, that is, with the possible reconciliation of the empiricist and the universalistic claim. After outlining the solution of Th omas Aquinas and some criticism of it in the 14th century, I shall call attention to John Buridan, who – despite his apparent Nominalism –, in certain respects, turns out to be surprisingly Th omistic. 2. Aquinas accepts these two claims, and regards them as preconditions of all scien- tifi c knowledge. First, as he writes in his “De veritate”, “there is nothing in the intel- lect, which was not prior in the senses”4 (this empiricist slogan, at least since Duns Scotus, has been often – and incorrectly – attributed to Aristotle). Apart from this and similar statements, as e.g. “the human intellect is at fi rst like a clean tablet on which nothing is written”,5 his empiricism can be observed at several points: he ar- gues against innate knowledge throughout an article in the Summa,6 the concept of 1 On the Soul 431a18. All Aristotle translations are from Barnes, Jonathan, ed., Th e Complete Works of Aristotle, the Revised Oxford Translation, 2 vols (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995) 2 Posterior Analytics 71b15, Nicomachean Ethics 1139b23 3 Cf.
    [Show full text]
  • Emotions in Medieval Thought
    c Peter King, forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook on Emotion. EMOTIONS IN MEDIEVAL THOUGHT No single theory of the emotions dominates the whole of the Middle Ages. Instead, there are several competing accounts, and differences of opin- ion — sometimes quite dramatic — within each account. Yet there is consensus on the scope and nature of a theory of the emotions, as well as on its place in affective psychology generally. For most medieval thinkers, emotions are at once cognitively penetrable and somatic, which is to say that emotions are influenced by and vary with changes in thought and belief, and that they are also bound up, perhaps essentially, with their physiological manifesta- tions. This ‘mixed’ conception of emotions was broad enough to anchor me- dieval disagreements over details, yet rich enough to distinguish it from other parts of psychology and medicine. In particular, two kinds of phenomena, thought to be purely physiological, were not considered emotions even on this broad conception. First, what we now classify as drives or urges, for in- stance hunger and sexual arousal, were thought in the Middle Ages to be at best ‘pre-emotions’ (propassiones): mere biological motivations for action, not having any intrinsic cognitive object. Second, moods were likewise thought to be non-objectual somatic states, completely explicable as an imbalance of the bodily humours. Depression (melancholia), for example, is the pathological condition of having an excess of black bile. Medieval theories of emotions, therefore, concentrate on paradigm cases that fall under the broad concep- tion: delight, anger, distress, fear, and the like. The enterprise of constructing an adequate philosophical theory of the emotions in the Middle Ages had its counterpart in a large body of practical know-how.
    [Show full text]
  • Jean Buridan's Theory of Individuation
    c Peter King, in Individuation and Scholasticism (SUNY 1994), 397–430 BURIDAN’S THEORY OF INDIVIDUATION* 1. Introduction URIDAN holds that no principle or cause accounts for the individuality of the individual, or at least no principle or B cause other than the very individual itself, and thus there is no ‘metaphysical’ problem of individuation at all—individuality, unlike gen- erality, is primitive and needs no explanation. He supports this view in two ways. First, he argues that there are no nonindividual entities, whether existing in their own right or as metaphysical constituents either of things or in things, and hence that no real principle or cause of individuality (other than the individual itself) is required. Second, he offers a ‘semantic’ inter- pretation of what appear to be metaphysical difficulties about individuality by recasting the issues in the formal mode, as issues within semantics, such as how a referring expression can pick out a single individual. Yet although there is no ‘metaphysical’ problem of individuation, Buridan discusses two associated problems at some length: the identity of individuals over time and the discernibility of individuals. The discussion will proceed as follows. In §2, Buridan’s semantic frame- work, the idiom in which he couches his philosophical analyses, will be * References to Buridan are taken from a variety of his works (with abbreviations listed): Questions on Aristotle’s “Categories” (QC); Questions on Aristotle’s “Physics” (QSP); Questions on Aristotle’s “De caelo et mundo” (QCM); Questions on Aristotle’s “De anima” (QA); Questions on Aristotle’s “Metaphysics” (QM); Treatise on Supposi- tion (TS); Sophismata; Treatise on Consequences (TC).
    [Show full text]
  • What the Middle Ages Knew IV
    Late Medieval Philosophy Piero Scaruffi Copyright 2018 http://www.scaruffi.com/know 1 What the Middle Ages knew • Before the Scholastics – The Bible is infallible, therefore there is no need for scientific investigation or for the laws of logic – Conflict between science and religion due to the Christian dogma that the Bible is the truth – 1.Dangerous to claim otherwise – 2.Pointless to search for additional truths – Tertullian (3rd c AD): curiosity no longer necessary because we know the meaning of the world and what is going to happen next ("Liber de Praescriptione Haereticorum") 2 What the Middle Ages knew • Before the Scholastics – Decline of scientific knowledge • Lactantius (4th c AD) ridicules the notion that the Earth could be a sphere ("Divinae Institutiones III De Falsa Sapientia Philosophorum") • Cosmas Indicopleustes' "Topographia Cristiana" (6th c AD): the Earth is a disc 3 What the Middle Ages knew • Before the Scholastics – Plato's creation by the demiurge in the Timaeus very similar to the biblical "Genesis" – Christian thinkers are raised by neoplatonists • Origen was a pupil of Ammonius Sacca (Plotinus' teacher) • Augustine studied Plotinus 4 What the Middle Ages knew • Preservation of classical knowledge – Boethius (6th c AD) translates part of Aristotle's "Organon" and his "Arithmetica" preserves knowledge of Greek mathematics – Cassiodorus (6th c AD) popularizes scientific studies among monks and formalizes education ("De Institutione Divinarum" and "De artibus ac disciplinis liberalium litterarum") with the division of disciplines into arts (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic) – and disiplines (arithmeitc,geometry, music, astronomy) – Isidore of Sevilla (7th c AD) preserves Graeco- Roman knowledge in "De Natura Rerum" and "Origines" 5 What the Middle Ages knew • Preservation of classical knowledge – Bede (8th c AD) compiles an encyclopedia, "De Natura Rerum" – St Peter's at Canterbury under Benedict Biscop (7th c AD) becomes a center of learning – Episcopal school of York: arithmetic, geometry, natural history, astronomy.
    [Show full text]
  • INTRODUCTION to JEAN BURIDAN's LOGIC 1. Jean Buridan
    c Peter King, from Jean Buridan’s Logic (Dordrecht: D. Reidel 1985) 3–82. INTRODUCTION TO JEAN BURIDAN’S LOGIC 1. Jean Buridan: Life and Times Buridan is best-known to philosophers for the example of “Buridan’s Ass,” starving to death between two equidistant equally tempting bales of hay, who appears in Spinoza, Ethica II, scholium to Proposition 49. But this poor fragment of Buridan’s great reputation is as apocryphal as his sup- posed amorous adventures with the Queen of France, famous from Fran¸cois Villon’s poem “La testament,” or his founding the University of Vienna: Buridan’s ass is not to be found in Buridan, though his examples are stud- ded with asses.1 Our knowledge of Buridan’s life is sketchy.2 We know that he was French, but little else about his background; various examples in his writings suggest a man familiar with Picardy. Just as we do not know where Buridan was born, we do not know when he has born. He must have been born by 1300, but this is the only reliable inference we can make. Buridan is first glimpsed in the pages of history in 1328, the rector of the University of Paris, vir venerabilis et discretus, presiding over a debate that took place on February 9. The next year, on 30 August 1329, he received a benefice from Pope John XXII; on 2 November 1330 he received another benefice from the same Pope, who addressed him each time as a Master of Arts. We then lose sight of him until 25 September 1339, when Buridan was a signatory to a condemnation of certain doctrines (supposedly including those of William of Ockham); during this period he received an expectation of a prebend from Pope Benedict XII.
    [Show full text]
  • Middle-Ages Science
    Published on Explorable.com (https://explorable.com) Home > Middle-Ages Science Middle-Ages Science Martyn Shuttleworth101.1K reads Science and Medieval Society - Charlemagne, Scholasticism and the Scientific Method Many historians and scientists regard the Western Europe, after the fall of the Roman Empire, as completely devoid of interest, a barren wilderness in the history of science. Contemptuously, they give medieval Europe the Dark Ages, and this epithet evokes pictures of filthy, illiterate peasants and rulers, with medieval society a pale, superstitious shadow of the Greek and Roman ages of reason and high philosophy. The Dark Ages - Was Science Dead in Medieval Society? With the aid of arrogant hindsight, the modern perspective of medieval society is of a war-torn and barbaric Europe. Poverty and ignorance replaced the great engineering works and relative peace of the Pax Romanum, and the controlling, growing church stifled development. This view is biased and prejudiced, because the term 'Dark Ages' is simply means that there are few written records remaining from that era, especially when compared to the meticulous record-keeping and prolific writing of the Romans. The Middle Ages have very little evidence to support the idea that there was any progress in society during the periods 500 to 1400, and modern scholars regard the Golden Age of Islam and the enlightenment of the Byzantine Empire as the true centers of knowledge. In the years immediately after the fall of Rome, there was a period of readjustment, where medieval society was more concerned with keeping peace and empire building than nurturing centers of learning.
    [Show full text]