Jean Buridan Was the Most Distinguished at Paris
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BURIDAN BURIDAN cientific and cultural center in Prague after 1620. The the papal court at Avignon and, on the way, climbed Prague edition of the tables remained almost un- Mt. Ventoux in order to make some meteorological noticed, and only a few copies were saved ; probably observations. the only complete copy is kept, together with the In 1340 Buridan was rector of the university for handwritten "instruction," in the library at Danzig . a second time, and in that year he signed a statute Thus, Burgi's greatest discovery had no apparent of the faculty of arts which censured certain masters influence on the development of science . for the practice of construing texts in a literal sense rather than in accordance with the intentions of the authors, warning that this practice gave rise to "intol- BIBLIOGRAPH Y erable errors not only in philosophy but with respect to Sacred Scripture ." One of the articles of censure Burgi's only published work is Arithmetische and geo- bears on a statement known to have been made by metrische Progress -Tabu len, sambt griindlichem Unterricht, Nicolaus -of Autrecourt, whose skeptical views on wie solche niltzlich in allerley Rechnungen zu gebrauchen, causal inferences were attacked by Buridan in his own and verstanden werden sol 1620),repr. in H. R. (Prague, writings . The last documentary mention of Buridan Gieswald, Justus Byrg als Mathematiker and dessen Ein- occurs in a statute dated 12 July 1358, where his name leitung zu seinen Logarithmen (Danzig, 1856). There is neither a detailed biography nor an analysis of appears as witness to an agreement between the Picard Burgi's scientific work . Basic bibliographic data in the and English nations of the university . It is not unlikely following works can be of use : G . Vetter, "Dejiny mate- that he fell victim to the Black Plague, which in 1358 matickych ved v ceskych zemich od zalo2eni university took the lives of many of those who had managed v r.1348a2 do r.1620"("History of Mathematics in the to survive its first outbreak in 1349. Bohemian Lands From the Foundation of the University Buridan was a secular cleric rather than a member in 1348until 1620"),in Sbornik pro dejiny pIirodnich ved of a religious order, and he remained on the faculty a techniky (Prague), 4 (1958), 87-88; and "Kratkii obzor of arts to the end of his life without, apparently, v razvitija matematiki cheshtskikh zemliakh do Belo- seeking to obtain a degree in theology. In his lifetime gorskoi bitvy," in Istoriko-matematicheskie issledova- he was held in high esteem by his colleagues, students, niya, 11(Moscow, 1958), 49, 512; E. Voellmy, "Jost Burgi and die Logarithmen," in Beihefte zur Zeitschrifi fur Ele- and ecclesiastical superiors; and for nearly two cen- mente der Matheniatik, no. 5 (1948); and E. Zinner, turies after his death his teachings in natural philoso- Deutsche and niederldndische astronomische Instrumente des phy and logic were of paramount influence in the 11.-18. Jahrhunderts(Munich, 1956), pp. 268-276. universities of northern and eastern Europe. A docu- ment in the archives of the University of Cologne, Luso~ Nov'l dated 24 December 1425, speaks of the preceding century as "the age of Buridan," and when George BURIDAN, JEAN (b.Bethune, France, ca. 1295; d. Lockert, in 1516, edited one of Buridan's works, he Paris, France, ca.1358),philosophy, logic, physics. stated that Buridan still ruled the study of physics Although Jean Buridan was the most distinguished at Paris . In later centuries, the story of the ass who and influential teacher of natural philosophy at the starved to death because he could not choose between University of Paris in the fourteenth century, little two equally desirable bundles of hay was attributed is known of his personal life . He was born in the to Buridan, and another story, presumably legendary diocese of Arras, and went as a young cleric to study but perpetuated by the poet Francois Villon, related at the University of Paris, where he was first enrolled that Buridan had been involved in scandalous rela- as a student in the College of Cardinal Lemoine and tions with the wife of Philip V of France and had, later became a member of the College of Navarre . by the king's order, been tied in a sack and thrown It is probable that he obtained his master of arts into the Seine . degree soon after 1320, since a document dated 2 The extant writings of Buridan consist of the lec- February 1328 mentions him as rector of the univer- tures he gave on subjects in the curriculum of the sity in that year . Other documents, relating to bene- faculty of arts at Paris . In the fourteenth century this fices whose revenues provided his financial support curriculum was based largely on study of the treatises and bearing the dates 1329, 1330, 1342, and 1348,of Aristotle, along with the Summulae logicales of describe him as a "very distinguished man," as a Peter of Spain and other medieval textbooks of "celebrated philosopher," and as "lecturing at Paris grammar, mathematics, and astronomy . Buridan on the books of natural, metaphysical, and moral composed his own textbook of logic, Summula de philosophy." Two passages in his own writings indicate dialectica, as a "modern" revision and amplification that at some date prior to 1334 he made a visit to of the text of Peter of Spain ; he also wrote two 603 BURIDAN BURIDAN treatises on advanced topics of logic, entitled Con- William of Sherwood and Peter of Spain . Although sequentiae and Sophismata, which are among the it presupposes the nominalist thesis that general terms most interesting contributions to late medieval logic . are signs of individuals, and not of common natures All of his other works are in the form of commentaries existing in individuals, it does not exhibit any strong and of critical books of Questions on the principal evidence of direct influence by the logical writings treatises of the Aristotelian corpus . The literal com- of Ockham ; it may well have been developed inde- mentaries are extant only in the unpublished manu- pendently of such influence on the basis of the modern script versions, but the books of Questions on Aris- logic (logica moderna) already well established in the totle's Physics, Metaphysics, Deanima, Parvananuralia, arts faculties of Oxford and Paris. The doctrine of Nicomachean ethics, and Politics were published, the supposition of terms, basic to this logic, is used along with Buridan's writings in logic, after the in- in defining the functions of logical operators or syn- vention of the printing press . categorematic signs in determining the truth condi- The only modern edition of a work by Buridan is tions of categorical propositions of various forms and that of his Questions on Aristotle's De caelo et mundo, in formulating the laws of syllogistic inference, both previously unedited, which appeared in 1942. Most assertoric and modal . Treatises on topical arguments, of the printed editions represent the lectures Buridan fallacies, and the demonstrative syllogism conclude gave during the last part of his teaching career, the work. although earlier versions are to be found among the Buridan's Sophismata, designed to constitute a ninth unpublished manuscript materials . Until a critical part of the Summula, apparently was written much study of the manuscripts is made, however, there is later in his life, for it contains criticisms of the theory no sure way of determining any order of composition of propositional meanings, or complexe signift'cabilia, for Buridan's works, nor of tracing the development which Gregory of Rimini introduced in 1344. This of his thought over the thirty-odd years of his aca- work presents a fully developed analysis of meaning demic career. and truth which corresponds closely to that of Buridan made significant and original contributions Ockham's Summa logicae. It goes beyond the work to logic and physics, but as a philosopher of science of Ockham, however, in presenting original and highly he was historically important in two respects . First, advanced treatments of the problem of the nonsub- he vindicated natural philosophy as a respectable stitutivity of terms occurring in intensional contexts study in its own right . Second, he defined the objec- and the problem of self-referential propositions rep- tives and methodology of scientific enterprise in a resented by the Liar paradox . Buridan's treatment of manner that warranted its autonomy with respect to these problems exhibits a level of logical insight and dogmatic theology and metaphysics ; this achievement skill not equaled until very recent times . His treatise was intimately connected with the fourteenth-century Consequentiae, which develops the whole theory of movement known as nominalism and with the con- inference on the basis of propositional logic, marks troversies precipitated at the universities of Oxford another high point of medieval logic, the significance and Paris by the doctrines associated with William of which has been appreciated only in the twentieth of Ockham . Buridan's own philosophical position was century . thoroughly nominalistic, and indeed very similar to Buridan's philosophy of science is formulated in that of Jean de Mirecourt, a theologian of Paris whose his Questions on the Metaphysics, and is applied to teachings were condemned in 1347 by the chancellor the concepts and problems of natural science in his of the university and the faculty of theology . Buridan Questions on the Physics.The Aristotelian definition himself was able to escape the charges of theological of science as knowledge of universal and necessary skepticism that were directed against his fellow nomi- conclusions by demonstration from necessary, evident, nalists of the theological faculty . He owed his good indemonstrable premises is accepted.