Per Se Modality and Natural Implication – an Account of Connexive Logic in Robert Kilwardby

We present a formal reconstruction of the theories of the medieval logician Robert Kilwardby, focusing on his account of accidental and natural inferences and the underlying modal logic that gives rise to it. We show how Kilwardby’s use of an essentialist modality underpins his connexive account of implication

Determinismo, regularidad y contingencia: Tomás de Aquino y la asimilación del aristotelismo en torno al orden autónomo de lo natural

This article studies the assimilation, in the cosmology of Thomas Aquinas, of the necessitarianism of Aristotle’s physics. It analyzes the rejection of determinism by Aquinas regarding the mode of action of the first principle, and his acceptance of the Aristotelian theory of natural regularity and necessary causal concatenation of second agents as a sufficient explanation of physical dynamism. It also highlights Aquinas’ defense of the autonomous character of nature with regard to its procedural aspects, as it is capable of self-preservation due to the formal structure with which it has been created, and his limitation of divine intervention and tutelage regarding the maintenance of the physical order. Keywords: Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, medieval physics, determinism, voluntarism, 13th century.El presente artículo estudia la asimilación, en la cosmología de Tomás de Aquino, del necesitarismo propio de la física aristotélica. Se analiza el rechazo del Aquinate al determinismo, en lo que respecta al modo de actuar del primer principio, así como su aceptación de la teoría aristotélica de la regularidad natural y la concatenación causal necesaria de los agentes segundos como explicación suficiente del dinamismo físico. Asimismo, se destaca la defensa por parte de Tomás de Aquino del carácter autónomo de la naturaleza en lo que respecta a sus aspectos procesuales, capaz de autoconservarse en virtud de la estructura formal con la que ha sido creada, y su limitación de la intervención y tutela divina en el mantenimiento del orden físico.Palabras clave: Tomás de Aquino, Aristóteles, física medieval, determinismo, voluntarismo, siglo XIII

Las condenas de París de 1277 y los orígenes de la ciencia moderna

After discovering a treasure-trove of medieval manuscripts on various topics in the philosophy of nature, the French physicist, historian and philosopher of science, Pierre Duhem (1861-1916), concluded that the Middle Ages witnessed profound reflections in the understanding of the natural world.  He eventually argued that developments in the 14th Century at the University of Paris concerning projectile motion anticipated the theories of inertia set forth by Galileo, Descartes, and Newton.  Scholars like Jean Buridan, according to Duhem, rejected the Aristotelian principle that everything that is moved is moved by another.  He claimed that the intellectual horizon in which Buridan and others operated was made possible by the actions of Étienne Tempier, Bishop of Paris, who in 1277 issued a list of 219 proposition condemned as false - many of them grounded in Aristotelian physics.  For Duhem, the real Scientific Revolution begins with Bishop Tempier's condemnations.  There are problems, however, with Duhem's thesis.  The theory of impetus set forth by Burdian is not so much a rejection of Aristotelian principles but a new development within the broad Aristotelian tradition. Duhem does help us to reject the view that there is a fundamental incompatibility between Catholic theology and science.  However, the Condemnations of 1277, in the appeal to divine omnipotence to counter claims about what is true in nature, incorporate a view that is really an obstacle to the development of science. Concerns about challenges of Aristotle to Christian faith, evident in the condemnations, were not shared by thinkers such as Albert the Great and Thomas AquinasTras descubrir un tesoro de manuscritos medievales sobre diversos temas de la filosofía de la naturaleza, el físico, historiador y filósofo de la ciencia francés Pierre Duhem (1861-1916) concluyó que la Edad Media fue testigo de profundas reflexiones en la comprensión de lo natural. mundo. Finalmente argumentó que los avances ocurridos en el siglo XIV en la Universidad de París en relación con el movimiento de los proyectiles anticiparon las teorías de la inercia expuestas por Galileo, Descartes y Newton. Eruditos como Jean Buridan, según Duhem, rechazaron el principio aristotélico de que todo lo que se mueve es movido por otro. Afirmó que el horizonte intelectual en el que operaban Buridan y otros fue posible gracias a las acciones de Étienne Tempier, obispo de París, quien en 1277 publicó una lista de 219 proposiciones condenadas como falsas, muchas de ellas basadas en la física aristotélica. Para Duhem, la verdadera revolución científica comienza con las condenas del obispo Tempier. Sin embargo, la tesis de Duhem plantea problemas. La teoría del ímpetu expuesta por Burdian no es tanto un rechazo de los principios aristotélicos sino un nuevo desarrollo dentro de la amplia tradición aristotélica. Duhem nos ayuda a rechazar la opinión de que existe una incompatibilidad fundamental entre la teología católica y la ciencia. Sin embargo, las Condenas de 1277, al apelar a la omnipotencia divina para contrarrestar las afirmaciones sobre lo que es verdadero en la naturaleza, incorporan una visión que es realmente un obstáculo para el desarrollo de la ciencia. Las preocupaciones sobre los desafíos de Aristóteles a la fe cristiana, evidentes en las condenas, no fueron compartidas por pensadores como Alberto el Grande y Tomás de Aquino

Experiments in Decolonizing the University

The book addresses the need to reconsider the relation between university and society, a debate that has been going on from the Middle Ages to Kant, Humboldt, Newman, and beyond. Hans Schildermans builds on the philosophy and theory of higher education, drawing on the work of John Dewey, Donna Haraway, William James, Bruno Latour, Martin Savransky, Isabelle Stengers and Alfred North Whitehead. In relation to the study practices of the Palestinian experimental university ‘Campus in Camps’, he develops the concept of an ecology of study to approach the relation between university and society from a new angle. The book avoids the two positions that are traditionally defended, namely the idea of the autonomous university where research and teaching are performed ‘in freedom and solitude’ on the one hand, and the capitalized university that produces useful knowledge on the other hand. Schildermans emphasizes the importance of study practices as a site of resistance against current neoliberal and capitalist reforms of the university and to envisage a different future for the university. The book will appeal to activists, critical academics and those interested in the fate of higher education today. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on www.bloomsburycollections.com

Multiple Generality in Scholastic Logic

Multiple generality has long been known to cause confusion. For example, “Everyone has a donkey that is running” has two readings: either (i) there is a donkey, owned by everyone, and it is running; or (ii) everyone owns some donkey or other, and all such donkeys run. Medieval logicians were acutely aware of such ambiguities, and the logical problems they pose, and sought to sort them out. One of the most ambitious undertakings in this regard is a pair of massive diagrams (magnae figurae) which map out the logical interrelations of two sets of doubly-general forms. These appear in a fourteenth-century MS of John Buridan’s Summulae de Propositionibus. In this paper, I present these diagrams, and determine the truth conditions of their different forms. To that end, I have developed a bespoke system of diagrams to display their truth conditions. As we will see, such forms present significant difficulties for an all-encompassing account of the role form plays in logic. Accordingly, they can tell us important things about the role logical form plays in Buridan’s account of logical foundations

Experiments in Decolonizing the University

The book addresses the need to reconsider the relation between university and society, a debate that has been going on from the Middle Ages to Kant, Humboldt, Newman, and beyond. Hans Schildermans builds on the philosophy and theory of higher education, drawing on the work of John Dewey, Donna Haraway, William James, Bruno Latour, Martin Savransky, Isabelle Stengers and Alfred North Whitehead. In relation to the study practices of the Palestinian experimental university ‘Campus in Camps’, he develops the concept of an ecology of study to approach the relation between university and society from a new angle. The book avoids the two positions that are traditionally defended, namely the idea of the autonomous university where research and teaching are performed ‘in freedom and solitude’ on the one hand, and the capitalized university that produces useful knowledge on the other hand. Schildermans emphasizes the importance of study practices as a site of resistance against current neoliberal and capitalist reforms of the university and to envisage a different future for the university. The book will appeal to activists, critical academics and those interested in the fate of higher education today. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 licence on www.bloomsburycollections.com

Literature, Logic and Mathematics in the Fourteenth Century

This thesis assesses the extent to which fourteenth-century Middle English poets were interested in, and influenced by, traditions of thinking about logic and mathematics. It attempts to demonstrate the imaginative appeal of the logical problems called sophismata, which postulate absurd situations while making use of a stable but evolving, and distinctly recognisable, pool of examples. Logic and mathematics were linked. The ‘puzzle-based’ approach of late-medieval logic stemmed in part from earlier arithmetical puzzle collections. The fourteenth-century application of the ‘sophismatic’ method to problems concerned with what might now be called ‘Physics’ or ‘Mechanics’ sustained the symbiotic relationship of the two disciplines. An awareness of the importance of this tradition is perhaps indicated by the prominence of logical and mathematical tropes and scenarios in the works of three authors in particular: Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower and the Gawain-poet. It is argued that, in the poetry of all three, what may loosely be called ‘sophismatic tropes’ are used to present concerns that the poets share with the logical and mathematical thought of their time. Certain themes recur, including the following: problematic promises; problematic reference to non-existent things; problems associated with divisibility, limits and the idea of a continuum; and, most importantly, problems focused on the contingency, or otherwise, of the future. The debate over future contingency was one of the fiercest scholastic controversies of the fourteenth century, with profound implications for both logical and theological thought. It is suggested here that the scholastic debate about future contingency has a visible impact on Chauntecleer’s prophetic dream in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Troilus’s apparent determinism in Troilus and Criseyde, Gower’s presentation of causation in the Confessio Amantis, and the Gawain-poet’s treatment of covenants. The conclusion reached is that fourteenth-century logical and mathematical texts had a significantly wider cultural effect than is generally recognised

Franciscan Soteriology at the University of Paris to 1300

This work charts the evolution of soteriology among Franciscan friars working at the University of Paris up to 1300. It examines in turn each of their extant soteriological works from this period to demonstrate the development of a distinct and uniquely Franciscan approach to soteriology. This study considers the written forms in which these Franciscan theological opinions were expressed, the scholastic genres of commentaries upon the Book of Sentences along with quaestiones disputatae, quodlibets and summae. It situates those soteriological innovations and their genres of expression in their historical context, the developing engagement of the Franciscans with the University of Paris and the tensions that came with this, especially the secular-mendicant controversy of the 1220s to 1250s and the Aristotelian conflict with Stephen Tempier in the 1270s. These three elements, Franciscan theological ideas, the literary forms in which they were articulated and the historical setting in which they were expressed, played upon each other to produce theology particular to the Franciscans. The friars discarded much of the soteriology inherited from Anselm of Bec and marginalised the significance of satisfaction and divine punishment for the fall. Figures like Bonaventure, Matthew of Aquasparta and Richard of Middleton gave greater emphasis to human fulfilment in a plan unrelated to the events of the fall. Despite obstacles to their theological work from both the university and the wider church, the Franciscans were not dissuaded from their ideas, adjusting the expression of those notions to ensure their acceptance. This interplay of ideas, genres and events provides evidence that supports a claim for the existence of a distinctive ‘Franciscan school’ of theology in operation in Paris in the thirteenth century. This school recast the doctrine of redemption as more than the appeasement of a God angered by disobedience and demanding a suitable sacrifice. The Franciscans advocated instead for salvation as God generously furthering and advancing the final culmination of human creation