scholarly journals Retraction Note to: An Introduction to Mental Language in Late Medieval Philosophy

Author(s):  
Magali Roques ◽  
Jenny Pelletier
Author(s):  
Magali Roques

Abstract In this paper, I intend to examine the conception of metaphor developed by fourteenth-century nominalist philosophers, in particular William of Ockham and John Buridan, but also the Ockhamist philosophers who were condemned by the 1340 statute of the faculty of arts of the University of Paris. According to these philosophers, metaphor is a transfer of meaning from one word to another. This transfer is based on some similarity, and is intentionally produced by a speaker. My aim is to study whether this view on metaphor is related to a specific view on the relation between thought, language, and communication. With this case study, I intend to argue that the view on the nature of thought one holds does not necessarily determine what the nature and function of metaphor are. I will show that the three philosophical doctrines under study diverge in their understanding of the mechanisms of a metaphor, while they share the same view on the nature of thought, namely that thought is a mental language.


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 139-168
Author(s):  
Daniel Di Liscia

Hardly any other concept has occupied the minds of philosophers and scientists as much as the con-cept of infinity. Late medieval philosophy is not an exception. Especially within the context of the so-calledcalculatorestradition a new approach emerged which prioritised the analysis of physical, mathematical, and logical problems over the determination of the essence of infinity and its defini-tion. From the fourteenth century onward, it was not unusual in this context to discuss in detail some special cases of motion which included an augmentationin infinitumof the “degrees of velocity”. This paper focuses on a particular case, the “conclusio mirabilis”, a demonstration to which Oresme could have self-referred in this treatiseDe configurationibusas a “more subtle and more difficult” proof. Whereas this short text has until now been analysed according to only one manuscript, the present contribution involves a research regarding a text conglomerate made up of at least seven manuscripts which are somehow mutually connected. It is argued that an attribution of this demon-stration to Oresme is, with due caution, possible, even if further research is still needed to determine the original shape of the text. In addition, this paper includes a short reference to two later important authors, Biagio Pelacani da Parma and Jacques Almain, whose reception of theconclusio mirabi-lisremained unnoticed in the scholarship until now.


2012 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann Beukes

From Ockham to Cusa: The encyclopaedic case for ‘post-scholasticism’ in Medieval philosophy. This article argues for the encyclopaedic recognition of ‘post-scholasticism’, indicating the very last and complex period (circa 1349–1464) in late Medieval philosophy, where the via moderna and logica modernorum have clearly departed from the fundamental premises of high scholasticism, the via antiqua and the logica novus, as manifested in the work of William of Ockham (and, eventually, in the political theory of Marsilius of Padua). The article argues that post-scholasticism should be distinguished from late scholasticism (exiting Ockham) and early Renaissance philosophy (entering Nicholas of Cusa). The article indicates that there is a tendency in many introductions to and secondary texts in Medieval philosophy to proceed straight from Ockham to Cusa (the ‘very last Medieval and very first Renaissance philosopher’), understating more than a century of pertinent Medieval scholarship. In the modern encyclopaedia of philosophy, this understatement manifests in either a predating of Renaissance philosophy to close the gap between Ockham and Cusa as far as possible, or in understating this period as philosophically sterile, or in, without argument, simply proceeding straight from Ockham to Cusa. The article covers some of the essential philosophical contributions presented during this fragile philosophical-historical period, indicating that post-scholasticism is indeed a difficult and complex, yet productive period in the history of late Medieval philosophy, which should not be bypassed as a trivial gateway to either Renaissance philosophy or early modernity as such, but valued for its own idiosincracies, intricacies and overall contribution to the history of ideas in philosophy and theology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (51) ◽  
pp. 41-47
Author(s):  
Hanna Wojtczak

The four studies published below were originally presented as papers at the conference Philosophie, Theologie und Wissenschaft im 14. Jahrhundert. Johannes Buridan und seine Schule that took place at the Silesian University in Katowice between 12–17 September, 2004. These articles belong to a long process of exploring late medieval philosophy, particularly focused on so called via moderna. They pertain mainly to 14th and 15th century Buridanism, and above all to one of the most eminent representative of this current, i.e. Marsilius of Inghen.


Vivarium ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-282
Author(s):  
Claude Panaccio

AbstractMedieval philosophy is often presented as the outcome of a large scale encounter between the Christian tradition and the Greek philosophical one. This picture, however, inappropriately tends to leave out the active role played by the medieval authors themselves and their institutional contexts. The theme of the mental language provides us with an interesting case study in such matters. The paper first introduces a few technical notions—'theme', 'tradition', 'textual chain' and 'textual borrowing'—, and then focuses on precise passages about mental language from Anselm of Canterbury, Albert the Great and William of Ockham. All three authors in effect identify some relevant Augustinian idea (that of 'mental word', most saliently) with some traditional philosophical one (such as that of 'concept' or that of 'logos endiathetos'). But the gist of the operation widely varies along the line and the tradition encounter is staged in each case with specific goals and interests in view. The use of ancient authoritative texts with respect to mental language is thus shown to be radically transformed from the eleventh to the fourteenth century.


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