Logic at the Turn of the Twelfth Century
Section snippets
THE CURRICULUM
The study of logic in this period was based around the Boethian curriculum that had come into general use about a century before. Writing around the year 1110, Abelard summarizes the situation neatly [Peter Abelard, 1970, 146]:
The Latin treatment of this art is furnished by seven books, the work of three authors. For so far in the Latin world there are just two of them by Aristotle, the Categories and On Interpretation, and one by Porphyry ... We generally use four by Boethius: On Division, the
THE FORM OF COMMENTARIES
The greater part of the evidence for teaching and thought about logic in the period is in the form of continuous commentaries on the texts of the logical curriculum. (For the sake of convenience in referring to so many anonymous commentaries, alphanumeric designations have been assigned to them. In the case of the Isagoge (I), the Categories(C) and On Interpretation (H), they refer to Marenbon [2000+]. For De topicis differentiis (B), they refer to the catalogue in Green-Pedersen [1984]. Yukio
THE 'EARLY TWELFTH-CENTURY' COMMENTARIES
A 'Working Catalogue' has been drawn up that aims to list all the commentaries we know on the Isagoge, Categories and On Interpretation up to the end of the twelfth century [Marenbon, 2000+], and there is also a (chronologically broader) catalogue of On Topical differentiae commentaries and list of commentaries on the other Boethian textbooks in [Green-Pedersen, 1984]. Although at the end of this chapter I shall call into question the easy distinction that is often made between logic from the
THE TREATISES AND THEIR FORM
Two long and important logical treatises survive from the earlier part of the twelfth century: the 'Dialectica' by Gerlandus (probably of Besançon) [Gerlandus, 1959], and the Dialectica of Peter Abelard [Peter Abelard, 1970]. The logical content of Abelard's Dialectica is discussed in detail by Ian Wilks in the next chapter. The comments here are merely about its form and chronology in relation to Gerlandus's treatise.
The two Dialecticas do not, as might be expected, make a radical break away
LOGIC AND THE TRIVIUM
There were close connections between studying logic, and studying the other two subjects of the trivium: grammar and rhetoric.
The longest and most advanced of the textbooks used in the grammar curriculum, Priscian's Institutions (Institutiones), had been commented on since the ninth century. The early twelfth-century commentary on Priscian is known as the Glosulae. The writers of the Glosulae, both to the main part of the Institutions ('Priscian major'), and the concluding books ('Priscian
TESTIMONIES AND KNOWN MASTERS
Faced with this mass of material that is mostly anonymous, and therefore hard to place or date, it is important to ask what sort of evidence exists about where and when particular masters taught. The hope might be that the historian of philosophy could act as a matchmaker, happily uniting names with texts. The danger is that, out of eagerness to earn her keep, she will promote arranged marriages, yoking together couples that have never met and should never have been united.
The two most
PHILOSOPHICAL THEMES TO BE EXPLORED
The sections above will have given an idea of the problems that must be tackled before the philosophical doctrines in these early twelfth-century texts can be interpreted. This chapter will not, for the reasons explained at the outset, offer an account of these ideas; here, rather, is an indication of what some of the major themes are, and what has been written about them.
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Possibility and Necessity in the Time of Peter Abelard
2022, Investigating Medieval PhilosophyThe trivium in the 12th century
2020, Brill's Companions to the Christian TraditionThe problem of universals from boethius to John of salisbury
2018, Brill's Studies in Intellectual HistoryAbelard in four dimensions: A twelfth-century philosopher in his context and ours
2013, Abelard in Four Dimensions: A Twelfth-Century Philosopher in his Context and OursBoethius's works on logic in the middle ages
2012, Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition