This paper highlights the corrective and complementary role that historically informed philosophy can play in contemporary discussions. What it takes for an experience to count as genuinely mystical has been the source of significant controversy; most current philosophical definitions of ‘mystical experience’ exclude embodied, non-unitive states -- but, in so doing, they exclude the majority of reported mystical experiences. I use a re- examination of the full range of reported medieval mystical experiences (both in the apophatic tradition, which excludes (...) or denigrates embodied states, and in the affective tradition, which treats such states as fully mystical) to demonstrate how a better understanding of the historical medieval mystic tradition can serve as a valuable complement to ongoing philosophical discussions of religious and mystical experience. (shrink)

critical edition and annotated translation of one of the classics of Jewish biblical interpretation. The collection will be indispensable to all students of Jewish history and culture.

In this Ph.D. dissertation, completed at the Sorbonne, it is shown that the whole of medieval philosophy was not reduced to a realist stance: in the 13th-14th centuries, an idealist stance emerged and was developed into a full-fledged epistemological idealism, personified in the philosophers Eckhart von Hochheim and Dietrich von Freiberg. This dissertation deviates from most works in the history of philosophy by proposing to see this as a taxonomy.

Deely's chief orientation, in his Medieval Philosophy field days, was to frame the field's thematic concern in light of the gestation of semiotic awareness. He argued that semiotic awareness was expressed fully for the first time in history by Poinsot, although he said that the process of gestation only resulted in a community-binding Way after the arrival of the Semiotics of Peirce. Between Poinsot and Peirce, a period of darkness preceded a full dawn. In this paper, we provide (...) an introductory picture of Deely's understanding of Medieval Philosophy and strive to convey a preview of the angle adopted by the semiotician. (shrink)

Recent studies in the History of Botany put forth that the books translated to and authored in Arabic have circulated from the East of the Caspian Sea, to the centre of Iberian Peninsula, strengthening the ‘traditional uses’ of plants and alike. An ancient genre of writing called the ‘book on the Materia medica’ was especially the most favourite in Medieval Islamic Geography. In these books, algae have been mentioned among the kinds of medicinal plants. In this study, I (...) investigate several Materia medica books among which I shall first focus on Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine, then have a look at Aliboron’s Book of Pharmacy since these two were contemporary sources from the 11th century. I shall also investigate two illustrated sources, an Arabic copy of Dioscorides’ Materia Medica and al-Ghafiqi’s Book on Simple Drugs, both from the 13th century. In doing so, on the one hand, I will be able to compare the drawings of algae, and on the other I will shed light on the transfer of knowledge on algae. These two methods will result in the textual apparatus and the illustrative apparatus in my study. (shrink)

Medieval and early modern devotional works rarely receive serious treatment from philosophers, even those working in the subfields of philosophy of religion or the history of ideas. In this article, I examine one medieval devotional work in particular—the Middle High German image- and verse-program, Christus und die minnende Seele (CMS)—and I argue that it can plausibly be viewed as a form of medieval public philosophy, one that both exhibited and encouraged philosophical innovation. I address a few (...) objections to my proposal—namely, that CMS is neither public enough nor that it counts as proper philosophy—and I attempt to defend CMS’s public philosophical credentials in light of these objections. I conclude with a brief discussion of how devotional texts like CMS can help us do innovative public philosophy today. (shrink)

The 13th-15th centuries were witness to lively and broad-ranging debates about the nature of persons. In this paper, I look at how the uses of ‘person’ in logical/grammatical, legal/political, and theological contexts overlap in the works of 13th-15th century contemplatives in the Latin West, such as Hadewijch, Meister Eckhart, and Catherine of Siena. After explicating the key concepts of individuality, dignity, and rationality, I show how these ideas combine with the contemplative use of first- and second-person perspectives, personification, and introspection (...) to yield a concept of 'person' that both prefigures Locke's classic 17th century definition and deeply influences the development of personalism. (shrink)

A set point in the historical time line stands as the medieval period. The medieval period in history was the era in European history – from around the 5th to the 15th century, coming after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and preceding the start of the early modern era. This historical time period has been long since been the victim of film directors and romantic novelists, which has lead to the common, but false, idea (...) of the medieval period consisting of knights and damsels in distress, wizards and dragons, and castles and battles. Although mainly wrong in most parts and being highly historically inaccurate – some aspects of the dramatic works do play true to the original time period. Certainly within British/English history we have a huge heritage in the medieval world and so it is quite easy to look for how aspects of this period develop through time but still retain relevance for people today. (shrink)

A Fortiori Logic: Innovations, History and Assessments is a wide-ranging and in-depth study of a fortiori reasoning, comprising a great many new theoretical insights into such argument, a history of its use and discussion from antiquity to the present day, and critical analyses of the main attempts at its elucidation. Its purpose is nothing less than to lay the foundations for a new branch of logic and greatly develop it; and thus to once and for all dispel the (...) many fallacious ideas circulating regarding the nature of a fortiori reasoning. -/- The work is divided into three parts. The first part, Formalities, presents the author’s largely original theory of a fortiori argument, in all its forms and varieties. Its four (or eight) principal moods are analyzed in great detail and formally validated, and secondary moods are derived from them. A crescendo argument is distinguished from purely a fortiori argument, and similarly analyzed and validated. These argument forms are clearly distinguished from the pro rata and analogical forms of argument. Moreover, we examine the wide range of a fortiori argument; the possibilities of quantifying it; the formal interrelationships of its various moods; and their relationships to syllogistic and analogical reasoning. Although a fortiori argument is shown to be deductive, inductive forms of it are acknowledged and explained. Although a fortiori argument is essentially ontical in character, more specifically logical-epistemic and ethical-legal variants of it are acknowledged. -/- The second part of the work, Ancient and Medieval History, looks into use and discussion of a fortiori argument in Greece and Rome, in the Talmud, among post-Talmudic rabbis, and in Christian, Moslem, Chinese and Indian sources. Aristotle’s approach to a fortiori argument is described and evaluated. There is a thorough analysis of the Mishnaic qal vachomer argument, and a reassessment of the dayo principle relating to it, as well as of the Gemara’s later take on these topics. The valuable contribution, much later, by Moshe Chaim Luzzatto is duly acknowledged. Lists are drawn up of the use of a fortiori argument in the Jewish Bible, the Mishna, the works of Plato and Aristotle, the Christian Bible and the Koran; and the specific moods used are identified. Moreover, there is a pilot study of the use of a fortiori argument in the Gemara, with reference to Rodkinson’s partial edition of the Babylonian Talmud, setting detailed methodological guidelines for a fuller study. There is also a novel, detailed study of logic in general in the Torah. -/- The third part of the present work, Modern and Contemporary Authors, describes and evaluates the work of numerous (some thirty) recent contributors to a fortiori logic, as well as the articles on the subject in certain lexicons. Here, we discover that whereas a few authors in the last century or so made some significant contributions to the field, most of them shot woefully off-target in various ways. The work of each author, whether famous or unknown, is examined in detail in a dedicated chapter, or at least in a section; and his ideas on the subject are carefully weighed. The variety of theories that have been proposed is impressive, and stands witness to the complexity and elusiveness of the subject, and to the crying need for the present critical and integrative study. But whatever the intrinsic value of each work, it must be realized that even errors and lacunae are interesting because they teach us how not to proceed. -/- This book also contains, in a final appendix, some valuable contributions to general logic, including new analyses of symbolization and axiomatization, existential import, the tetralemma, the Liar paradox and the Russell paradox. (shrink)

This chapter provides a brief overview of the history of behavioral neurology, dividing it roughly into six eras. In the ancient and classical eras, emphasis is placed on two transitions: firstly, from descriptions of head trauma and attempted neurosurgical treatments to the exploratory dissections during the Hellenistic period and the replacement of cardiocentrism; and secondly, to the more systematic investigations of Galenus and the rise of pneumatic ventricular theory. In the medieval through post-Renaissance eras, the scholastic consolidation of (...) knowledge and the role of compendia are emphasized, along with the use of new methods from within a mechanistic framework. With the discovery of electrical conductance and the rise of experimentalism, we frame the modern era as period of intense debate over localization, decomposition, and other mechanistic principles, and marked by rapid discovery about the brain. The chapter ends with a discussion of the contemporary era, focusing on the establishment of behavioral neurology research on aphasia, apraxia, and neuropsychiatric conditions. (shrink)

This paper is a tentative step towards a historical cognitive science, in the domain of memory and personal identity. I treat theoretical models of memory in history as specimens of the way cultural norms and artifacts can permeate ('proto')scientific views of inner processes. I apply this analysis to the topic of psychological control over one's own body, brain, and mind. Some metaphors and models for memory and mental representation signal the projection inside of external aids. Overtly at least, (...) class='Hi'>medieval and Renaissance theorists agreed that such models had to allow for, or even guarantee, some conception of cognitive order and discipline. Individual memory traces had to be independent, not mixed up or interfering with others. The long tradition of improving or bypassing 'natural memory' by deliberately internalizing artefactual models was part of an arduous process of self-fashioning. Moral panic about confusion and mixture features centrally in the imposition of cognitive discipline in local memory traditions. (shrink)

From ancient conceptions of becoming a philosopher to modern discussions of psychedelic drugs, the concept of transformation plays a fascinating part in the history of philosophy. However, until now there has been no sustained exploration of the full extent of its role. Transformation and the History of Philosophy is an outstanding survey of the history, nature, and development of the idea of transformation, from the ancient period to the twentieth century. Comprising twenty-two specially commissioned chapters by an (...) international team of contributors, the volume is divided into four clear parts: -/- - Philosophy as Transformative: Ancient China, Greece, India, and Rome - Transformation Between the Human and the Divine: Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy - Transformation After the Copernican Revolution: Post-Kantian Philosophy - Treatises, Pregnancies, Psychedelics, and Epiphanies: Twentieth-Century Philosophy. -/- Each of these sections begins with an introduction by the editors. Transformation and the History of Philosophy is essential reading for students and researchers in the history of western and non-western philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, and aesthetics. It will also be extremely useful for those in related disciplines such as religion, sociology, and the history of ideas. (shrink)

On the History of Political Philosophy: Great Political Thinkers from Thucydides to Locke is a lively and lucid account of the major political theorists and philosophers of the ancient Greek, Roman, medieval, renaissance, and early modern periods. The author demonstrates the continuing significance of some political debates and problems that originated in the history of political philosophy. Topics include discussions concerning human nature, different views of justice, the origin of government and law, the rise and development of (...) different forms of government, idealism and realism in international relations, the distinction between just and unjust war, and the sources of public authority and the nature of legitimate sovereignty. The organizing principle of the book is the idea that the great political thinkers were searching for the best political order and a criterion for human conduct in both domestic and international politics. The book presupposes no previous knowledge of political philosophy. It will therefore be a valuable introductory book for students of philosophy, politics, and international relations. As it opens eyes to the perceptions that historical knowledge may convey, it will also be an illuminating and engaging reading for a general reader. (shrink)

The present volume brings together work that will be of interest both to specialists in medieval philosophy and to those working in contemporary or more recent historical periods of metaphysics. Th...

Intellectual historians have rarely attended to the genre of fighting manuals, but these provide a new window on long-debated questions such as the relationship between Scholasticism and Humanism. This article offers a close comparison of the first known fencing manual, the 14-th century Liber de Arte Dimicatoria (Leeds, Royal Armouries FECHT 1, previously and better known as MS I.33), and the corpus of fighting manuals which underwent a remarkable expansion during the 15th and 16th centuries. While the former clearly shows (...) its origins in a scholastic background, the latter is mainly viewed as reflecting its humanist context. To this historiographical division corresponds a linguistic one: MS I.33 is a Latin text, while the rest of the corpus is mainly written in German and Italian. However, exceptions arise, amongst which, Heinrich von Gunterrodt’s Sciomachia et Hoplomachia: sive de Veris Principiis Artis Dimicatoriae (1579), the first text which explicitly refers to I.33. This article will compare these two texts, in order to interrogate their common relation to Scholasticism, namely the traditional frame of the knowledge within the medieval and early modern universities. The intent is to show that (at least some) Renaissance fight books include references to Scholasticism and to provide a better qualification of the nature of such references. The general hypothesis is that a large part of the texts―and products of culture―of the Renaissance that have been read, until recently, exclusively in relation to a humanist intellectual background can valuably be interpreted in the context of a Scholasticism that is still vivid during the period in question. (shrink)

This paper investigates the historical origin and ancestors of typicality, which is now a central concept in Boltzmannian Statistical Mechanics and Bohmian Mechanics. Although Ludwig Boltzmann did not use the word typicality, its main idea, namely, that something happens almost always or is valid for almost all cases, plays a crucial role for his explanation of how thermodynamic systems approach equilibrium. At the beginning of the 20th century, the focus on almost always or almost everywhere was fruitful for developing measure (...) theory and probability theory. It was apparently Hugh Everett III who first mentioned typicality in physics in 1957 while searching for a justification of the Born rule in his interpretation of quantum mechanics. The historically closest concept before these developments is moral certainty, which was invented by the medieval French theologian Jean Gerson, and it became a standard concept at least until the Age of Enlightenment, when Jakob Bernoulli proved the Law of Large numbers. (shrink)

The history of the science of the stars (astronomy and astrology) in fourteenth-century Byzantium is significantly intertwined with the implications of theological and philosophical controversies. A less-explored astronomical text authored by the fourteenth-century Byzantine scholar Theorodos Meliteniotes (ca. 1320–1393 CE) provides new historical factors toward a historiography of the differences between scientific and theological discourses, their development in the transition to early modern times, and the different historical developments of science in the worlds of the Eastern and Western Churches.

hroughout medieval Christianity, religious works of art emerged to illustrate the teachings of the Bible for the largely illiterate population. What, then, is the significance of the psychoactive mushrooms hiding in plain sight in the artwork and icons of many European and Middle-Eastern churches? Does Christianity have a psychedelic history? -/- Providing stunning visual evidence from their anthropological journey throughout Europe and the Middle East, including visits to Roslyn Chapel and Chartres Cathedral, authors Julie and Jerry Brown document (...) the role of visionary plants in Christianity. They retrace the pioneering research of R. Gordon Wasson, the famous “sacred mushroom seeker,” on psychedelics in ancient Greece and India, and among the present-day reindeer herders of Siberia and the Mazatecs of Mexico. Challenging Wasson’s legacy, the authors reveal his secret relationship with the Vatican that led to Wasson’s refusal to pursue his hallucinogen theory into the hallowed halls of Christianity. -/- Examining the Bible and the Gnostic Gospels, the authors provide scriptural support to show that sacred mushrooms were the inspiration for Jesus’ revelation of the Kingdom of Heaven and that he was initiated into these mystical practices in Egypt during the Missing Years. They contend that the Trees of Knowledge and of Immortality in Eden were sacred mushrooms. -/- Uncovering the role played by visionary plants in the origins of Judeo-Christianity, the authors invite us to rethink what we know about the life of Jesus and to consider a controversial theory that challenges us to explore these sacred pathways to the divine. (shrink)

Os problemas da lei e da autoridade marcaram fortemente o pensamento políticomedieval ocidental, e em especial o desenvolvimento da noção de soberania, ponto deconvergência dos grandes conflitos de jurisdição no período. O debate acerca dadistribuição das jurisdições constituiu um dos momentos importantes para a construção damoderna idéia de soberania. Na medida em que se tomava a lei como dada, o sentido daautoridade tinha necessariamente de ser vinculado à idéia de comissão: a autoridade eraum atributo daquele que podia fazer cumprir a (...) lei em nome do legislador divino. Outromomento relevante foi o da emergência do problema do poder legislativo, tal como entendidomodernamente. Jurisdição, a partir daí, passaria a incluir também o direito de criar ede impor as normas válidas para toda a comunidade por um legislador agora humano. Aospoucos, a vontade do príncipe, que não se limita mais pelo rigor da razão e da moralidade,passa a ser entendida como fonte criadora, transformadora e revogadora da lei. Mostrar aslinhas gerais deste percurso constitui o objetivo imediato deste artigo. (shrink)

The article examines from an historical perspective some of the key ideas used in contemporary bioethics debates both for and against the practices of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Key thinkers examined--spanning the Ancient, Medieval and Modern periods--include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Hume, Kant, and Mill. The article concludes with a synthesizing summary of key ideas that oppose or defend assisted suicide and euthanasia.

(Título: Por outras Historiografias, Filosofias, Sociologias, Antropologias, Teorias da História e Filosofias da História |||\\\ -/- Subtítulo: Três Ensaios sobre a ‘Antiguidade, a era Medieval, a Modernidade e a Pós-modernidade: Transições, Rupturas, Continuidades, Ligações e Interconexões) |||\\\ -/- (Title: For other Historiographies, Philosophies, Sociologies, Anthropologies, Theories of History and Philosophies of History |||\\\ -/- Subtitle: Three Essays on 'Antiquity, the Medieval Era, Modernity and Postmodernity: Transitions, Ruptures, Continuities, Links and Interconnections) |||\\\ -/- (Título: Para otras Historiografías, (...) Filosofías, Sociologías, Antropologías, Teorías de la Historia y Filosofías de la Historia |||\\\ -/- Subtítulo: Tres ensayos sobre 'La antigüedad, la época medieval, la modernidad y la posmodernidad: transiciones, rupturas, continuidades, vínculos e interconexiones') |||\\\ -/- (1. Tema: ‘O declínio e a queda do império romano,’ um equívoco interpretativo, linguístico, conceitual ou metodológico? Ou uma fluidez das percepções, narrativas e concepções estéticas do ‘Antigo frente ao Novo?’ |||\\\ -/- 'The decline and fall of the Roman Empire,' an interpretative, linguistic, conceptual or methodological misunderstanding? Or a fluidity of perceptions, narratives and aesthetic conceptions of the 'Old in the face of the New? |||\\\ -/- «Decadencia y caída del Imperio Romano», ¿un malentendido interpretativo, lingüístico, conceptual o metodológico? ¿O una fluidez de percepciones, narrativas y concepciones estéticas de lo «Antiguo frente a lo Nuevo»?) |||\\\ -/- (2. Tema: O Antigo e Atual ritual de sacrifícios humanos aos Deuses e ou Divindades: Ritos que se repetem em novas roupagens, fórmulas e modus operandi. |||\\\ -/- The Ancient and Current Ritual of Human Sacrifice to the Gods and/or Divinities: Rites that are repeated in new guises, formulas and modus operandi. |||\\\ -/- El Ritual Antiguo y Actual del Sacrificio Humano a los Dioses y/o Divinidades: Ritos que se repiten con nuevos disfraces, fórmulas y modus operandi.) |||\\\ -/- (3. Tema: ‘Feudalismo erudito,’ ‘feudalismo rústico’ e ‘feudalismo pós moderno:’ termos com sutis interconexões e em práticas também sutis na atualidade capitalista |||\\\ -/- Erudite feudalism,' 'rustic feudalism' and 'pos-tmodern feudalism:' terms with subtle interconnections and in equally subtle practices in today's capitalist world. |||\\\ -/- 'Feudalismo erudito', 'feudalismo rústico' y 'feudalismo posmoderno': términos con sutiles interconexiones y en prácticas igualmente sutiles en el mundo capitalista actual.).|||\\\ -/- Apresentação sobre e dos três Ensaios - ||| - \\\ - ||| -/- Durante certos períodos de estudos, sempre ouvi falar sobre a ascensão, declínio e queda do império romano, o período romano monárquico, republicano e imperial. E atrelado a esses assuntos, outros não menos importantes, tais como a era ou período medieval, sistema feudal, feudalismos, capitalismo, era ou período moderno ou da modernidade e a pós-modernidade. Talvez esta última seja a nossa contemporaneidade. Geralmente há alguns consensos e também certas dissenções ou polêmicas sobre tais temas, assuntos, seus conteúdos e demarcações históricas. Até então estamos falando apenas da historiografia e de suas produções. Entretanto, é notório que é difícil falar de historiografia sem recorrer a arqueologia, sociologia, filosofia, filologia, antropologia, epigrafia, linguística, geografia, biologia, artes e dentre outras. Isso porque a historiografia necessita do auxílio e apoio dessas como de tantas outras áreas de estudos para investigar seus objetos e fontes, e assim extrair seus conteúdos, interpretações e compor os dados e achados durante os procedimentos e processos de estudos e análises das fontes e de seus dados. Portanto, é bastante difícil falar em historiografia sem reconhecer a necessidade de suporte de outras inúmeras áreas e campos de estudos e de produção de conhecimentos. Ou seja, há intercâmbios diretos e indiretamente tanto para e em modos de olhares investigativos, conceituais, métodos e outros instrumentos quanto de ferramentas para e de análises de dados e fontes. Enfim, há certa composição multidisciplinar para a prática da historiografia quanto para a formação de seus ‘produtos.’ Sendo assim, realizar um ensaio sobre a ascensão, declínio e queda do império romano, o período romano monárquico, republicano e imperial. E atrelado a esses assuntos, outros não menos importantes, tais como a era ou período medieval, sistema feudal, feudalismos, capitalismo, era ou período moderno ou da modernidade e a pós-modernidade, não é uma tarefa fácil. Ainda mais investigar questões, assuntos e conteúdos que dizem respeito as práticas de magias, de rituais e de sacrifícios ao longo da história, bem como novos olhares sobre o sistema feudal e relacionar todos estes fatos com a contemporaneidade. Até porque de alguma forma, todos esses fatos, acontecimentos e processos do passado ou mundo antigo, tem influências e relações com muitas práticas e modos de ser, pensar e agir na atualidade. E por isso também eles são importantes de serem reanalisados, estudados continuamente e revistos através e por meio das novas tecnologias e os novos olhares que elas podem nos proporcionar. Porém, sem incorrermos em anacronismos. Com isso, é de suma importância abrirmos novos olhares, horizontes, possibilidades e perspectivas para reinvestigar tais assuntos e eventos históricos mencionados, seus conteúdos, fontes e produtos. E assim, quem sabe talvez possamos extrair novas informações, conteúdos e saberes que possam cooperar com nossas sociedades na e da contemporaneidade. É importante dizer que, quando incluímos em tais temas, assuntos e seus conteúdos, áreas, disciplinas ou campos de estudos como a filosofia, a sociologia, a antropologia, a geografia, a filologia, a arqueologia, a biologia, a epigrafia, as artes e dentre outras, a discussão se torna ainda maior, mais complexa e gerando também maiores problemáticas. Entretanto, isso não inviabiliza tal abordagem e ação, muito pelo contrário, é justamente melhor que isso ocorra sobre tais assuntos, temas e seus conteúdos a serem estudados, pois os tornam mais ricos, amplos e abertos, e não fechados e isolados em si mesmos. Logo, é de suma relevância e importância, bem como de grande urgência se evocar, invocar e complementar tais investigações auxiliadas pelas vias da interdisciplinaridade, multidisciplinaridade e da transdisciplinaridade, isso para não se correr riscos de se cair em dogmatismos, apologias ou doutrinas dentro dos grupos ou guetos de tais áreas ou campos de saber. Já que é um fato e realidade a existência de correntes e ‘vertentes’ historiográficas, históricas, sociológicas, filosóficas, antropológicas e assim por diante. Ou seja, como dentre outras, bem como também em outras áreas de estudo ou campos do saber. E por isso a importância da interdisciplinaridade, multidisciplinaridade e da transdisciplinaridade, pois se dificultam os processos e formações de dogmatismos, apologias, doutrinas, paradigmas engessados, diretrizes ultra ou extremamente conservadoras de certos status quo e de cânones postos em certos pedestais. Desse modo, há certas correntes com suas convenções, consensos, seus paradigmas e diretrizes, no qual as seguem, e assim elas criam quase que amarras ou emolduram alguns assuntos, temas e seus conteúdos históricos. No qual as discussões ficam por décadas como as mesmas, com raros casos em que alguns daqueles temas, assuntos ou conteúdos recebem algum novo tratamento e talvez novas considerações, ou às vezes nenhum ou nenhuma. Permanecendo quase que os mesmos ou intactos como uma moldura a ser preservada, até que surja alguém que ouse remexê-los, trazer alguma novidade e inovações. Se algo não for feito, tudo fica do mesmo modo por décadas. Tais fatos ocorrem com e em muitas outras áreas e campos do saber, ou seja, não é apenas um fato na historiografia, sociologia, filosofia, antropologia e outras. É justamente por tudo isso que ousamos escrever um ensaio, no caso aqui três, envolvendo questões, assuntos, temas, conteúdos, novas reflexões e produções que giram em torno da antiguidade até a contemporaneidade, e sobretudo novas abordagens e produções sobre a era do império romano desde a monarquia aos tempos do império; sobre a era feudal do ou com o seu ‘início no séc. V d.C. até o séc. XV d.C., bem como sobre práticas e manifestações místicas, mágicas, ritualísticas e sacrificiais contemplando a antiguidade até a contemporaneidade. No qual lançamos mais luz em pequenos detalhes que talvez tenham passado desapercebidos em alguns escritos ou produções historiográficas, onde o fizemos com auxílio da interdisciplinaridade, multidisciplinaridade e da transdisciplinaridade, onde denominamos de ‘Por outras Historiografias, Filosofias, Sociologias, Antropologias, Teorias da História e Filosofias da História.’ Nossa ação, movimento e intervenção se dá justamente pelos fatos aqui apontados e criticados, que ocorrem devido aos seus consensos, convenções e porque não dizer: dogmas, apologias ou doutrinas. Uma vez que, como já mencionado, muitas das produções sejam da historiografia, sociologia, antropologia e até mesmo da filosofia, infelizmente, estão repletas de dogmas, doutrinas, apologias de teorias, teóricos e de certos cânones que são idolatrados mais do que o fazer científico e a produção de novos conhecimentos. Nosso trabalho talvez não possua um caráter acadêmico ou científico, já que é um ensaio talvez hipotético, de novas observações, visões, possibilidades e perspectivas. Mas que não renunciou ao rigor em e nos estudos, investigações e coletas de dados para a produção de um construto que comungue e dialogue com as produções de caráter científicas e acadêmicas. Infelizmente nós brasileiros ainda possuímos muitos novos horizontes quase pouco ou nunca explorados, isso por e em muitas de nossas áreas e produções de conhecimentos e científicas, onde quase não há grandes e efetivos incentivos, e muito menos para se ousar fazer e produzir tais conhecimentos. Às vezes com pequenas exceções e para alguns grupos e guetos seletos, geralmente já beneficiados com vastos recursos. Vale ainda dizer que mesmo assim e com tudo isso, boa parte do saber e da produção de conhecimentos e científicos do país, infelizmente foi, se tornou e ainda é bastante dependente e submisso das produções, arcabouços e cânones euramericanos. E isso dificulta ainda mais as produções, incentivos e inovações da produção de conhecimentos e científicos do e no Brasil. Já que o que é produzido aqui, geralmente em boa medida é uma reprodução dos produtos daqueles quanto a ânsia da chancela, legitimação, autorização e aprovação daqueles sobre as produções dos daqui do país. Ou seja, o Brasil parece que fica a certa mercê ou a espera de aprovações, legitimações e chancelas das ‘autoridades cientificas e dos saberes euramericanos.’ E assim, infelizmente em muitos casos nos tornamos mais reprodutores de ideias, teorias, conteúdos, métodos, paradigmas e diretrizes, bem como sintetizadores e resumidores das ideias deles, talvez até mesmo nos posicionemos como meros copistas das produções euramericanas. Foi através e por meio de tais observações, percepções, inquietações e críticas que passei a ler, reler e examinar certos cânones teóricos e bibliográficos com mais atenção e pelo crivo da criticidade. Isso sob olhares não etnocêntricos, e nem tão pouco eurocêntricos e ou ocidentais. Onde com o auxílio da interdisciplinaridade, multidisciplinaridade e da transdisciplinaridade, bem como e inclusive também da e entre as várias correntes das áreas de estudos da historiografia, sociologia, filosofia e antropologia, passei a reanalisar certos eventos históricos e da historiografia, me apoiando em várias áreas ou campos do saber e ou do conhecimento, tal como a biologia, geografia, política, análises do discurso, teologia, ciência da religião, linguística e dentre outras. E com isso, os objetos observados e analisados foram nos mostrando novos conteúdos, novos fenômenos, novos movimentos e nos proporcionando também novos olhares sobre tais objetos e seus dados a serem observados, estudados e analisados. Sendo assim, surgiu os três ensaios aqui em tela e em discussão. No qual colocamos sobre a crítica se realmente o império romano do ocidente declinou e caiu, bem como o que seria esse declinar e cair. Se realmente podemos marcar e demarcar as datas convencionais e consensuais ou podemos especular em hipóteses outras novas. Inclusive se podemos talvez estender tal declínio, se é que houve, bem como a sua queda, para datas mais adiantes do suposto ocorrido. Estas hipóteses, especulações e possibilidades geraram o ensaio de título ou tema: ‘O declínio e a queda do império romano,’ um equívoco interpretativo, linguístico, conceitual ou metodológico? Ou uma fluidez das percepções, narrativas e concepções estéticas do ‘Antigo frente ao Novo?’ A segunda reflexão crítica sobre acontecimentos, períodos, fenômenos, fatos, movimentos, eventos e narrativas historiográficas e sociológicas foram sobre manifestações, processos e práticas místicas, mágicas e ritualísticas ao longo da história, da antiguidade até a contemporaneidade, no qual surgiu o ensaio com o título ou tema: O Antigo e Atual ritual de sacrifícios humanos aos Deuses e ou Divindades: Ritos que se repetem em novas roupagens, fórmulas e modus operandi. E o último ensaio faz reflexões críticas sobre o período medieval com seu suposto feudalismo e ou sistema feudal. Onde trazemos novas reflexões sobre a prática feudal ou de feudos, demonstrando que tais práticas eram além de mais antiga do que pensamos, elas eram comuns, normal e naturais em vários sentidos, âmbitos e aspectos, e isso ocorrendo em muitas sociedades, culturas e civilizações desde a era romana monárquica, republicana e imperial e que se tornou em um sistema, o feudal, dentro da era tida como medieval (que possuo certas críticas a ambos os conceitos e seus pejorativismos). Através disso desenvolvemos três novas categorias de feudos ou de práticas feudais: o feudo erudito, o feudo rústico e os elementos feudais na contemporaneidade. Ora, o sistema feudal ou feudalismo não era ou foi apenas uma nomenclatura com certo ar pejorativo, mas sim um sistema econômico e ‘financeiro (até mesmo comercial)’ baseado e fundamentado na produção rural e ou do campo, seus insumos, matérias primas, mão de obra barata e escrava, no poderio militar ou de milicias, bem como e sobretudo posse e poderio da terra e de quem as obtém em grandes quantidades e extensões, em certa política descentralizada, na organização de uma sociedade estamental e sua divisão social em determinados grupos, os sem terras e os donos de muitas terras. E esse sistema econômico não surgiu do nada e nem do acaso, mas teve suas origens nas práticas feudais eruditas e rústicas, dando origem a um sistema, o feudal. E que ainda hoje podemos ver elementos de suas práticas, no qual resistiram a era capitalista, a modernidade e onde certos elementos feudais foram incorporados e reelaborados desde o surgimento do sistema capitalista até a contemporaneidade, e assim tais elementos avançaram com e em novas formas, roupagens e fórmulas pelo capitalismo. No qual ainda é um fato a relação de donos de grandes extensões de terras com poder, política, riquezas, conflitos, milicias e guerras. Se tais fatos dos resquícios ou elementos feudais não fossem reais, países da Europa em pleno século XXI não teriam ou manteriam ainda sua dominação sob colônias na África, Ásia e até mesmo nas Américas, bem como tentando as recolonizar ou neocolonizar, inclusive em outras regiões do globo, como assim ‘bem’ o faz os EUA desde o fim do século XIX, início do XX até a atualidade. Colonização e expansão de domínio e poder, bem como exploração e expropriação de mãos de obra, terras, matérias primas etc. Fundamentalmente a dominação de terras nacionais e sobretudo alheias, bem como a exploração das mesmas e de seus povos presos nas mesmas, digo ao sistema de seus países. Ou seja, o sistema capitalista também utiliza elementos das práticas feudais. Entretanto, de modos reformulados, personalizados e atualizados conforme seus interesses, do capitalismo e das classes ou grupos dominantes, e das necessidades contextuais para cumprir as metas de tal sistema, o capitalista e seus ditames. A estas reflexões críticas surgiu o ensaio: ‘Feudalismo erudito,’ ‘feudalismo rústico’ e ‘feudalismo pós-moderno:’ termos com sutis interconexões e em práticas também sutis na atualidade capitalista. Para que os leitores já pudessem adentrar nos temas, assuntos, conteúdos, fatos e discussões, isso em certa cronologia, foi colocado de antemão os resumos de cada ensaio e seus respectivos temas. Com isso, o leitor poderá observar certas conexões ou interligações entre tais acontecimentos, processos, fatos e fenômenos sócio-históricos, políticos, econômicos, culturais etc. E não apenas entre ou na transição da antiguidade para a era medieval e moderna, mas também daquelas com seus resquícios na e para a contemporaneidade. Entretanto, há um grande problema que precisaremos superar continuamente, é que ao longo da história, muitas das narrativas e produções históricas e historiográficas são e ou estão repletas de eufemismos, de jogos de linguagens e inundados neles, nos referidos. E isso consegue mascarar ideologias dominantes, hegemônicas, colonialistas, antagonismos, alienações, contradições e até mesmo certos paradoxos (como observaremos nos textos dos ensaios). Sendo assim, tais eufemismos conseguem como que ‘em passes de mágicas,’ criarem muitas ilusões e confusões nos prováveis e possíveis entendimentos, percepções, compreensões, concepções e ideias entre os fatos e as realidades, e tudo isso feito intencionalmente. Portanto, essas produções fantasiadas com os eufemismos e seus jogos de linguagens criam certas ‘ilusões de ‘óticas’ e em suas mágicas,’ no qual confundem vários leitores e estudiosos descuidados com esses instrumentos e ferramentadas metodológicas logocêntricas, grafocentricas e verborrágicas. Logo, tais fatos geram inúmeras confusões e conflitos intelectivos, de reflexões lógicas e de fatos que verdadeiramente correspondam com as realidades sociais e históricas. O trabalho em tela fará justamente o esforço de superar tais embaraços e armadilhas, filtrando e sintetizando as reflexões e interpretações extraídas das bibliografias e as relacionando com outras áreas, campos e saberes, e os submetendo ao crivo da lógica e da crítica. (shrink)

Since intelligent design (ID) advocates claimed the ubiquitous mouse trap as an example of systems that cannot have evolved, mouse trap history is doubly relevant to studying material culture. On the one hand, debunking ID claims about mouse traps and, by implication, also about other irreducibly complex systems has a high educational value. On the other hand, a case study of mouse trap history may contribute insights to the academic discussion about material culture evolution. Michael Behe argued that (...) mouse traps cannot trap mice with any part missing; therefore, they cannot have a precursor with one part less, therefore, cannot have a continuous history, and therefore, cannot have evolved. The patented and seminal precursor of current flat snap traps, however, had one part less, because spring and striker were formed of one wire. Secondly, historical records that reach back into the Bronze Age suggest that its history continued for a very long time. Thirdly, all prerequisites for evolution (variation, transmission, and selection) abound in mouse trap populations. Hence, Behe’s triple-jump conclusion about mouse traps is false each step. There is no, in principle, impossibility for mouse traps to evolve. An evolutionary account of mouse trap history also has academic merits beyond its educational value. Three important conclusions can be drawn: (1) reticulate phylogenies of artifact systems may be resolvable as overlapping, but branching, phylogenies of parts; (2) homologous ideas may be realized by analogous material, that is, phylogenies of information do not necessarily coincide with those of material parts; (3) recombination of parts between different artifact systems increases the cumulative nature of cultural evolution. (shrink)

Most historians and philosophers of philosophy and history of mathematics hold one interpretation or the other of the nature of method of analysis and synthesis in itself and in its historical development. In this paper, I am trying to prove – through three points – that, in fact, there were two understandings of that method in Greek mathematics and philosophy, and which were reflected in Arabic mathematical science and philosophy; this reflection is considered as proof also of this double (...) nature of that method. Thus, we have to rethink the nature of Arabic philosophy systems. (shrink)

Plotinus resolved the paradox of the immanent transcendence, characterizing the relation between the One and the universe, through his theory of the two energeiai. According to this doctrine, all existents have an internal activity and an external activity: the internal activity comprises the true essence and substance of each being; the external activity is emitted outwards as its image. The source of the emission is thus present in the lower layer of being by virtue of its manifold images. The prominence (...) given to light in elucidating this solution led to a distinction between two types of lights: an original light, corresponding to the internal energeia of every existent, and a secondary light, which is the outflow and image of the first light, existing outside of the luminous body.This paper demonstrates the striking similarity between these two Plotinian lights and the concepts of lux and lumen developed by two thirteenth-century philosophers: Robert Grosseteste and Albertus Magnus. Moreover, the paper contends that the purpose of these two medieval concepts of light was identical to what Plotinus had in mind when he first made the distinction: to account for the relation between the one and the many.Keywords: Plotinus; Albertus Magnus; Robert Grosseteste; Light; Lux; Lumen. (shrink)

The Shroud of Turin is a controversial linen cloth thought by some to be a medieval artifact and by others to be the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth. To better explain the reasons why reaching a consensus among experts seems highly unlikely, this paper focuses on the possible relationship between the Shroud of Turin and the Pray Codex, the first illuminated manuscript in Hungarian (c. 1192 – c. 1195). An analysis of the recent literature, including a qualitative survey, (...) highlights not only the variety but also the weakness of the reasoning processes of the scholars, from less complete and intuitive to extremely detailed and systematic approaches. A new methodological approach excludes the position according to which it is certain that the Turin shroud has no direct or indirect link with the Pray Codex. A better understanding of the historiographical criteria and of the Bayesian framework might constitute a precious basis for solving similar interdisciplinary disputes. (shrink)

In order to distribute our thoughts and feelings, we must make intelligible and distributable copies of them. From approximately 1375 to 1450, certain Europeans started fully mechanized replication of texts and images, based on predecessor “smaller” technologies. What they started became the most powerful means for the distribution, storage, and retrieval of knowledge in history, up until the invention of digital means. We have scant information about the initiation of print technologies in the period up to Gutenberg, and the (...) picture of Gutenberg that we have has become a great deal more complicated than hitherto. There has not been, however, an approach to the “pre-printing” period in terms of the history of idea or intellectual history. After a brief survey of established approaches, this essay argues that distribution by impression, or print, is bound up with ancient metaphors for understanding communication by the making of multiples. I suggest that there is a rich field of study for printing history in the sophisticated concepts of reality that medieval and late Scholastic philosophy developed. These concepts helped to express and develop a desire or need for communication that led to the technology of replicating texts and images for wide and continued distribution. (shrink)

In 1988, three laboratories performed a radiocarbon analysis of the Turin Shroud. The results, which were centralized by the British Museum and published in Nature in 1989, provided ‘conclusive evidence’ of the medieval origin of the artefact. However, the raw data were never released by the institutions. In 2017, in response to a legal request, all raw data kept by the British Museum were made accessible. A statistical analysis of the Nature article and the raw data strongly suggests that (...) homogeneity is lacking in the data and that the procedure should be reconsidered. (shrink)

Centre and Periphery in the Historiography of Philosophy: Peter Olivi and Medieval Psychology The paper inquiries into the (historiographical) question what does it mean to be a “marginal thinker” in the context of the medieval philosophy. The question is investigated on the example of Franciscan philosopher and theologian Peter Olivi (1248/49–1298) and his philosophical psychology. First, a preliminary option is introduced: for a thinker, being “marginal” depends on his relation to who is considered to be canonical. Since the (...) most famous thinker of the Middle Ages is Thomas Aquinas (at least according to the traditional canon of medieval philosophy), Olivi’s positions in psychology are compared with these of Aquinas. It is revealed that Olivi’s psychology is very different from the Aquinas’ one. (E.g. Olivi stresses the activity of perception, proprioceptual nature of the sense of touch, and direct access of the intellect to its own acts.) Moreover, Olivi is very critical towards the Aristotelian philosophy as is done by some thinkers of his time. Nevertheless, it does not follow that Olivi is a marginal thinker only because of his dissimilarity from the more Aristotelian-minded ones. It is argued that “centre” and “periphery” in the history of medieval philosophy depends not on the canon (which is rather a historians’ construct and instrument), but rather on the tradition. Hence, although Olivi can be considered as a marginal thinker if we take into the account the Aristotelian tradition of medieval philosophy, he is definitely a central and important thinker, if considered as a member of the Augustinian tradition. (shrink)

Till just few decades ago, scholars used to use the label ‘Ockhamism’ to mark a turning-point in the history of mediaeval philosophy, above all in the history of natural philosophy. That turning-point was exemplified by the once so-called ‘Buridanian school’, today known simply as ‘Parisian school of natural philosophy’, whose leading representative was for sure John Buridan. But looking carefully at some crucial points of the Picard master’s idea of ‘nature’, concerning specifically the relationship between God and secondary (...) causes on one side, and the role played by free will, both the divine and the human one, on the other side, one will find out that Buridan’s ‘Ockhamism’ is at least questionable: Scotus’ modal logic is the conceptual framework, within which he redetermines the boundaries of natural laws, but the ‘pure ockhamist’ idea of the prevalence of the will on the intellect in God’s nature is the source of an image of the world in which voluntary behaviours and natural laws are intertwined. Therefore, Buridan’s natural philosophy results as a peculiar synthesis of two of the main divergent lines of thinking of late mediaeval philosophy. (shrink)

Universals appear to be as central in today's computational-based ontology as they were in medieval ontological investigations. As the author of a recent work on the history of universals (Pinzani, 2018), I was asked for a commentary on Augusto’s article “Bridging Mainstream and Formal Ontology” (Augusto, 2021), which aims at showing that medieval ontological investigations can be relevant for contemporary ontology engineering. In this commentary, I begin by saying something about my way of reading 12th-century logical literature (...) and then offer some modest considerations on the general theme addressed in Augusto's article. (shrink)

Our understanding of body–world relations is caught in a curious contradiction. On one side, it is well established that many concepts that describe interaction with the outer world – ‘plasticity’ or ‘metabolism’- or external influences on the body - ‘environment’ or ‘milieu’ – appeared with the rise of modern science. On the other side, although premodern science lacked a unifying term for it, an anxious attentiveness to the power of ‘environmental factors’ in shaping physical and moral traits held sway in (...) nearly all medical systems before and alongside modern Europe. In this article, I build on a new historiography on the policing of bodies and environments in medieval times and at the urban scale to problematize Foucault’s claim about biopolitics as a modern phenomenon born in the European eighteenth-century. I look in particular at the collective usage of ancient medicine and manipulation of the milieu based on humoralist notions of corporeal permeability (Hippocrates, Galen, Ibn Sīnā) in the Islamicate and Latin Christendom between the 12th and the 15th century. This longer history has implications also for a richer genealogy of contemporary tropes of plasticity, permeability and environmental determinism beyond usual genealogies that take as a starting point the making of the modern body and EuroAmerican biomedicine. (shrink)

In this paper, I analyze how frameworks shape historiographical explanations. I argue that, in order to identify a sequence of events as relevant to a historical outcome, assumptions about the workings of the relevant domain have to be made. By extending Lakatosian considerations, I argue that these assumptions are provided by a framework that contains a set of factors and intertwined principles that (supposedly) govern how a historical phenomenon works. I connect frameworks with a counterfactual account of historical explanation. Frameworks (...) enable us to explain the past by providing a backbone of explanatory patterns of counterfactual dependency. I conclude by noting that both counterfactual scenarios and scenarios of the future require frameworks and, therefore, historiographical explanation generates a set of possible futures. Analyzing these possible futures enables us to reveal the theoretical commitments of historiography. (shrink)

This paper outlines the case for a future research program that uses the tools of experimental cognitive science to investigate questions that traditionally fall under the remit of the philosophy of historiography. The central idea is this – the epistemic profile of historians’ representations of the past is largely an empirical matter, determined in no small part by the cognitive processes that produce these representations. However, as the philosophy of historiography is not presently equipped to investigate such cognitive questions, legitimate (...) concerns about evidential quality go largely overlooked. The case of mental state representation provides an excellent illustration of this. Representations of past mental states – the thoughts and fears and knowledge and desires of past agents – play much the same evidential role in historiography as in everyday life, serving in the causal explanation of agents’ behaviors and supporting normative evaluation of those behaviors. However, we have good reason to suspect that the theory of mind processes that support these representations may be more susceptible to error when deployed in the context of historiography than under everyday conditions. This raises worries about the quality of evidence that theory of mind can provide historiography, worries which require experimental cognitive science to properly address. (shrink)

This volume focuses on philosophical problems concerning sense perception in the history of philosophy. It consists of thirteen essays that analyse the philosophical tradition originating in Aristotle’s writings. Each essay tackles a particular problem that tests the limits of Aristotle’s theory of perception and develops it in new directions. The problems discussed range from simultaneous perception to causality in perception, from the representational nature of sense-objects to the role of conscious attention, and from the physical/mental divide to perception as (...) quasi-rational judgement. -/- The volume gives an equal footing to Greek, Arabic, and Latin philosophical traditions. It makes a substantial contribution not just to the study of the Aristotelian analysis of sense perception, but to its reception in the commentary tradition and beyond. Thus, the papers address developments in Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius, Avicenna, John of Jandun, Nicole Oresme, and Sayf al-Din al-Amidi, among others. The result of this is a coherent collection that attacks a well-defined topic from a wide range of perspectives and across philosophical traditions. (shrink)

Mystical Theology and Platonism in the Time of Cusanus engages with the history of mystical theology and Neoplatonic philosophy through the lens of the 15th century philosopher and theologian, Nicholas of Cusa. The volume comprises nineteen essays that break down the barriers between medieval and Renaissance studies, reinterpreting Cusanus’ place in the history of thought by exploring the archive that informed his thinking, while also interrogating his works by exploring them from the standpoint of their later reception (...) by modern philosophers and theologians. The volume also offers tribute to the career of Donald F. Duclow, a leading scholar in the field of Cusanus studies in particular and of the history of mystical theology and Neoplatonic philosophy more generally. (shrink)

History can be understood as involving a problematic interplay between the long-term legacy of human evolution, still tempered into the human body today, and the shorter-term heritage of civilization from its beginnings to the present. Each of us lives in a tension between our indigenous bodies and our civilized selves, between the philosophy of the earth and that which I characterize as “the philosophy of escape from the earth.” The standard story of civilization is one of linear upward progress, (...) a story that I contest with an alternative philosophy of history, picturing history instead as a set of concentric circles. I have devised a new philosophy of history with a three-part approach to understanding human development, taking civilization not as a linear advance of progress, but rather as a progress in precision, paradoxically counteracted by a regression in mind: history as a contraction of mind. I describe three stages in the contraction of mind: 1) animate mind as the evolved outlook of foraging life; 2) anthropocentric mind as representing the contracting transformation of consciousness produced by agriculturally-based civilization; 3) mechanico-centric mind as representing a further contraction from human-centered to a machine-centered consciousness, produced by the rise of modern civilization and the mechanical scientific worldview. Hence, this progressive contraction is marked by a turn from original practical and reverential attunement to the living earth in hunting and gathering societies, or animate mind, to a narrower focus of anthropocentric mind beginning with the development of early civilizations, where the human element became central and the wild devalued. And it moves to an even more narrow focus of mechanico-centric mind, expanding out of late medieval Europe and the development of modern science, where the machine became model of the ultimate, the objectivist filter through which the world is to be understood and made to fit. Far from controlling nature, humans have been consuming it in an unsustainable Malthusian-like trajectory whose limits are being reached in our time. (shrink)

Scholarly attempts to analyze the history of science sometime suffer from an imprecise use of terms. In order to understand accurately how science has developed and from where it draws its roots, researchers should be careful to recognize that epistemic regimes change over time and acceptable forms of knowledge production are contingent upon the hegemonic discourse informing the epistemic regime of any given period. In order to understand the importance of this point, I apply the techniques of historical epistemology (...) to an analysis of the place of the study of astrology in the medieval and early modern periods alongside a discussion of the “language games” of these period as well as the role of the “archeology of knowledge” in uncovering meaning in our study of the past. In sum, I argue that the term “science” should never be used when studying approaches to knowledge formation prior to the seventeenth century. (shrink)

The present Yearbook (which is the fourth in the series) is subtitled Trends & Cycles. Already ancient historians (see, e.g., the second Chapter of Book VI of Polybius' Histories) described rather well the cyclical component of historical dynamics, whereas new interesting analyses of such dynamics also appeared in the Medieval and Early Modern periods (see, e.g., Ibn Khaldūn 1958 [1377], or Machiavelli 1996 [1531] 1). This is not surprising as the cyclical dynamics was dominant in the agrarian social systems. (...) With modernization, the trend dynamics became much more pronounced and these are trends to which the students of modern societies pay more attention. Note that the term trend – as regards its contents and application – is tightly connected with a formal mathematical analysis. Trends may be described by various equations – linear, exponential, power-law, etc. On the other hand, the cliodynamic research has demonstrated that the cyclical historical dynamics can be also modeled mathematically in a rather effective way (see, e.g., Usher 1989; Chu and Lee 1994; Turchin 2003, 2005a, 2005b; Turchin and Korotayev 2006; Turchin and Nefedov 2009; Nefedov 2004; Korotayev and Komarova 2004; Korotayev, Malkov, and Khaltourina 2006; Korotayev and Khaltourina 2006; Korotayev 2007; Grinin 2007), whereas the trend and cycle components of historical dynamics turn out to be of equal importance. (shrink)

The phrase _secundum quid et simpliciter_ is the Latin expression translating and labelling the sophism described by Aristotle as connected with the use of some particular expression “absolutely or in a certain respect and not in its proper sense.” This paper presents an overview of the analysis of this fallacy in the history of dialectics, reconstructing the different explanations provided in the Aristotelian texts, the Latin and medieval dialectical tradition, and the modern logical approaches. The _secundum quid_ emerges (...) as a strategy that is based on the pragmatic dimension of arguments, and in particular the complex passage from an utterance (what is said) to its logical form (a proposition in an argument). The medieval and modern logical theories attempted to explain from different philosophical perspectives how the pragmatically enriched semantic representation can be achieved, justified, and most importantly manipulated. The different analyses of this fallacy bring to light various dimensions of the pragmatics of arguments, and the complex interdependence between context, meaning, and inferences. (shrink)

One important task of metaphysics is to answer the question of what it is for an object to exist. The first part of this book offers a systematic reconstruction and critique of contemporary views on existence. The upshot of this part is that the contemporary debate has reached an impasse because none of the considered views is able to formulate a satisfactory answer to this fundamental metaphysical question. The second part reconstructs Thomas Aquinas’s view on existence (esse) and argues that (...) it contributes a new perspective which allows us to see why the contemporary debate has reached this impasse. It has come to this point because it has taken a premise for granted which Aquinas’s view rejects, namely, that the existence of an object consists in something’s having a property. A decisive contribution of Aquinas’s theory of esse is that it makes use of the ideas of metaphysical participation and composition. In this way, it can be explained how an object can have esse without being the case that esse is a property of it. This book brings together a reconstruction from the history of philosophy with a systematic study on existence and is therefore relevant for scholars interested in contemporary or medieval theories of existence. (shrink)

A sound historiographical account of the role of logic in the development of medieval philosophical and theological reflection requires a thorough examination of its historical roots and its theoretical implications. An apparent historiographical bias, due to the idea that only the development of contemporary formal logic enables a proper reconstruction of the whole history of logic, can be exposed by taking into account the case of the medieval discussions on the topics, starting from their late-antiquity legacy. An (...) attentive inspection of the successive stages of the gradual formalisation process of medieval topical logic brings to the fore significant theoretical aspects in the philosophy of logic, all too often left aside in common contemporary discussions. In particular, the distinction between topical maxims and topical differences, or principles according to and principles from which an inference is drawn, highlights the specific nature of a major part of medieval logic, that deals with meta-logical issues by means of higher-order logical resources. It is precisely this special character of medieval logic that proves to be of the highest significance in the discussion of the most subtle theological—and just as well philosophical—questions that engaged medieval authors, thus testifying to the essential role of logic in the overall development of medieval thought. (shrink)

This is a review of Monika Michalowska's critical edition of question 3 from Richard Kilvington's questions commentary on the Sentences by Peter Lombard. It is published in open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Professor Jagtar Singh Grewal, an eminent historian, had a pioneering interest in the historiography of medieval India. He brought the rich history of Punjab and Sikhs from the margins to the mainstream. His outstanding research works took Amritsar's name to national and international levels. Grewal, a retired national fellow of the Indian Council of Historical Research, used to say: "To understand the present, it's important to understand the past." .

In the history of European philosophy and science, René Descartes is considered an author of a methodology of radical doubt, meditation, and the conception that explains the cause of human errors. But the course on internalization, knowledge of one's own Self, methodology of searching foundation of knowledge and conception of perfect reason have been formed already in the times of a Late Antiquity, particular by Augustine in his works “Soliloquies” and “Confession”, Boethius’s “The Consolation of Philosophy” and was continued (...) in the New age by Loyola’s “Spiritual exercises” and Teresa of Avila’s “The Interior Castle”. Therefore, Descartes could be rightfully considered rather the brilliant inheritor of this tradition than pioneer. To this chain of philosophers and theologians who were forerunners of Descartes’s theory of Radical doubt and especially problem of the source of human errors worth to add a new name – Hadewijch, the representative of medieval Dutch vernacular theology and her works “Visions” along with “Letters”. Precisely her point of view on cause of human errors, very close to the explanation have been given by Descartes in his IV Meditation. The aim of the research is to demonstrate common positions of Descartes’s and Hadewijch’s explanation of the nature of the errors. (shrink)

Contrary to what is generally said about the reception of Epicurus in the Middle Ages, many medieval authors agreed on his great wisdom, even if he made some philosophical and theological errors. From the 12th century to the 14th century on can find several "Lives of Epicurus" in which the best sayings of Epicurus are gathered from ancient sources (Seneca, Cicero, Lactantius, etc.). In this paper, we follow these quite unknown sources about Epicureanism in the Middle Ages. We try (...) to show that if Epicurus was considered as a wise man in the MIddle Ages, Epicureans are condemned because after the Revelation of God's word, Christians can only accept Epicurus's ascetic ethics, not his errors about the eternity of the world, the mortality of the soul et the subordination of happiness to pleasure. (shrink)

L’analyse des juristes médiévaux nous montre comment la manipulation des contradictions déontiques prima facie est associée, dans l’argumentation interprétative, à la théorie de la légitimité de la hiérarchie normative, entendue non seulement comme instrument politique mais aussi et essentiellement comme un instrument de rationalité au sein d’une science juridique orientée vers une théologie politique. La notion de droit naturel telle qu’elle apparaît dans certains documents emblématiques dont le Decretum de Gratien du XIIe s., ne peut être réduite au modèle intellectualiste (...) aristotélo-thomiste du XIIIe s. Il y a plusieurs façons de penser le droit naturel dans le monde médiéval chrétien et latin ; elles se maintiennent sur plusieurs siècles et l’une d’elles au moins a des points de contacts et de désaccord avec les traditions juives et musulmanes. Ces courants de pensée qui s’écartent du modèle intellectualiste aristotélo-thomiste peuvent être regroupés au sein d’une famille (au sens wittgensteinien) de modèles volontaristes : les contradictions déontiques peuvent être plus fortes que des contradictions prima facie, elles peuvent être d’authentiques contradictions renvoyant à un nouvel acte de volonté comme la seule façon d’éliminer la contradiction déontique. La théorie de Duns Scot peut être utilisée comme illustrant le problème d’une approche ontologique volontariste extrême. | Une autre version de cette contribution a été publiée dans Parisoli (2008d : 124–141). (shrink)

Girolamo Saccheri (1667--1733) was an Italian Jesuit priest, scholastic philosopher, and mathematician. He earned a permanent place in the history of mathematics by discovering and rigorously deducing an elaborate chain of consequences of an axiom-set for what is now known as hyperbolic (or Lobachevskian) plane geometry. Reviewer's remarks: (1) On two pages of this book Saccheri refers to his previous and equally original book Logica demonstrativa (Turin, 1697) to which 14 of the 16 pages of the editor's "Introduction" are (...) devoted. At the time of the first edition, 1920, the editor was apparently not acquainted with the secondary literature on Logica demonstrativa which continued to grow in the period preceding the second edition \ref[see D. J. Struik, in Dictionary of scientific biography, Vol. 12, 55--57, Scribner's, New York, 1975]. Of special interest in this connection is a series of three articles by A. F. Emch [Scripta Math. 3 (1935), 51--60; Zbl 10, 386; ibid. 3 (1935), 143--152; Zbl 11, 193; ibid. 3 (1935), 221--333; Zbl 12, 98]. (2) It seems curious that modern writers believe that demonstration of the "nondeducibility" of the parallel postulate vindicates Euclid whereas at first Saccheri seems to have thought that demonstration of its "deducibility" is what would vindicate Euclid. Saccheri is perfectly clear in his commitment to the ancient (and now discredited) view that it is wrong to take as an "axiom" a proposition which is not a "primal verity", which is not "known through itself". So it would seem that Saccheri should think that he was convicting Euclid of error by deducing the parallel postulate. The resolution of this confusion is that Saccheri thought that he had proved, not merely that the parallel postulate was true, but that it was a "primal verity" and, thus, that Euclid was correct in taking it as an "axiom". As implausible as this claim about Saccheri may seem, the passage on p. 237, lines 3--15, seems to admit of no other interpretation. Indeed, Emch takes it this way. (3) As has been noted by many others, Saccheri was fascinated, if not obsessed, by what may be called "reflexive indirect deductions", indirect deductions which show that a conclusion follows from given premises by a chain of reasoning beginning with the given premises augmented by the denial of the desired conclusion and ending with the conclusion itself. It is obvious, of course, that this is simply a species of ordinary indirect deduction; a conclusion follows from given premises if a contradiction is deducible from those given premises augmented by the denial of the conclusion---and it is immaterial whether the contradiction involves one of the premises, the denial of the conclusion, or even, as often happens, intermediate propositions distinct from the given premises and the denial of the conclusion. Saccheri seemed to think that a proposition proved in this way was deduced from its own denial and, thus, that its denial was self-contradictory (p. 207). Inference from this mistake to the idea that propositions proved in this way are "primal verities" would involve yet another confusion. The reviewer gratefully acknowledges extensive communication with his former doctoral students J. Gasser and M. Scanlan. ADDED 14 March 14, 2015: (1) Wikipedia reports that many of Saccheri's ideas have a precedent in the 11th Century Persian polymath Omar Khayyám's Discussion of Difficulties in Euclid, a fact ignored in most Western sources until recently. It is unclear whether Saccheri had access to this work in translation, or developed his ideas independently. (2) This book is another exemplification of the huge difference between indirect deduction and indirect reduction. Indirect deduction requires making an assumption that is inconsistent with the premises previously adopted. This means that the reasoner must perform a certain mental act of assuming a certain proposition. It case the premises are all known truths, indirect deduction—which would then be indirect proof—requires the reasoner to assume a falsehood. This fact has been noted by several prominent mathematicians including Hardy, Hilbert, and Tarski. Indirect reduction requires no new assumption. Indirect reduction is simply a transformation of an argument in one form into another argument in a different form. In an indirect reduction one proposition in the old premise set is replaced by the contradictory opposite of the old conclusion and the new conclusion becomes the contradictory opposite of the replaced premise. Roughly and schematically, P,Q/R becomes P,~R/~Q or ~R, Q/~P. Saccheri’s work involved indirect deduction not indirect reduction. (3) The distinction between indirect deduction and indirect reduction has largely slipped through the cracks, the cracks between medieval-oriented logic and modern-oriented logic. The medievalists have a heavy investment in reduction and, though they have heard of deduction, they think that deduction is a form of reduction, or vice versa, or in some cases they think that the word ‘deduction’ is the modern way of referring to reduction. The modernists have no interest in reduction, i.e. in the process of transforming one argument into another having exactly the same number of premises. Modern logicians, like Aristotle, are concerned with deducing a single proposition from a set of propositions. Some focus on deducing a single proposition from the null set—something difficult to relate to reduction. (shrink)

G.E.M. Anscombe famously claimed that ‘the Hebrew-Christian ethic’ differs from consequentialist theories in its ability to ground the claim that killing the innocent is intrinsically wrong. According to Anscombe, this is owing to its legal character, rooted in the divine decrees of the Torah. Divine decrees confer a particular moral sense of ‘ought’ by which this and other act-types can be ‘wrong’ regardless of their consequences, she maintained. There is, of course, a potentially devastating counter-example. Within the Torah, Abraham is (...) apparently commanded by God to slaughter and set fire to his innocent son, Isaac. For attempting to do so, he is praised in the Biblical passage and by later Jewish and Christian commentators. This paper examines rabbinic and early Christian analyses of the story and finds that it was not unambiguously held by these interpreters that God absolutely prohibits killing the innocent, until the time of Augustine, whose position on the story evolved over time. (shrink)

One of the main philosophical works by Alexander of Aphrodisias, De principiis, is lost in its original Greek text, but it is preserved in three extant Medieval Semitic versions, one in Syriac and two in Arabic, which were written in the Near East between 500 and 950 AD. These versions are not totally identical and, as we have shown in 2012, they are in a rather complex textual relationship. As we will show in this article, a tentative reconstruction of (...) the lost text should be based upon an attentive and point‑to‑point comparative analysis of some aspect of all three versions. We have tentatively called the abore way “critical translation”. (shrink)