Multiple Generality in Scholastic Logic

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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.
Original languageEnglish
JournalOxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy
Volume10
Pages (from-to)215-282
Number of pages68
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

    Research areas

  • Faculty of Humanities - multiple generality, logical form, logic diagrams, existential import, John Buridan

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