The Return of Language and Aristotle’s Semantic Theory.

Journal title RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA
Author/s Riccardo Fedriga, Roberto Limonta
Publishing Year 2022 Issue 2022/2
Language Italian Pages 27 P. 273-299 File size 274 KB
DOI 10.3280/SF2022-002005
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Between 1317 and 1323, William of Ockham composed an extended commentary on Aristotle’s De interpretatione. However, his reflections on Aristotelian logic and puzzles are not limited to this work. In particular, the author focuses, among other Ockham texts, on the Tractatus de praedestinatione et de praescientia Dei respectu futurorum contingentium (1321-1324). It provides a privileged point of view on the Ockhamian reading of De interpretatione because the latter is used as a philosophical tool to solve the question of the nature - determined or indetermined - and the truth conditions of future tense propositions, a problem historically grounded in the debate on book IX of De interpretatione. In a criticism of Duns Scotus’s position on this topic, Ockham formulates his linguistic solution to save concomitantly divine foreknowledge and human free will: the propositions of divina praescientia are verbally (secundum vocem) simply related to the present but are in fact (secundum rem) related to the future, from which they can be determined as true or false. Thus, the truth-value of the future tense propositions is guaranteed by their being objects of divine foreknowledge, but at the same time those propositions are open to free will’s choices since they are still indetermined in the present.

Keywords: De interpretatione, future contingents, determinism, free will, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham.

  1. - Abelardo 1969: Pietro Abelardo, Scritti di logica. Editio super Prophyrium, Glossae in Categorias, Editio super Aristotelem De interpretatione, De divisione, a cura di Mario Dal Pra, La Nuova Italia, Firenze 19692.
  2. - Anscombe 1956: Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe, Aristotle and the Sea Battle. De Interpretatione chapter IX, in «Mind», 65 (1956), pp. 1-15.
  3. - Aristotele 1992: Aristotele, Della interpretazione, a cura di Marcello Zanatta, Rizzoli, Milano 1992.
  4. - Aristotle 1949: Aristotelis Categoriae et Liber de interpretatione, Lorenzo Minio-Paluello (ed.), Clarendon Press, Oxford 1949.
  5. - Barnes 1995: Jonathan Barnes, The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1995.
  6. - Beets 2003: François Beets, Boèce et la sémantique du regard in Alain Galonnier (a cura di), Boèce ou la chaîne des savoirs, éditions de l’Institut Supérieur de Philosophie and Peeters, (Philosophes médiévaux 44), Louvain-la-Neuve and Paris 2003, pp. 547 – 569.
  7. - Bianchi, Randi 1990: Luca Bianchi e Eugenio Randi, Le verità dissonanti. Aristotele alla fine del Medioevo, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1990.
  8. - Binini 2020: Irene Binini, Abelard Treatment of Logical Determinism in Its Twelfth Century Context, in «Vivarium» 58 (2020), pp. 1-28.
  9. - Boezio 1880: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, Commentarii in librum Aristotelis Peri Hermeneias pars posterior, Hrsg. Carl Meiser, Teubner, Leipzig 1880.
  10. - Celluprica 1977: Vincenza Celluprica, Il capitolo 9 del De interpretatione di Aristotele. Rassegna di studi: 1930-1973, Il Mulino, Bologna 1977.
  11. - Ciammetti 2011: Daniela Ciammetti, Necessità e contingenza in Gregorio da Rimini, Ets, Pisa 2011.
  12. - Craig 1986: William Lane Craig, Temporal necessity: Hard facts/soft facts, in «Philosophy of Religion», 20 (1986), pp. 65-91.
  13. - Dezza, Nannini, Riserbato 2019: Ernesto Dezza, Andrea Nannini, Davide Riserbato, Fare cose con il pensiero. L’eterna produzione delle idee secondo Duns Scoto, Antonianum, Roma 2019.
  14. - Enrico di Gand 1613: Heinricus de Gandavo, Quaestiones quodlibetales, 12 voll., II, Venezia 1613.
  15. - Falà, Zavattero 2018: Jacopo Francesco Falà, Irene Zavattero (eds.) Divine ideas in franciscan thought (XIII-XIV century), Aracne, Roma, 2018.
  16. - Fedriga 2015: Riccardo Fedriga, La Sesta Prosa. Discussioni medievali su prescienza, libertà e contingenza, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2015.
  17. - Fedriga 2016: Riccardo Fedriga, Contingenza e ontologia della libertà nel Tractatus de primo principio di Giovanni Duns Scoto, in «Antonianum», 91 (2016), pp. 641-650.
  18. - Fedriga, Limonta 2017: Riccardo Fedriga e Roberto Limonta, Metter le brache al mondo. Compatibilismo, conoscenza e libertà, Jaca Book, Milano 2017.
  19. - Fedriga, Limonta 2020: Riccardo Fedriga e Roberto Limonta, Il Trattato sulla predestinazione e prescienza divina riguardo ai futuri contingenti di Guglielmo di Ockham, Città Nuova, Roma 2020.
  20. - Frede 1985: Dorothea Frede, The Sea Battle Reconsidered: A Defense of the Traditional Interpretation, in «Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy», 3 (1985), pp. 31-83.
  21. - Funkenstein 1996: Amos Funkenstein, Teologia e immaginazione scientifica dal Medioevo al Seicento, Einaudi, Torino 1996.
  22. - Genest 1992: Jean-François Genest, Prédetermination et liberté créée à Oxford au XIVe siècle. Buckingham contre Bradwardine, Librairie philosophique Vrin, Paris 1992.
  23. - Goehring 2010: Bernd Goehring, Intelligit se intelligere rem intellectam: Henry of Ghent on Thought and Reflexivity, in «Quaestio», 10 (2010), pp. 111-133.
  24. - Gregorius 1985: Adolf Damasus Trapp et alii (eds.), Gregoris Ariminensis, OESA Lectura super primum et secundum Sententiarum, tt. 7, de Gruyter, Berlin-New-York 1978-1987.
  25. - Hintikka 1973: Jaakko Hintikka, Time and Necessity. Studies in Aristotle’s theory of Modality, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1973.
  26. - Hintikka 1981: Jaakko Hintikka, Aristotle on the realization of possibilities in Time, in Simo Knuuttila (ed.), Reforging the Great Chain of Being. Studies of the History of modal theories, Reidel, Dordrecht-Boston-London 1981, pp. 57- Knuuttila 2010: Simo Knuuttila, Medieval Commentators on Future Contingents in De Interpretatione 9, in «Vivarium», 48 (2010), pp. 75-95.
  27. - Knuuttila 2020: Simo Knuuttila, «Medieval Theories of Future Contingents» in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ( Summer 2020 edition), Edward Nouri Zalta (ed.), URL = < https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/medieval-futcont/>.
  28. - Lukasiewicz 1910: Jan Lukasiewicz, O z˛asadz˛ie sprz˛ecz˛no´sci u Arystotelesa (1910), tr. it. Del principio di contraddizione in Aristotele (1910), traduzione dal polacco di Grazyna Maszkowska, a cura di Gabriele Franci e Claudio Antonio Testi, presentazione di Maurizio Matteuzzi, Quodlibet, Macerata 2003.
  29. - Lukasiewicz 1930: Jan Lukasiewicz, Philosophische Bemerkungen zu mehrwertigen Systemen des Aussagenkalküls, in «Comptes Rendus des Scéances de la Société des Sciences et des Lettres de Varsovie», Cl. III, 23 (1930), pp. 51-77 (trad. ingl. in Jan Lukasiewicz, Selected Works, ed. Ludwik Borkowski, North-Holland-PWN, Amsterdam-Varsaw 1970, pp. 153-178).
  30. - Lukasiewicz 1957: Jan Lukasiewicz, Aristotle’s Syllogistic from the Standpoint of Modern Formal Logic, Clarendon Press, Oxford 19572.
  31. - Marenbon 2013: John Marenbon, Divine prescience and contingency in Boethius’s Consolation of philosophy in «Rivista di storia della filosofia», 1 (2013), pp. 9-19.
  32. - McCord Adams 1967: Marilyn McCord Adams, Is the Existence of God a “Hard” Fact?, in «Philosophical Review», 76 (1967), pp. 492-503.
  33. - Michon 2002 : Cyrille Michon, Omniscience, liberté humaine et immutabilité divine. Remarques à partir du Tractatus de Guillaume d’Ockham in Olivier Boulnois, Jacob Schmutz, Jean-Luc Solère (éds), Le contemplateur et les idées. Modéles de la science divine, du néoplatonisme au XVIIIe siècle, Vrin, Paris 2002, pp. 149-169.
  34. - Mignucci 1988: Mario Mignucci, Boezio e il problema dei futuri contingenti, in «Medioevo», XIII (1988), pp. 2-50.
  35. - Mugnai 2013: Massimo Mugnai, Possibile/Necessario, Il Mulino, Bologna 2013.
  36. - Normore 1985: Calvin Normore, Divine Omniscience, Omnipotence and Future Contingents: an Overview, in Rudavsky 1985, pp. 3-22.
  37. - Normore 1982: Calvin Normore, Future Contingents, in Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny, Jan Pinborg (eds.), The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1982, pp. 358-382.
  38. - Ockham 1974: Guillelmi de Ockham Summa logicae in Philotheus Boehner (ed.), Guillelmi de Ockham Opera Philosophica I, St. Bonaventure University, New York 1974.
  39. - Ockham 1978a: Guillelmi de Ockham Tractatus de praedestinatione et praescientia Dei respectu futurorum contingentium, in Philotheus Boehner and Stephen Brown (eds.), Guillelmi de Ockham Opera Philosophica II, St. Bonaventure University, New York 1978, pp. 505-539.
  40. - Ockham 1978b: Guillelmi de Ockham Expositio in librum Perihermeneias Aristotelis in Angelus Gambatese and Stephen Brown (eds.), Guillelmi de Ockham Opera Philosophica II/2, St. Bonaventure, New York 1978.
  41. - Ockham 1985: Guillelmi de Ockham Expositio in libros physicorum in Vladimir Richter and Gerhard Leibold (eds.), Guillelmi de Ockham Opera Philosophica IV, St. Bonaventure University, New York 1985.
  42. - Ockham 2000: Guillelmi de Ockham Ordinatio in primum librum Sententiarum. Distinctiones XIX-XLVIII in G. Etzkorn and F. Kelley (eds.), Guillelmi de Ockham Opera Theologica IV, St. Bonaventure University, New York 2000.
  43. - Pomian 1991: Krzysztof Pomian (a cura di), Sul determinismo. La filosofia della scienza oggi, Il Saggiatore, Milano 1991.
  44. - Porro 2013: Pasquale Porro, Contingenza e impedibilità delle cause. Presupposti e implicazioni di un dibattito scolastico, in «Rivista di Storia della Filosofia», 1 (2013), pp. 113-147.
  45. - Porro 2015: Pasquale Porro, Il timore dell’altra parte. Il ruolo della formido nei dibattiti scolastici sull’assenso (da Tommaso d’Aquino a Pietro Aureolo) in «Archivio di filosofia», LXXXIII, 1-2 (2015), pp. 209-220.
  46. - Reina 2010: Maria Elena Reina, Res et signa: studi di Maria Elena Reina (a cura di Luciano Cova), Firenze, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2010.
  47. - Rudavsky 1985: Tamar Rudavsky (ed.), Divine Omniscience and Omnipotence in Medieval Philosophy. Islamic, Jewish and Christian Perspectives, Reidel, Dordrecht-Boston, 1985.
  48. - Schabel 2000: Christopher Schabel, Theology at Paris, 1316-1345: Peter Auriol and the Problem of Divine Foreknowledge and Future Contingents, Ashgate Studies in Medieval Philosophy, Aldershot 2000.
  49. - Schabel 2002: Christopher Schabel, Parisian Commentaries from Peter Auriol to Gregory of Rimini, and the Problem of Predestination, in Gillian Rosemary Evans (ed.), Medieval Commentaries on Peter Lombard’s Sentences, Brill, Leiden 2002, pp. 221-265.
  50. - Schabel 2015: Christopher Schabel, «Gregory of Rimini» in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2015 edition), Edward Nouri Zalta (ed.), URL = < https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/gregory-rimini/>.
  51. - Scotus 1963: Ioannes Duns Scotus, Ordinatio, I, d. 39 in Ioannis Duns Scoti, Opera Omnia, studio et cura Commissionis Scotisticae, Praeside P. Carolo Balić, Civitas Vaticana 1963, vol. VI.
  52. - Scotus 1966: Ioannes Duns Scotus, Lectura I, 39 in Ioannis Duns Scoti, Opera Omnia, studio et cura Commissionis Scotisticae, Praeside P. Carolo Balić, Civitas Vaticana 1966, vol. XVII.
  53. - Spade 1999: Paul Vincent Spade (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Ockham, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999.
  54. - Vittorini 2004: Marta Vittorini, Necessità antecedente e conseguente, potenza assoluta e ordinata: Bradwardine tra Anselmo e Duns Scoto, in «Schola Salernitana, Annali», 9 (2004), pp. 133-180.
  55. - Vittorini 2005: Marta Vittorini, Contingenza dei futuri e ortodossia: Bradwardine e i nuovi eretici, in Stefano Perfetti (a cura di), Conoscenza e contingenza nella tradizione aristotelica medievale, Ets, Pisa 2008, pp. 161-196.
  56. - Wciórka 2020: Wojciech Wciórka, Mitigating the Necessity of the Past in the Second Half of the Twelfth Century: Future Dependent Predestination, in «Vivarium» 58 (2020), pp. 29-64.
  57. - Whitaker 2007: Charles Whitaker, Aristotle’s De interpretatione: Contradiction and Dialectic, Clarendon Press, Oxford 2007.
  58. - Zagzebski 2021: Linda Trinkhaus Zagzebski, Foreknowledge and Free Will, in «Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy» (SPRING 2021 edition), Edward N. Zalta (a cura di), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/free-will-foreknowledge/.

Riccardo Fedriga, Roberto Limonta, Il ritorno del linguaggio. Guglielmo di Ockham e la teoria semantica aristotelica in "RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA" 2/2022, pp 273-299, DOI: 10.3280/SF2022-002005