Marsilius of Inghen: Treatises on the Properties of Terms: A First Critical Edition of the Suppositiones, Ampliationes, Appellationes, Restrictiones and ... and appendices (Synthese Historical Librar

by Egbert P. Bos

occurred in the textbooks of medieval logicians. Hubien (1975,1977) did the same in recent articles and other modern logicians with interest in the history of their field of knowledge, or students of the history of logic with knowledge of modern achievements in this field, could be mentioned. For example, Trentman (1977:41) in his recent edition of Vincent Ferrer's Tractatus de Suppositionibus, 'Treatise on suppositions', elucidates Ferrer's theory of natural supposition with the aid of modern logic and points out that in some respects, for example, in the theory of irltensionality, modern theories have been developed with little more success. In the Middle Ages, semantics and logic were entirely interwoven. For, in the opinion of medieval philosophers, thought is enacted in language. This very same language consists of meaningful entities and those entities form propositions that may be used as premisses in argument. In their opinion, language and thought were both related to reality in a natural way (cf. De Rijk, 1977:233). This is also evident from Marsilius' works (cf., e.g., p. 54, n. 11-23). The semantical presuppositions oT the propositions that may be used in arguments, are analysed. This, indeed, is one of the contributions to logic by medieval logicians (cf. Moody, 1975:385).

280 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1983

About the author

Prof.dr. E.P. Bos, Emeritus Professor, University of Leiden, Netherlands.

My research is primarily directed to the filosofical logic and semantics in the middle ages. I consider the relation between semantical and metaphysical views to be especially important. I concentrate on the logic of the fourteenth century (Ockham, Buridan and their followers), though presently I am preparing an edition with introduction of an important late 12th century tract, the Introductiones Montanae Maiores, and I also study the semantics underlying medieval Bible-exegesis. In the past I have published a number of editions of logical and semantical tracts. This kind of editorial work is much needed by historians of medieval philosophy, and I consider it to be my primary field of research. My research is done in close contact with colleagues not only from the Netherlands, but also from abroad. These colleagues meet during the European Symposia on medieval logic and semantics, of which now sixteen have been held in various places in Europe. My research is to a large degree a continuation of the work done by Prof. dr. em. L.M. de Rijk.