Medieval Philosophy

by Peter S. Adamson

Adding syncategorematic terms can change the supposition of the term. Suppose I take the proposition “Giraffes are tall” and add the word “always,” to get “Giraffes are always tall.” I thereby extend the scope of (or as the medievals said, “ampliate”) the term “giraffes,” so that it supposits for the giraffes that exist in the past and future, and not just for the ones that exist now. Conversely, if I add the word “blue” and say “Blue giraffes are tall,” I “restrict” the term “giraffes” to only those giraffes that are blue. The reason this is exciting is that it suggests a general theory about language: what determines the supposition of a term is its context. This suggestion was debated in the thirteenth century. Some logicians, especially in Oxford, thought that supposition was indeed always a function of context. Others, especially in Paris, held that each term has a “natural” supposition all by itself, which can be altered by its context to produce what they called “accidental” supposition.