by Raul Corazzon - e-mail: raul.corazzon[at]ontology.co

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For an overview see the Index of the Pages or the Alphabetical Index of the Philosophers: A-F - G-O - P-Z; you can also download the page as or see the Table of Contemporary Ontologists (click on the image to see the PDF file)

Change of Address: The site www.formalontology.it is now at www.ontology.co

Selected Bibliography on Abelard's Logic and Ontology. Second Part K - Z

First part: A - J

Index of the Section: "The Problem of Universals from the Antiquity to Middle Ages"

Universals in Antiquity and Middle Ages
- Annotated Bibliography on the Problem of Universals
Abelard's Logic and the Origins of Nominalism
- Annotated Bibliography on Peter Abelard:
- A - J
- K - Z
The Realist Ontology of John Duns Scotus
- Annotated Bibliography on Duns Scotus
The Nominalist Ontology of William of Ockham
- Annotated Bibliography on William of Ockham

Index of the Section: "Ontological Topics in the History of Philosophy"

BIBLIOGRAPHY

King Peter, "Peter Abailard and the problem of universals in the Twelfth century", Princeton University, 1982.
Available at UMI Dissertation Express
King Peter. Metaphysics. In The Cambridge Companion to Abelard. Edited by Brower Jeffrey E. and Guilfoy Kevin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2004. pp. 65-125
"Abelard's philosophy is the first example in the Western tradition of the cast of mind that is now called nominalism. Although his view that universals are mere words (nomina) is typically thought to justify the label, Abelard's nominalism - or better, his irrealism - is in fact the hallmark of his metaphysics. He is an irrealist not only about universals, but also about propositions, events, times other than the present, natural kinds, relations, wholes, absolute space, hylomorphic composites, and the like. Instead, Abelard holds that the concrete individual, in all its richness and variety, is more than enough to populate the world. He preferred reductive, atomist, and material explanations when he could get them; he devoted a great deal of effort to pouring cold water on the metaphysical excesses of his predecessors and contemporaries. Yet unlike modern philosophers, Abelard did not conceive of metaphysics as a distinct branch of philosophy. Following Boethius, he distinguishes philosophy into three branches: logic, concerned with devising and assessing argumentation, an activity also known as dialectic; physics, concerned with speculation on the natures of things and their causes; and ethics, concerned with the upright way of life."
King Peter, "Abelard on mental language," American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 81: 169-187 (2007).
"I argue that Abelard was the author of the first theory of mental language in the Middle Ages, devising a "language of thought" to provide the semantics for ordinary languages, based on the idea that thoughts have linguistic character. I examine Abelard's semantic framework with special attention to his principle of compositionality (the meaning of a whole is a function of the meanings of the parts); the results are then applied to Abelard's distinction between complete and incomplete expressions, as well as the distinction between sentences and the statements which the sentences are used to make. Abelard's theory of mental language is shown to be subtle and sophisticated, the forerunner of the great theories of the fourteenth century."
King Peter, "Abelard's answers to Porphyry," Documenti e Studi sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale 20 (2009).
Not yet published.
Kluge Heike Henner W., "Roscelin and the medieval problem of universals," Journal of the History of Philosophy 14: 404-414 (1976).
"This paper is an attempt to reconstruct Roscelin's nominalism on the basis of the data available, and to show that contrary to historical commentators like Abelard and contemporary historians like Kneale it does form a coherent system. I also show that Roscelin's position was influential on the development of Abelard's "status"-theory, Aquinas' moderate realism and Ockham's conceptualism."
Knuuttila Simo. Modalities in medieval philosophy. New York: Routledge 1993.
Chapter 2: Philosophical and theological modalities in early medieval thought.
Boethius' modal conceptions 45, New theological modalities: from Augustine to Anselm of Canterbury 62; Gilbert of Poitiers, Peter Abelard and Thierry of Chartres 75-98..
Kretzmann Norman. The culmination of the Old Logic in Peter Abelard. In Renaissance and renewal in the Twelfth century. Edited by Benson Robert L. and Constable Giles. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1982. pp. 488-511
Küng Guido. Abélard et les vues actuelles sur les universaux. In Abélard: Le 'Dialogue'. La philosophie de la logique. Actes du Colloque de Neuchâtel, 16-17 novembre 1979. Neuchâtel : Secrétariat de l'Université 1981. pp. 99-118
Legowicz Jan. Das Problem des Ursprungs der "Allgemenheit" von Nahmen in der Universalientheorie bei Abaelard. In Sprache und Erkenntnis im Mittelalter. Vol. I. Edited by Beckmann Jan P. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 1981. pp. 352-256
Akten des VI. internationalen Kongresses für mittelalterliche Philosophie der Société internationale pour l'étude de la philosophie médiévale, 29. August-3. September 1977, Bonn
Lejeune François. Pierre Abélard et Jean de Salisbury : Metalogicon II, 10. In Pierre Abelard. Colloque international de Nantes. Edited by Jolivet Jean and Habrias Henri. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes 2003. pp. 63-76
Lenz Martin, "Peculiar perfection. Peter Abelard on propositional attitudes," Journal of the History of Philosophy 43: 377-386 (2005).
"In the course of the debates on Priscian's notion of the perfect sentence, the philosopher Peter Abelard developed a theory that closely resembles modern accounts of propositional attitudes and that goes far beyond the established Aristotelian conceptions of the sentence. According to Abelard, the perfection of a sentence does not depend on the content that it expresses, but on the fact that the content is stated along with the propositional attitude towards the content. This paper tries to provide an analysis and a consistent interpretation of Abelard's arguments within the framework of the mediaeval models of language and mind."
Lenz Martin, "Are thoughts and sentences compositional? A controversy between Abelard and a pupil of Alberic on the reconciliation of ancient theses on mind and language," Vivarium 45: 169-188 (2007).
"This paper reconstructs a controversy between a pupil of Alberic of Paris and Peter Abelard which illustrates two competing ways of reconciling different ancient traditions. I shall argue that their accounts of the relation between sentences and thoughts are incompatible with one another, although they rely on the same set of sources. The key to understanding their different views on assertive and non-assertive sentences lies in their disparate views about the structure of thoughts: whereas Abelard takes thoughts to be compositional, the opponent's arguments seem to rely on the premise that the mental states which correspond to sentences cannot be compositional in the way that Abelard suggested. Although, at a first glance, Abelard's position appears to be more coherent, it turns out that his opponent convincingly argues against weaknesses in Abelard's semantic theory by proposing a pragmatic approach."
Lewis Neil, "Determinate truth in Abelard," Vivarium 25: 81-109 (1987).
Little Edward F. The status of current research on Abelard. Its implications for the liberal arts and philosophy of the XIth and XIIth centuries. In Arts libéraux et philosophie au Moyen Age. Paris: Vrin 1969. pp. 1119-1124
Actes du Quatrième Congrés International de philosophie Médiévale. Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada 27 août - 2 septembre 1967.
Luscombe David E. The School of Peter Abelard. The influence of Abelard's thought in the early scholastic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1969.
"The author investigates the ways in which Abelard's thought reached and influenced his contemporaries and successors. drawing on literary, biographical, paleographical and doctrinal sources, he illustrates the development of theological thought in the first half of the twelfth century by referring both to Abelard's disciples and to the major teachers of the period, such as Gratian of Bologna, the Victorines, Peter Lombard and Robert of Melun. in the author's view Abelard, though a major source of stimulus in debate and thought, was primarily an analyst and a reviewer of formulas and 'authorities'."
Luscombe David E., "St. Anselm and Abelard," Anselm Studies.An Occasional Journal 1: 207-229 (1983).
Luscombe David E. Peter Abelard. In A history of Twelfth-Century Western philosophy. Edited by Dronke Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1988. pp. 279-307
Luscombe David E., "The School of Peter Abelard revisited," Vivarium 30: 127-138 (1992).
Maioli Bruno. Gli universali. Storia - Antologia del problema da Socrate al XII secolo. Roma: Bulzoni 1974.
Chapters about: Boethius, John Scot Erigene, Roscelin of Compiègne, William of Champeaux, Adelard of Bath, Abelard, John of Salisbury.
Malcolm John, "A reconsideration of the identity and inherence theories of the Copula," Journal of the History of Philosophy 17: 383-400 (1979).
Maloney Christopher J., "Abailard's theory of universals," Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 23: 27-38 (1982).
"This paper attempts to fill these lacunae with a formal reconstruction of Abailard's theory of the relation between statuses, concepts and individuals. As such, this essay is a contribution not only to the history of medieval logic but also to the theory of universals and the philosophy of mind."
Marenbon John. Abelard's concept of possibility. In Historia Philosophiae Medii Aevi. Studien zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters. Festschrift für Kurt Flasch zu seinem 60. Geburtstag. (vol. II). Edited by Mojsisch Burkhard and Pluta Olaf. Amsterdam: B. R. Grüner 1991. pp. 595-609
Reprinted as Chapter X in: John Marenbon - Aristotelian logic, Platonism, and the context of early medieval philosophy in the West - Aldershot - Ashgate, 2000.
Marenbon John, "Abelard, ens and Unity," Topoi 11: 149-158 (1992).
"Although Abelard arrived at a view of "ens" nearer to Aristotle's than his sources would suggest, unlike Thirteenth-century thinkers he did not work out a view of transcendentals in terms of "ens", its attributes and their convertibility. He did, however, regard unity (though not goodness or truth) as an attribute of everything. At first, Abelard suggested that unity, being inseparable, could not be an accident according to Porphyry's definition (' that which can come and leave a subject without the subject being corrupted') either it is some type of form not classified by Porphyry, or not a form at all. In his later logical work, Abelard argued differently. Unity, he said, is an accidental form, but Porphyry's definition of an accident must be understood negatively, not as asserting something about what could happen in reality (since the form of unity could never leave its subject) but rather something about an absence of connection: were it, per impossible, to occur, the loss by a subject of its form of unity would not lead to the loss of its specific or generic status."
Marenbon John, "Vocalism, nominalism and the commentaries on the Categories from the earlier Twelfth century," Vivarium 30: 51-61 (1992).
Reprinted as Chapter XIII in: John Marenbon - Aristotelian logic, Platonism, and the context of early medieval philosophy in the West - Aldershot - Ashgate, 2000.
Marenbon John. Medieval Latin Commentaries and Glosses on Aristotelian logical texts, before c. 1150 A.D. In Glosses and commentaries on Aristotelian logical texts: The Syriac, Arabic and Medieval Latin traditions. Edited by Burnett Charles. London: The Warburg Institute, University of London 1993. pp. 77-127
Reprinted as Chapter II in: John Marenbon - Aristotelian logic, Platonism, and the context of early medieval philosophy in the West - Aldershot - Ashgate, 2000.
Marenbon John. Glosses and commentaries on the Categories and De interpretatione before Abelard. In Dialektik und Rhetorik im früheren und hohen Mittelalter. Rezeption, Überlieferung und gesellschaftliche Wirkung antiker Gelehrsamkeit vornehmlich im 9. und 12. Jahrhundert. Edited by Fried Johannes. München: Oldenbourg 1997. pp. 21-49
Reprinted as Chapter IX in: John Marenbon - Aristotelian logic, Platonism, and the context of early medieval philosophy in the West - Aldershot - Ashgate, 2000.
Marenbon John. The philosophy of Peter Abelard. Cambridge: Cambrdige University Press 1997.
Paperback edition, with corrections and bibliographical note, 1999.
Marenbon John. The Platonisms of Peter Abelard. In Néoplatonisme et philosophie médiévale. Edited by Benakis Linos G. Turnhout: Brepols 1997. pp. 109-129
Actes du Colloque international de Corfou, 6-8 octobre 1995 organisé par la Société internationale pour l'étude de la philosophie médiévale.
Reprinted as Chapter XII in: John Marenbon - Aristotelian logic, Platonism, and the context of early medieval philosophy in the West - Aldershot - Ashgate, 2000.

"When, in 1966, Father Chenu published Les platonismes au XII siècle, twelfth-century Platonism had already been a topic of scholarly interest for nearly a century. (1) Chenu's novelty lay in his plural: not «Platonism» but «Platonisms». He distinguished a strand going back to Augustine, another deriving from the Timaeus and Boethius, one linked to pseudo-Dionysius and another to Arab writers. Chenu's is a useful analytical method which allows the scholar to avoid broad, oversimplifying labels whilst continuing to see the history of medieval philosophy in the neat terms of interrelated and interacting traditions. No doubt it could be fruitfully applied to Abelard -- but that is not my intention here. The Platonisms I shall be discussing are not those of the historian, but Abelard' s own: some of the diverse ways in which he used a notion of Plato and Platonic teaching to formulate, structure and convey his own thought (2). At the end of this paper, I shall return to the question of method, and ask what my procedure has to offer by contrast with other ways of discussing Platon- or any other -ism."

(1) In M.-D. Chenu, La théologie au douzième siècle (Études de philosophie médiévale, 45). Paris, 1966, pp. 108-141. For a sketch of the historiography of twelfth-century Platonism, see J. Marenbon, "Platonismus im zwólften Jahrhundert: alte und neue Zugangsweisen" (translation by A. Snell & O. Summerell), in T. Kobusch and B. Moisisch (eds.), Platon in der abendländischen Geistesgeschichte, neue Forschungen zum Plaumismus, Darmstadt, forthcoming. [Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1997 pp. 101-119]

(2) In my general presentation of Abelard's use of Plato and attitude to him, I summarize arguments put forward in various places and different contexts in my The Philosophy of Peter Abelard. Cambridge, 1997. But in my longer and more detailed discussions here -- of Plato universals, the Timaeus and optimism, and «the Platonism of the Republic» -- I develop and extend what I have written in the book.
Marenbon John. The Twelfth Century. In Routledge history of philosophy. Volume III: Medieval philosophy. Edited by Marenbon John. New York: Routledge 1998. pp. 150-187
On Abelard see pp. 155-166.
Marenbon John. Abélard, la predication et le verbe "être". In Langage, sciences, philosophie au XIIe siècle. Edited by Biard Joël. Paris: Vrin 1999. pp. 199-215
Marenbon John. Dicta, assertion and speech acts: Abelard and some modern interpreters. In Medieval theories on assertive and non-assertive language. Edited by Maierù Alfonso and Valente Luisa. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki Editore 2004. pp. 59-80
Acts of the 14th European Symposium on Medieval Logic and Semantics - Rome, June 11-15, 2002
Marenbon John, "The rediscovery of Peter Abelard's philosophy," Journal of the History of Philosophy 44: 331-351 (2006).
"My article surveys philosophical discussions of Abelard over the last twenty years. Although Abelard has been a well-known figure for centuries, his most important logical works were published only in the twentieth century and, so I argue, the rediscovery of him as an important philosopher is recent and continuing. I concentrate especially on work that shows Abelard as the re-discoverer of propositional logic (Chris Martin); as a subtle explorer of problems about modality (Simo Knuuttila, Herbert Weidemann) and semantics (Klaus Jacobi); as a metaphysician before the reception of Aristotle's Metaphysics (Peter King); and as an ethical thinker who echoes the Stoics (Calvin Normore) and anticipates Kant (Peter King)."
Marenbon John, "Abelard's changing thoughts on sameness and difference in logic and theology," American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 81 (2007).
Marenbon John. Was Abelard a Trope theorist? In Compléments de Substance. Études sur les propriétés accidentelles offertes à Alain de Libera. Edited by Erismann Christophe and Schniewind Alexandrine. Paris: Vrin 2008. pp. 85-101
"It was Christopher Martin who, in 1992, first made the link between Abelard's views on accidents and differentiae and what are usually called, in contemporary analytical ontology, 'tropes'. Myself apart, Alain de Libera is the only writer I know who has taken serious notice of this idea, discussing it both on its own, and in the wider context of truth-makers and empty reference.(1) De Libera does not think that Abelard can illuminatingly be described as a trope-theorist. I still disagree, and although our disagreement is based on matters of detail, it may illustrate, as I suggest in the conclusion, a wider difference in approach."

I. C. Martin, 'The Logic of the Nominales, or, The Rise and Fall of Impossible Positio', Vivarium 30 (1992), 110-26; J. Marenbon, The Philosophy of Peter Abelard, Cambridge; CUP, 1997, 119-30; A. de Libera, 'Des accidents aux tropes. Pierre Abélard', Revue de métaphysique et de morale 4 (2002) 509-30; La Référence vide. Théories de la proposition, Paris; PUF, 2002, 122-6, 269-97.
Martin Christopher J., "William's machine," Journal of Philosophy 83: 564-572 (1986).
William of Soissons and Abelard's theory of entailment.
Martin Christopher J. Embarrassing arguments and surprising conclusions in the development of theories of the conditional in the Twelfth century. In Gilbert de Poitiers et ses contemporains: aux origines de la Logica Modernorum. Edited by Jolivet Jean and de Libera Alain. Napoli: Bibliopolis 1987. pp. 377-400
Martin Christopher J., "Something amazing about the Peripatetic of Pallet: Abelard's development of Boethius' account of conditional propositions," Argumentation 1: 419-436 (1987).
"Mediaeval logicians inherited from Boethius an account of conditional propositions and the syllogisms which may be constructed using them. In the following paper it is shown that there are considerable difficulties with Boethius' account which arise from his failure to understand the nature of compound propositions and in particular to provide for their negation. Boethius suggests that there are two different conditions which may be imposed for the truth of a conditional proposition but he really gives no adequate account of how such propositions may be obtained. The true greatness of Peter Abaelard as a philosophical logician is revealed in what he is able to do with the material which he found in Boethius. It is shown that he developed a precise theory of conditionals giving an account of how true conditionals may be obtained and principles which may be used to reject others as false. Unlike Boethius Abaelard properly appreciates that conjunctions must be treated as logical units. Even he, however, falls victim to difficulties which arise when this connective is brought into contact with negation and the conditions which he lays down for the truth of a conditional."
Martin Christopher J., "The logic of the "Nominales", or the rise and fall of Impossible positio," Vivarium 30: 110-126 (1992).
Martin Christopher J., "Theories of inference and entailment in the Middle Ages (Boethius, Philoponus, Peter Abelard, John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham)", Princeton University, 1999.
Available at UMI Disseration Express
Martin Christopher J. Abaelard on modality: some possibilities and some puzzles. In Potentialität und Possibilität. Modalaussagen in der Geschichte der Metaphysik. Edited by Buchheim Thomas, Kneepkens Corneille Henri, and Lorenz Kuno. Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog 2001. pp. 97-125
Martin Christopher J. The role of Categories in the development of Abelard's theory of possibility. In La tradition médiévale des Catégories (XII-XV siècles).2003. pp. 225-242
Actes du XIII Symposium européen de logique et sémantique médiévales (Avignon, 6-10 juin 2000)
Martin Christopher J. Logic. In The Cambridge Companion to Abelard. Edited by Brower Jeffrey E. and Guilfoy Kevin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2004. pp. 158-199
"A great deal of Peter Abelard's writing is concerned with what he regarded as logic, but which we would now classify as ontology or philosophical semantics. Following Cicero and Boethius, Abelard holds that properly speaking the study of logic has to do with the discovery and evaluation of arguments (LI Isag. 3.10). A necessary preliminary for this is an examination of the issues dealt with by Porphyry in the Isagoge and by Aristotle in the Categories, and De interpretatione (LI Cat. 113.26-114.30). In the present chapter, however, I will ignore most of this material and concentrate on the central issue of logical theory both for Abelard and for us, that is, on the nature of the relation of consequence, or following. Even with this limitation there is a great deal of ground to cover. Abelard sets out his theory of entailment and argument in two very extended and dense discussions both of which have suffered considerable textual corruption. The treatment of topics and hypothetical syllogisms in the Dialectica, is apparently the earlier. The other is the surviving fragment of Abelard's commentary on Boethius's De topicis differentiis, Glossae super De topicis differentiis, which seems to belong with his other commentaries on the works of the logica vetus published as the Logica "ingredientibus." The two expositions disagree on some crucial questions, but here I will restrict myself almost entirely to the discussion in the Dialectica.".
Martin Christopher J., "Denying conditionals: Abaelard and the failure of Boethius' account of the hypothetical syllogism," Vivarium 45: 153-168 (2007).
McLaughlin Mary Martin. Abelard's conceptions of the liberal arts and philosophy. In Arts libéraux et philosophie au Moyen Age. Paris: Vrin 1969. pp. 523-530
Meinhardt Helmut. Die Philosophie des Peter Abaelard. In Die Renaissance der Wissenschaften im 12. Jahrhundert. Edited by Weimar Peter. Zürich: Artemis Verlag 1981. pp. 107-121
Mews Constant J., "A neglected gloss on the Isagoge by Peter Abelard," Freiburger Zeitschrift fur Philosophie und Theologie 31: 35-55 (1984).
Reprinted as Chapter II in: Constant J. Mews - Abelard and his legacy - Aldershot, Ashgate, 2001.
"The authorship is examined of the anonymous "Glossae secundum vocales" on the "Isagoge" of Porphyry in m s Milan, Bibl. Ambrosiana m63 sup. ff. 73-81v along side known glosses of Abelard ("Logica ingredientibus"). Geyer's attribution of the work of a pupil is questioned. It is shown to contain a recension of Abelard's glosses on Porphyry transitional between "Ingredientibus" and "Nostrorum petitioni". Its discussion of identity and difference influences that of the "Theologia summi boni". "
Mews Constant J., "On dating the works of Peter Abelard," Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Age 60: 73-134 (1986).
Reprinted as Chapter VII in: Constant J. Mews - Abelard and his legacy - Aldershot, Ashgate, 2001.
Mews Constant J. Aspects of the evolution of Peter Abaelard's thought on signification and predication. In Gilbert de Poitiers et ses Contemporains. Aux Origines de la 'Logica Modernorum'. Edited by Jolivet Jean and de Libera Alain. Napoli: Biblioplis 1987. pp. 15-41
Actes du septième Symposium Européen d'histoire de la logique et de la sémantique médiévales, Poitiers, 17-22 Juin 1985.
Reprinted as Chapter VIII in: Constant J. Mews - Abelard and his legacy - Aldershot, Ashgate, 2001.
Mews Constant J. and Jolivet Jean. Peter Abelard and his influence. In Contemporary philosophy. Vol. 6.1: Philosophy and science in the Middle Ages. Edited by Guttorm Floistad. Amsterdam: Kluwer 1990. pp. 105-140
Mews Constant J., "Nominalism and theology before Abaelard: new light on Roscelin of Compiègne," Vivarium 30: 4-33 (1992).
Reprinted as Chapter VII in: Constant J. Mews - Reason and belief in the age of Roscelin and Abelard - Aldershot, Ashgate, 2002.
Mews Constant J. Peter Abelard. In Authors of the Middle Ages. Vol. II n° 5-6. Edited by Geary Patrick J. Aldershot: Ashgate 1995. pp. 1-88
Mews Constant J. Abelard and his legacy. Aldershot: Ashgate 2001.
Mews Constant J. Peter Abelard on dialectic, rhetoric, and the principles of argument. In Rhetoric and renewal in the Latin West 1100-1540. Essays in honour of John O. Ward. Edited by Mews Constant J., Nederman Cary J., and Thomson Rodney M. Turnhout: Brepols 2003. pp. 37-53
Mews Constant J. Abelard and Heloise. Oxford : Oxford University Press 2005.
See the following Chapters:
2. The early years: Roscelin of Compiègne and William of Champeaux pp-21-42
"This chapter examines Abelard's intellectual debt to both the vocalist theories of Roscelin of Compiègne and William of Champeaux's teaching about dialectic in shaping his philosophical nominalism. By looking at the earliest records of Abelard's teaching of dialectic and glosses on Aristotle, Porphyry and Boethius, it observes how students identified him as an iconoclast teacher, who quickly provoked laughter by the examples that he chose. It traces how Abelard's early conflict with his teachers laid the foundation for the subsequent difficulties he would experience in his career."
3. Challenging tje Tradition: the Dialectica pp. 43-57
"This chapter examines Abelard's Dialectica, his first major treatise on dialectic. The treatise is structured around an analysis both of the major parts of speech, categories and of different kinds of argument, categorical and hypothetical. It argues that a driving theme is Abelard's desire to counter the philosophically realist arguments presented by William of Champeaux."
5. Returning to Logica pp. 81-100
"This chapter examines the Logica 'Ingredientibus', a series of commentaries on Porphyry, Aristotle, and Boethius more profound than any of his earlier glosses. I argue that in these commentaries Abelard adopts a much more profound theory of universals and of other parts of speech than in the Dialectica. Rather than emphasizing differences of opinion with William of Champeaux, they demonstrate how far Abelard had come to distance himself from the arguments of Boethius. Instead of speaking uniquely about dialectic, he is now interested in logica, the arts of language in general."
Moonan Lawrence, "Abelard's use of the Timaeus," Archives d'Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Age 56: 7-90 (1989).
Nicolau d'Olwer Lluís, "Sur la date de la Dialectica d'Abélard," Revue du Moyen Âge Latin 1: 375-390 (1945).
Normore Calvin G., "Abelard and the School of the Nominales," Vivarium 30: 80-96 (1992).
Nuchelmans Gabriel. Theories of the proposition: ancient and medieval conceptions of the bearers of truth and falsity. Amsterdam: North-Holland 1973.
"This is the first part of a history of "those problems and theories in the domain of philosophical semantics which nowadays are commonly referred to as problems and theories about the nature and the status of propositions."
See in particular chapter 9.
Panaccio Claude. Le Nominalisme au XIIe siècle. In Signs and signification. Vol. I. Edited by Singh Gill Harjeet and Manetti Giovanni. New Delhi: Bahri Publications 1999. pp. 17-33
Pinzani Roberto, "Homerus est poeta - An non. Questioni di presupposizione esistenziale nella logica di Abelardo," Annali del Dipartimento di Filosofia.Università di Bologna 4: 87-96 (1983).
Pinzani Roberto. Le "propositiones coniunctae temporales" nel De Ypoteticis di Abelardo. In Atti del convegno internazionale di storia della logica. Edited by Abrusci Michele, Casari Ettore, and Mugnai Massimo. Bologna: CLUEB 1983. pp. 253-257
Pinzani Roberto. Un approccio semantico alla dialettica di Abelardo. In Le teorie delle modalità. Atti del Convegno internazionale di storia della logica. Edited by Corsi Giovanni, Mangione Corrado, and Mugnai Massimo. Bologna: CLUEB 1989. pp. 265-270
Pinzani Roberto, "Oggetto e significato nella dialettica di Abelardo," Medioevo.Rivista di storia della filosofia medievale 17: 125-138 (1991).
Pinzani Roberto. La grammatica logica di Abelardo. Parma: Università degli Studi di Parma 1992.
Pinzani Roberto, "Linguaggio e teoria in Abelardo," Philo-Logica 1: 79-94 (1992).
Pinzani Roberto, "La sintassi logica di Abelardo," Philo-Logica 2-3: 91-112 (1993).
Pinzani Roberto, ""Categorizzazione" in Prisciano e nei suoi interpreti del XII secolo," Philo-Logica 4: 17-33 (1995).
Pinzani Roberto. The logical grammar of Abelard. Dordrecht: Kluwer 2003.
Rosier-Catach Irène. La notion de translatio, le principe de compositionalité et l'analyse de la prédication accidentelle chez Abélard . In Langage, sciences, philosophie au XIIe siècle. Edited by Biard Joël. Paris: Vrin 1999. pp. 125-164
Rosier-Catach Irène, "La sémantique d'Abélard en contexte (1) : la notion de 'translatio'," Annuaire de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Section des Sciences Religieuses) 107: 361-367 (2000).
Rosier-Catach Irène, "La sémantique d'Abélard en contexte (2) : sur le verbe substantif et la prédication," Annuaire de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Section des Sciences Religieuses) 108: 361-367 (2001).
Rosier-Catach Irène. Abelard and the meaning of the propositions. In Signification in language and culture. Edited by Singh Gill Harjeet. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study 2002. pp. 23-49
Actes du colloque tenu à Shimla, Inde, en octobre 2001
Rosier-Catach Irène. Abélard et les grammairiens: sur la définition du verbe et la notion d'inhérence. In La tradition vive. Mélanges d'histoire des textes en l'honneur de Louis Holtz. Edited by Lardet Pierre. Turnhout: Brepols 2003. pp. 143-159
Rosier-Catach Irène, "Abélard et les grammairiens: sur le verbe substantif et la prédication," Vivarium 41: 175-248 (2003).
Rosier-Catach Irène, "Priscien, Boèce, les Glosulae in Priscianum, Abélard: les enjeux des discussions autour de la notion de consignification," Histoire Épistémologie Langage 25: 55-84 (2003).
"Le terme syncategorema, traduit par consignificantia, n'est attesté en grec que dans les Institutiones en latin du grammairien Priscien, et ne s'introduit qu'au XIIe siècle dans les commentaires grammaticaux, le couple syncategorema/categorema datant de la fin du XIIe siècle. La réflexion se mène d'abord autour des termes de la famille de consignificare. L'héritage antique est multiple et varié. Priscien utilise, de manière contradictoire, un critère fonctionnel (est consignifiant ce qui n'est pas une des parties principales), un critère sémantique (être partie du discours c'est indiquer un concept de l'esprit), un critère d'autonomie de signification (est consignifiant ce qui n'est pas signifiant par soi-même). Boèce utilise la notion en cinq acceptions, qui s'appliquent à des catégories différentes de termes ou de morphèmes : les prépositions et conjonctions, les parties du composé, le temps, le verbe être, les quantificateurs. Les Glosulae sur Priscien à la fin du XIe siècle, et surtout dans la révision ultérieure attribuable à Guillaume de Champeaux, retiennent que les parties consignifiantes signifient la chose signifiée par le mot auquel elles sont adjointes. Abélard, lisant ces gloses, hésite : la solution des grammairiens est problématique, mais si, comme le veut Boèce, les parties consignifiantes n'avaient pas de signification, on ne pourrait expliquer leur rôle sémantique dans l'intellection totale de la proposition. À partir de là, il proposera la solution, réellement novatrice, appliquée d'abord à la copule et élargie aux autres parties consignifiantes, qu'elles correspondent à
un 'acte de l'esprit'. "
Rosier-Catach Irène. Variations médiévales sur l'opposition entre signification "ad placitum" et signification naturelle. In Aristotle's Peri hermeneias in the Latin middle ages. Essays on the commentary tradition. Edited by Braakhuis Henk A.G. and Kneepkens Corneille Henri. Groningen: Ingenium Publishers 2003. pp. 165-205
Rosier-Catach Irène. Les discussions sur le signifié des propositions chez Abélard et ses contemporains. In Medieval theories on assertive and non-assertive language. Edited by Maierù Alfonso and Valente Luisa. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki 2004. pp. 1-34
Acts of the 14th European Symposium on Medieval Logic and Semantics - Rome, June 11-15, 2002
Rosier-Catach Irène. The Glosulae in Priscianum and its tradition. In Flores grammaticae. Essays in memory of Vivien Law. Edited by McLelland Nicola and Linn Andrew. Münster: Nodus Publikationen 2005. pp. 81-99
Rosier-Catach Irène, "Priscian on divine ideas and mental conceptions: the discussions in the Glosulae in Priscianum, the Notae Dunelmenses, William of Champeaux and Abelard," Vivarium 45: 219-237 (2007).
"Priscian's Institutiones Grammaticae, which rely on Stoic and Neoplatonic sources, constituted an important, although quite neglected, link in the chain of transmission of ancient philosophy in the Middle Ages. There is, in particular, a passage where Priscian discusses the vexed claim that common names can be proper names of the universal species and where he talks about the ideas existing in the divine mind. At the beginning of the 12th century, the anonymous Glosulae super Priscianum and the Notae Dunelmenses, which heavily quote William of Champeaux (as master G.), interpret the passage in the context of a growing interest in the problem of universals, raising semantic as well as ontological questions, and introducing a Platonic view on universals in the discussions on the signification of the noun. Moreover, this same passage will be used by Abelard to elaborate one of his opinions about the signification of universal or common names-that they signify "mental conceptions".
Schüssler Ursula, "Das Verhältnis der Dialektik Peter Abaelards zur modernen Logik," Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 9: 39-47 (1973).
Shimizu Tetsuro, "From Vocalism to Nominalism: progression in Abaelard's theory of signification," Didascalia 1: 15-46 (1995).
Shimizu Tetsuro. Words and concepts in Anselm et Abelard. In Langage, sciences, philosophie au XIIe siècle. Edited by Biard Joël. Paris: Vrin 1999. pp. 177-197
Shimizu Tetsuro. The place of intellectus in the theory of signification by Abelard and Ars Meliduna. In Intellect et imagination dans la philosophie médiévale / Intellect and imagination in medieval philosophy / Intelecto e imaginação na filosofia medieval / Actes du XIe Congrès international de philosophie médiévale de la Société internationale pour l'Étude de la philosophie médiévale (S.I.E.P.M.),: Porto, du 26 au 31 août 2002. Edited by Pacheco Maria Cândida, p, and Meirinhos José F. Turnhout: Brepols 2006. pp. 927-939
Shimizu Tetsuro. Word and Esse in Anselm and Abelard. In Anselm and Abelard. Investigations and iuxtapositions. Edited by Gasper Giles and Kohlenberger Helmut. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies 2006. pp. 179-195
"The medieval controversy about the nature of universals was about nothing other than the relationship between word and thing. In order to understand the history and essence of the controversy, it is most important to examine the thoughts of the two key figures: Anselm and Abelard, respectively the revered authority among the realists (reales), and the founder of the nominalists (nominales). Though there certainly lies a crucial divergence in their views, nevertheless Abelard, as well as contemporary realists, owes many of his ideas, conceptions and terms to Anselm. Having examined elsewhere their views on the relationship between word and concept, I would like to examine here those on the relationship between word and the world. Through this examination I shall show how Anselm's metaphysical investigation about God's locution was transformed into Abelard's logical one about human words.
In the following, I shall first examine Anselm's theory of God's locution, showing how he explains it in terms of human language and in its relationship with created things, by examining some passages from his Monologion and De grammatico.
Secondly, I shall focus my attention on Abelard's corresponding theories in his two commentaries on Porphyry, Glosse 'ingredientibus' and Glossule 'nostrorum petitioni sociorum'." p. 179
Singh Gill Harjeet. The Abélardian tradition of semiotics. In Signs and signification. Vol. I. Edited by Singh Gill Harjeet and Manetti Giovanni. New Delhi: Bahri Publications 1999. pp. 35-67
Spruyt Joke. The semantics of complex espressions in John Duns Scotus, Peter Abelard and John Buridan. In Aristotle's Peri hermeneias in the Latin middle ages. Essays on the commentary tradition. Edited by Braakhuis Henk A.G. and Kneepkens Corneille Henri. Turnhout: Brepols 2003. pp. 275-303
Strub Christian. Propositio una / multiplex in Abelard: a note on the relationship of dialectic and grammar. In Aristotle's Peri hermeneias in the Latin middle ages. Essays on the commentary tradition. Edited by Braakhuis Henk A.G. and Kneepkens Corneille Henri. Turnhout: Brepols 2003. pp. 257-273
Stump Eleonore. Logic in the early Twelfth century. In Meaning and inference in medieval philosophy. Edited by Kretzmann Norman. Dordrecht: Kluwer 1988. pp. 31-55
"A radical change took place in the treatment of logic in general and of dialectical topics in particular in the Twelfth century. In this paper I try to shed some light on the nature of that change by looking at discussions of dialectic in a particular group of Twelfth-century treatises. On the basis of that analysis I make some suggestions about Abelard's influence on and originality in the developments of logic in the Twelfth century."
Stump Eleonore. Dialectic and its place in the development of medieval logic. Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1989.
Chapter 5: Abelard on the Topics
Sweeney Eileen C. Logic, theology, and poetry in Boethius, Abelard, and Alan of Lille: words in the absence of things. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2006.
Chapter 2: Abelard: a twelth-century hermeneutics of suspicion pp. 63-126.
Swiniarski John, "Theories of supposition in medieval logic: their origin and their development from Abelard to Ockham", State University of New York at Buffalo, 1971.
Available at UMI Dissertation Express
Thom Paul. La logique abélardienne des modales de rebus. In Pierre Abelard. Colloque international de Nantes. Edited by Jolivet Jean and Habrias Henri. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes 2003. pp. 321-338
Conférence internationale "Pierre Abélard, à l'aube des universités" 3-4 octobre 2001 Nantes
Thom Paul. Medieval modal systems. Problems and concepts. Aldershot: Ashgate 2006.
Chapter 3: Abélard pp. 43-64
Thompson Augustine, "The debate on universals before Peter Abelard," Journal of the History of Philosophy 33: 409-429 (1995).
Tweedale Martin, "Abailard and non-things," Journal of the History of Philosophy 5: 329-342 (1967).
"I explain how Abailard thinks he can justify saying that certain items, particularly what is said by a sentence, are not things. His grounds are that they are never referred to by any noun. He holds that nominalizations of sentences and of verbs, which appear to be nouns with such a reference, are not logically speaking nouns, and sentences which have a nominalization for a grammatical subject do not have any logical subject."
Tweedale Martin. Abailard on universals. Amsterdam: North-Holland 1976.
"This work shows how Abailard elaborated and defended the view that universals are words, avoided the pitfalls of an image theory of thinking, and propounded a theory of "status" and "dicta" as objects of thought without treating them as subjects of predication. His defense of these views is shown to depend on certain fundamental departures from the Aristotelian term logic of his day, including a proposal for subjectless propositions, the treatment of copula plus predicate noun as equivalent to a simple verb, and a transformation of the 'is' of existence into the 'is' of predication."
Tweedale Martin, "Abailard and Ockham: contrasting defences of nominalism," Theoria 46: 106-122 (1980).
"Although both Ockham and Abailard admit that science is of necessary truths and is about what is common to many rather than concrete particulars, Ockham claims knowledge has genuine objects, namely mental signs, while Abailard denies that knowledge has genuine objects. Ockham's position, it turns out, cannot do justice to the objectivity of science and is in difficulties when it comes to explaining how we know these mental signs. Neither problem afflicts Abailard's view."
Tweedale Martin. Abelard and the culmination of the old logic. In The Cambridge history of Later Medieval philosophy. From the rediscovery of Aristotle to the disintegration of Scholasticism, 1100-1600. Edited by Kretzmann Norman, Kenny Anthony, and Pinborg Jan. Cambrdige: Cambridge University Press 1982. pp. 143-157
Tweedale Martin, "Reply to Professor de Rijk's "Martin M. Tweedale on Abailard: some criticisms of a fascinating venture"," Vivarium 25: 3-22 (1987).
"I reply to professor de Rijk's criticisms of my book "Abailard on universals". First I admit serious errors in some of my translations and offering some revisions of those. Second, I defend some of my other translations as well as my interpretation of what Abailard intends by '"essentia"' and my contention that Abailard's doctrine on universals is not a form of conceptualism."
Tweedale Martin. Logic (I): from the late Eleventh century to the time of Abelard. In A history of Twelfth-century Western philosophy. Edited by Dronke Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1992. pp. 196-226
Urbani Ulivi Lucia. La psicologia di Abelardo e il Tractatus de intellectibus. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura 1976.
Vanni Rovighi Sofia. Intentionnel et universel chez Abélard. In Abélard: Le 'Dialogue'. La philosophie de la logique. Actes du Colloque de Neuchâtel, 16-17 novembre 1979. Neuchâtel : Secrétariat de l'Université 1981. pp. 21-28
Vignaux Paul. Note sur le nominalisme d'Abélard. In Pierre Abélard - Pierre le Vénérable. Les courants philosophiques, littéraires et artistiques en Occident au milieu du XII siècle. Edited by Jolivet Jean and René Louis. Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique 1975. pp. 523-527
Vignaux Paul, "La problèmatique du nominalisme médiéval peut-elle éclairer des problèmes philosophiques actuels?," Revue Philosophique de Louvain 75: 293-331 (1977).
"The possible communications between the problem of mediaeval nominalism, as studied in several typical authors, and further problems have been envisaged in two stages. The first part of the article characterizes the nominalism of Abelard and that of Ockham as "non-realisms" based on a critical ontology confirmed by an analysis of language: from this point of view there appears a tie with the contemporary current of analytical philosophy and at the same time with modern philosophies like those of Leibniz and of Hume. The second part of the article contrasts, within a common non-realism, the doctrine of the "significabile complexe" of Gregory of Rimini with Ockham's terminism; in this perspective metaphysical problems arise which remained unsolved by modern philosophy."
Wade Francis C. Abelard and individuality. In Die Metaphysik im Mittelalter: ihr Ursprung und ihre Bedeutung. Vorträge des 2. Internationalen Kongresses für mittelalterliche Philosophie, Köln, 31. August-6. September 1961. Edited by Wilpert Paul. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 1963. pp. 165-171
Miscellanea mediaevalia, vol. II.
"Peter Abelard in his "Logica ingredientibus" proposed to solve the problems of genus and species which Porphyry had refused to answer in his introduction to the "Categories" of Aristotle. The thesis of this paper is that Abelard, in spite of his diligent enquiry, could not explain genus and species owing to his unanalyzed conception of an individual. Though Abelard failed in his inquiry, he did not fail philosophy, for he held firmly to the data: that existents are individuals, that we have universal knowledge, and that universal knowledge is valid knowledge."
Weidemann Hermann, "Zur Semantik der Modalbegriffe bei Peter Abaelard," Medioevo.Rivista di storia della filosofia medievale 7: 1-40 (1981).
Weidemann Hermann. Modalität und Konsequenz. Zur logischen Struktur eines theologischen Arguments in Peter Abaelards Dialectica. In Argumentations-theorie. Scholastische Forschungen zu den logischen und semantischen Regeln korrekten Folgerns. Edited by Jacobi Klaus. Leiden: E. J. Brill 1993. pp. 695-706
Wenin Christian, "La signification des universaux chez Abélard," Revue Philosophique de Louvain 80: 414-448 (1982).
"The text in which Abelard attempts to reply, before 1120, to the questions left open by Porphyry on the statute of genera and species furnished a reflection on the meaning of the universal term, understood since Aristotle as the possible predicate of a proposition true of several subjects taken individually. Abelard refuses all the kinds of realism which he knows. The universal word ("vox, simplex sermo") has, however, more than the physical aspect of an uttered sound; it has the three meanings of: the individual things to the extent that they resemble each other, the intellective activity of man and the common conception with the aid of which it can function."
Wilks Ian, "The logic of Abelard's Dialectica", The University of Toronto, 1993.
Doctoral Dissertation in Philosophy
Wilks Ian, "Peter Abelard and the metaphysics of essential predication," Journal of the History of Philosophy 36: 365-385 (1998).
Wilks Ian, "Abelard on context and signification," American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 81 (2007).
Wilks Ian. Peter Abelard and his contemporaries. In Mediaeval and Renaissance Logic. Edited by Gabbay Dov and Woods John. Amsterdam: Elsevier 2008. pp. 83-156
Handbook of the history of logic: Vol. 2.
Wöhler Hans-Ulrich, "Zur philosophischen Position des Nominalisten Petrus Abaelard. Aus Anlass seines 900. Geburstag," Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 27: 673-683 (1979).