Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Note on the reference system
- Bibliographical note for the paperback edition
- Introduction
- PART I
- PART II
- Introduction
- 4 Logic, philosophy and exegesis
- 5 Substance, differentiae and accidents
- 6 Forms and language
- 7 Perception and knowledge
- 8 Universals
- Conclusion: Dicta, non-things and the limits of Abelard's ontology
- PART III
- Conclusion: Abelard's theological doctrines and his philosophical ethics
- General conclusion
- Appendix: Abelard as a ‘critical thinker’
- Select bibliography
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Note on the reference system
- Bibliographical note for the paperback edition
- Introduction
- PART I
- PART II
- Introduction
- 4 Logic, philosophy and exegesis
- 5 Substance, differentiae and accidents
- 6 Forms and language
- 7 Perception and knowledge
- 8 Universals
- Conclusion: Dicta, non-things and the limits of Abelard's ontology
- PART III
- Conclusion: Abelard's theological doctrines and his philosophical ethics
- General conclusion
- Appendix: Abelard as a ‘critical thinker’
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abelard was a logician, a theologian and a moral thinker: how far, outside the area of ethics, was he also a philosopher? Historians have long recognized that, in his logical works, Abelard does much more than merely explore the conditions for the validity of arguments. His frequently analysed passages on universals discuss the relations between language, thought and things in the world. Elsewhere too he considers problems of signification, and also questions about the nature of possibility and necessity, facts and statements, future contingents and free will. These parts of Abelard's writing have all received close attention from modern scholars. But they have regarded them as aspects of his work as a logician. Even the one recent writer to have looked in some detail at Abelard's ontology does so merely as a prelude to examining his theory of entailment.
In one sense, these scholars are right. The form of Abelard's surviving work as a logician follows the pattern of the authoritative ancient set texts, and his philosophical discussions occur only when occasioned by his task as a logical exegete and instructor. None the less, in the course of expounding the logic of Porphyry and Aristotle, Abelard provides tentative explorations of some of the deepest philosophical questions: what are the ultimate constituents of the world, and how do they relate to each other and to human thought and language? Abelard did not provide systematic answers to them; some of his ideas are not fully worked, and on some questions Abelard advances different views which do not cohere with each other.
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- Information
- The Philosophy of Peter Abelard , pp. 99 - 100Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997