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The Probable Order of Ockham's Non-polemical Works

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

C. K. Brampton*
Affiliation:
Walsall, Staffordshire

Extract

Since the appearance in 1913 of Hofer's critical survey of Ockham's life, a revival of interest in Ockham's non-polemical works has encouraged the publication of monographs and articles to an almost embarrassing extent. Yet in contrast to the energy expended by scholars in this field of research stands their apparent failure to agree upon the order in which Ockham produced them. While Baudry places the Sentence-Commentary after the four logical works and the Physics, Boehmer and Iserlolr reverse the position. Again, Iserloh is persuaded that the Logic followed the Quodlibeta and was written at Avignon between 1234 and 1328, whereas Baudry is of opinion that it was written before 1324 at Oxford: Scholz,” on the other hand, conjectures that the Logic and probably the Quodlibeta were produced at Munich after 1328. In face of these divergent opinions it is difficult to discern upon what principles these scholars have based their conclusions.

Type
Miscellany
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Hofer, J. ‘Biographische Studien über Wilhelm von Ockham, O.F.M.’, Archivum Franciscanum historicum 6 (1913) 209–33, 439–65, 654–69.Google Scholar

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8 The Logic, or Summa logicae, is cited at least twice by Ockham in his Physics (MS Oxford, Merton College 293, fol. 1ra and fol. 4va), and his Physics is cited by Walter Burley in MS Vat. Lat. 5934, dated 2 March 1326 (new style): see Maier, A., ‘Zu einigen Problemen der Ockhamforschung,’ Archivum Franciscanum historicum 46 (1953) 183–4.Google Scholar

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14 Printed with the Ordinatio of Book I at Lyons in 1495. The text of this edition represents the Secunda redactio. Google Scholar

15 The only known text of this Prima redactio is to be found in MS Florence Bibl. Naz. A. 3.801: Boehner, P., Tractatus de successivis 20 and ‘The Realistic Conceptualism of William Ockham,’ Traditio 4 (1946) 315; also Brampton, C.K., ‘Guillaume d'Ockham et la “Prima redactio” de son Commentaire sur les Sentences,’ Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique 56 (1961) 470–6. and ‘The probable date of Ockham's “Lectura Sententiarum”,’ Archivum Franciscanum historicum , 55 (1962) 367–74.Google Scholar

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22 Subjective, in the modern sense, for which the Medieval Latin equivalent is obiectivum. Google Scholar

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30 Summa logicae 2. 36: ‘Alibi expositum est super quartum Physicorum et super secundum Sententiarum.’Google Scholar

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32 According to Boehner (Realistic Conceptualism 316) the Porphyry and the Predicaments show clear signs of the intellectio theory, in addition to the fictum theory. In the Perihermenias, Prologue § Y, we read: ‘Sic igitur istas ultimas opiniones reputo probabiles. Quae tamen sit vera et quae falsa, discutiant studiosi.’ The two definitions (fictum and intellectio) appear in the Elenchi in MS Paris Bibl. Nat. 14721, fol. 119rab, as shown by Baudry, Vie 31 n. 1. Google Scholar

33 Completa expositione Porphyrii, ad praedicamenta ac totam logicam exponendam accedendum est.Google Scholar

34 The first three cf the logical works are contained in MS Bruges 499, fol 1na-vb, with the Elenchi occupying fol. 61ra-100rva: so also in MS Oxford Bibl. Bodl. Canon. Misc. 558, fol. 1ra-92vb, with the Elenchi occupying fol. 93™-144™. The Prima redactio is probably the work indicated by the alibi reference in the early part of the Porphyry: ‘quia de eis alibi diffusius est tractatum’; ed. cit. fol. 8va, quoted from Baudry, Vie 27, an opinion with which he disagrees. For the connection between the Porphyry and the Predicaments, see note 33 supra. Google Scholar

35 Baudry (Vie 29) and Boehner (Text Tradition 240 n. 29) agree that the alibi reference in § T (Q) of 1 Dist. 2, q. 8 is to the Perihermenias. According to Baudry (Vie 32 n. 3) the Perihermenias gives an infra-reference to the Elenchi: ‘Diffusius dicetur de eis in libro Elenchorum’ (MS Paris Bibl. Nat. 6431, fol. 116ra). The Elenchi (Baudry, Vie 31 n. 6) gives a supra-reference to the Predicaments and an infra-reference to the Physics: ‘Hoc autem diffusius declaratum est in predicamentis et amplius declarabitur in libro physicorum’: MS Paris Bibl. Nat. 14721. fol. 117rb. Google Scholar

36 In the Elenchi (Baudry, Vie 262) Ockham states: ‘ista responsio super metaphysicam et super librum Sententiarum diffusius ostendetur’ (MS Paris Bibl. Nat. 14721, fol. 119vb). This reference in the Elenchi to the Sentence-Commentary is interpreted by Baudry to mean that as the exposition on the Metaphysics was never written by Ockham, his commentary on the Sentences was similarly not written. But Ockham's failure to produce an Exposition on the Metaphysics does not invalidate his promise to give this responsio in a later edition of his Sentences, that is, his Secunda redactio. Google Scholar

37 The Logic. 1.25 cites (a) the Porphyry: ‘poterit legere librum Porphyrii, ubi istam materiam multo diffusius pertractavi’; (b) the Sentences (2.2): ‘probavi in primo libro Sententiarum distinctione secunda’; and (c) the Physics (1.44): ‘de hoc in libro Physicorum perscrutatum est. ’ Google Scholar

38 The Physics (MS Chambéry 23, fol. 66vb) cites the Predicaments: ‘Ostensum est in libro predlcamentorum’ (Baudry, Vie 47) and the Elenchi: ‘sicut ostensum est in secundo elenchorum’ (MS Chambéry 23, fol. 109ra cited by Baudry, Vie 45). Google Scholar

39 The Quodlibeta give a supra-reference to the Physics and a future alibi reference which the Quaestiones fulfil: Quodl. 1 q.5 (Paris ed.): ‘sicut dictum est de motu in libris Physicorum diffusive et alibi dicetur.’ For the repeated references in the Quaestiones to the Quodlibeta, see Baudry, , Sur trois manuscrits (n. 12 supra) 155.Google Scholar

40 That is, objectively, in the modern sense. Google Scholar

41 Boehner, , Realistic Conceptualism 333.Google Scholar

42 Possunt vocari … quaedam ficta secundum modum loquendi alionan’: ed. Boehner, Realistic Conceptualism 327–8.Google Scholar

43 Vie 70-71 n. 4.Google Scholar

44 In view of their ignorance as contrasted with his own knowledge (‘sicut puerulus didici,’ Summa logicae 1.19) Ockham composed this treatise ‘ad utilitatem simplicium’ (1.9). Google Scholar

45 Ed. Paris, 4 q. 35: ‘Praeterea tale fictum impediet cognitionem rei’. It would be ‘quoddam tertium medium inter cognitionem et rem,’ and therefore ‘quando formo hanc propositionem mentalem Deus est bonus, non intelligo Deum in se, sed illud fictum, quod videtur absurdum.’ Google Scholar

46 MS Paris Bibl. Nat. 15886, fol. 134rbva, cited from Baudry, Vie 71. Google Scholar

47 They are, (a) ‘Omnis res posita extra animam est singularis eo ipso’; (b) ‘Est intelligendum secundum Avicennam, quod ille mentis conceptus qui est quaedam qualitas animae puta species intelligibilis seu actus intelligendi et intentio secundum multos est in se res quaedam singularis …’: Pelster, F., ‘Heinrich von Harclay, Kanzler von Oxford, und seine Quästionen,’ Miscellanea Francesco Ehrle I (Studi e testi 37; Rome 1924) 337.Google Scholar

48 Deedes, C., Registrimi Johannis de Pontissara (Canterbury and York Socity 19.1; London 1915) 121. Pontissara's Letter to the prior is dated 11 November 1301.Google Scholar

49 Seven books from this library have been identified, five of them belonging to the 13th century, or earlier: Ker, N.R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain (Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks 3; London 1941) 74.Google Scholar