Formal Approaches and Natural Language in Medieval Logic: Proceedings of the Xixth European Symposium of Medieval Logic and Semantics, Geneva, 12-16 June 2012 - Couverture souple

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 2503567355 ISBN 13 : 9782503567358

Editeur : Brepols Publishers, 2017

Synopsis

Is medieval logic formal? And if yes, in what sense? There are striking affinities between medieval and contemporary theories of language. Authors from the two periods share formal ambitions and maintain complex, and at time uneasy, relations with natural language. However, modern scholars became careful not to overlook the specificities of theories developed more than five hundred years apart, in particular with respect to their 'formal' character. In 1972, Alfonso Maieru noted that the efforts of medieval logicians to identify logical structures in language formal enough to become objects of scientific consideration. He also stressed that the language investigated is a historical one, Latin, so that one can legitimately wonder to which extent ... one is allowed to speak of 'formal logic' in the middle ages. In other words, medieval logic is characterized by a tension between 'formalist ambitions' and constraints proper to natural language. Today, our knowledge of the field has considerably expanded, calling for a new assessment of the question.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

The late medieval period is widely acknowledged as one of the most salient moments of the history of logic and semantics. It not only considered logic as a sine qua non condition for scientific knowledge, it also begot highly sophisticated theories about both argumentation and language. The last fifty years of increasingly intense research have brought about an ever more detailed knowledge of these theories. And yet, the questions as to what kind of logic is medieval logic, whether and to what extent it corresponds to our conception of logic, and, even, what the nature of its object was, remain challenging. That it has a formal character is widely accepted ; and its semantic components display remarkable affinities with contemporary ones. But is it formal in the way modern logic is - or believes it is ? Medieval logic does not really make recourse to symbolisms, after all, and the fact that the idea of formal validity might have been born in the twelfth century does not mean that developing formal approaches was an aim of medieval logicians. And what is its semantics a semantics of ? Medieval logicians use Latin to deal with Latin constructions, but do these constructions belong to natural language or are they regimented to the point of forming some sort of ideal language ? The twenty-five papers gathered in this volume deal with these issues, thus allowing to reassess the broader questions of the formal character and formalising ambitions of medieval logic, as well as that of the natural character of the language in (and on) which it operated : in other words, they address the question of the nature, object and purpose of medieval logic.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Brepols Publishers
• Date d'édition: 2017
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 2503567355
• ISBN 13: 9782503567358
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 538
• Éditeur: Cesalli Laurent, Goubier Frederic, De Libera Alain
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Buchpark GmbH; gpsr@buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Allemagne