William of Ockham is a towering figure in the history of philosophy and he is commonly seen as the most important nominalist thinker of the Middle Ages. His nominalism basically consists in three theses: there are no universals in the external world, no relations either, and no quantities considered as distinct entities. This book provides an introduction to Ockham's defence of these positions and to what they amount to in metaphysics, semantics, and epistemology. It thus displays the outlines of a rich and carefully crafted nominalist system that is still of great philosophical interest today. All along in so doing, it situates Ockham's thought with respect to several salient contemporary debates in philosophy"--
William of Ockham (c.1287-1347) is known to be one of the major figures of the late Middle Ages. The scope and significance of his doctrine of human thought, however, has been a controversial issue among scholars in the last decade, and this book presents a full discussion of recent developments. Claude Panaccio proposes a richly documented and entirely original reinterpretation of Ockham's theory of concepts as a coherent blend of representationalism, conceptual atomism, and non reductionist nominalism, stressing in the process its special interest for current discussions in philosophy of mind and cognitive sciences.
This book offers a history of the idea that human thought is structured like a language, from Plato and Aristotle up to the fourteenth century when William of Ockham gave it a new importance and developed it in a systematic way.
The notion that human thought is structured like a language, with a precise syntax and semantics, has been pivotal in recent philosophy of mind. Yet it is not a new idea: it was systematically explored in the fourteenth century by William of Ockham and became central in late medieval philosophy. Mental Language examines the background of Ockham's innovation by tracing the history of the mental language theme in ancient and medieval thought. Panaccio identifies two important traditions: one philosophical, stemming from Plato and Aristotle, and the other theological, rooted in the Fathers of the Christian Church. The study then focuses on the merging of the two traditions in the Middle Ages, as they gave rise to detailed discussions over the structure of human thought and its relations with signs and language. Ultimately, Panaccio stresses the originality and significance of Ockham's doctrine of the oratio mentalis (mental discourse) and the strong impression it made upon his immediate successors.
William of Ockham (c.1287-1347) is known to be one of the major figures of the late Middle Ages. The scope and significance of his doctrine of human thought, however, has been a controversial issue among scholars in the last decade, and this book presents a full discussion of recent developments. Claude Panaccio proposes a richly documented and entirely original reinterpretation of Ockham's theory of concepts as a coherent blend of representationalism, conceptual atomism, and non reductionist nominalism, stressing in the process its special interest for current discussions in philosophy of mind and cognitive sciences.
William of Ockham is a towering figure in the history of philosophy and he is commonly seen as the most important nominalist thinker of the Middle Ages. His nominalism basically consists in three theses: there are no universals in the external world, no relations either, and no quantities considered as distinct entities. This book provides an introduction to Ockham's defence of these positions and to what they amount to in metaphysics, semantics, and epistemology. It thus displays the outlines of a rich and carefully crafted nominalist system that is still of great philosophical interest today. All along in so doing, it situates Ockham's thought with respect to several salient contemporary debates in philosophy"--
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