Insolubles

Paradoxes, such as the Liar (‘What I am saying is false’), fascinated medieval thinkers. What I said can’t be true, for if it were, it would be false. So it must be false—but then it would be true after all. Attempts at a solution to this contradiction led such thinkers to develop their theories of...

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Hovedforfatter: Segrave, Walter
Format: Online
Sprog:engelsk
Udgivet: Open Book Publishers 2024
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Online adgang:ONIX_20241205_9781805110927_3
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author Segrave, Walter
author_browse Segrave, Walter
author_facet Segrave, Walter
author_sort Segrave, Walter
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Paradoxes, such as the Liar (‘What I am saying is false’), fascinated medieval thinkers. What I said can’t be true, for if it were, it would be false. So it must be false—but then it would be true after all. Attempts at a solution to this contradiction led such thinkers to develop their theories of meaning, reference and truth. A popular response, until it was attacked at length by Thomas Bradwardine in the early 1320s, was to dismiss such self-reference as impossible: no term (here, ‘false’) could refer to (or in medieval terms, “supposit for”) a whole, e.g., a proposition, of which it is part. In light of Bradwardine’s criticisms, Walter Segrave, writing around 1330, defended so-called restrictivism (restrictio) by claiming that such paradoxes exhibited a fallacy of accident. The classic example of this fallacy, the first of Aristotle’s fallacies independent of language, is the Hidden Man puzzle: you know Coriscus, Coriscus is the one approaching, but you don’t know the one approaching since, e.g., he is wearing a mask. But Aristotle’s account is unclear and Segrave, building on ideas of Giles of Rome and Walter Burley, shows how the fallacy turns on an equivocation over the supposition of the middle term or one of the extremes in a syllogism. Thereby, Segrave is able to counter Bradwardine’s arguments one by one and defend the restrictivist solution. In this volume, Segrave’s text is edited from the three extant manuscripts, is translated into English, and is preceded by a substantial Introduction.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1482882024-12-10T04:52:37Z Insolubles Segrave, Walter Bartocci, Barbara Read, Stephen Medieval Paradoxes Liar Paradox Restrictivism Supposition Theory Thomas Bradwardine Fallacy of Accident thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history::NHDJ European history: medieval period, middle ages thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy::QDH Philosophical traditions and schools of thought::QDHF Medieval Western philosophy Paradoxes, such as the Liar (‘What I am saying is false’), fascinated medieval thinkers. What I said can’t be true, for if it were, it would be false. So it must be false—but then it would be true after all. Attempts at a solution to this contradiction led such thinkers to develop their theories of meaning, reference and truth. A popular response, until it was attacked at length by Thomas Bradwardine in the early 1320s, was to dismiss such self-reference as impossible: no term (here, ‘false’) could refer to (or in medieval terms, “supposit for”) a whole, e.g., a proposition, of which it is part. In light of Bradwardine’s criticisms, Walter Segrave, writing around 1330, defended so-called restrictivism (restrictio) by claiming that such paradoxes exhibited a fallacy of accident. The classic example of this fallacy, the first of Aristotle’s fallacies independent of language, is the Hidden Man puzzle: you know Coriscus, Coriscus is the one approaching, but you don’t know the one approaching since, e.g., he is wearing a mask. But Aristotle’s account is unclear and Segrave, building on ideas of Giles of Rome and Walter Burley, shows how the fallacy turns on an equivocation over the supposition of the middle term or one of the extremes in a syllogism. Thereby, Segrave is able to counter Bradwardine’s arguments one by one and defend the restrictivist solution. In this volume, Segrave’s text is edited from the three extant manuscripts, is translated into English, and is preceded by a substantial Introduction. 2024-12-10T04:52:32Z 2024-12-10T04:52:32Z 2024-12-05T07:38:59Z 2024 book ONIX_20241205_9781805110927_3 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/95728 9781805110927 9781805110903 9781805110910 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/148288 eng The Medieval Text Consortium Series open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/95728/1/obp.0359.pdf Open Book Publishers Open Book Publishers 10.11647/OBP.0359 10.11647/OBP.0359 b014b543-78bd-4c3b-bc71-b68e2ac855b9 9781805110927 9781805110903 9781805110910 Open Book Publishers 158 Cambridge, UK open access
spellingShingle Medieval Paradoxes
Liar Paradox
Restrictivism
Supposition Theory
Thomas Bradwardine
Fallacy of Accident
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history::NHDJ European history: medieval period, middle ages
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy::QDH Philosophical traditions and schools of thought::QDHF Medieval Western philosophy
Segrave, Walter
Insolubles
title Insolubles
title_full Insolubles
title_fullStr Insolubles
title_full_unstemmed Insolubles
title_short Insolubles
title_sort insolubles
topic Medieval Paradoxes
Liar Paradox
Restrictivism
Supposition Theory
Thomas Bradwardine
Fallacy of Accident
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history::NHDJ European history: medieval period, middle ages
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy::QDH Philosophical traditions and schools of thought::QDHF Medieval Western philosophy
topic_facet Medieval Paradoxes
Liar Paradox
Restrictivism
Supposition Theory
Thomas Bradwardine
Fallacy of Accident
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHD European history::NHDJ European history: medieval period, middle ages
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy::QDH Philosophical traditions and schools of thought::QDHF Medieval Western philosophy
url ONIX_20241205_9781805110927_3
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