Handbook of the History of Logic: - Fordham University Faculty

The Latin Tradition of Logic to 1100 7
in far more breadth and depth than the glimpses which previous Latin texts had
allowed. Yet Boethius, though not himself outstanding, or even particularly good,
at logic, was not a mere passive transmitter of other, more inventive logicians’
ideas: he made what seems to have been a very deliberate choice among the
competing theories, approaches and interpretations available to him, and in doing
so profoundly influenced the style and contents of medieval logic.
Anicius Severinus Manlius Boethius was born c. 475-7 AD. Although he lived
at a time when Italy was ruled by the Ostrogoths, Roman aristocrats like him
were free to enjoy their wealth, leisure and a limited local power. Fluent in Greek
and in contact with the Greek intellectual world, Boethius chose to devote most
of his life to writing or translating works on arithmetic, music and, most of all,
logic. His earliest work on logic, his first commentary on Porphyry’s Isagoge, dates
from c. 500 and he continued to write mainly in this area until up to about 523,
when he became closely and disastrously involved in the politics of the Gothic
ruler’s court. At one stage [Boethius, 1880, 79:9-80:9], Boethius announced his
intention to translate and comment on all of the works of Aristotle he could find,
and Plato’s dialogues, as well as writing a book to show how the two philosophers
are in fundamental agreement with each other. But, in fact, he devoted himself
to the logical part of this task and, in the last fifteen years of his life, he was
especially occupied in composing text-books as well as commentaries. Although
not a priest, Boethius also became involved in the religious controversies of the
time, which divided the Catholics of Italy from those of the Eastern Empire. His
five short Theological Treatises (opuscula sacra) [Boethius, 1999] have a place in
the history of logic, because his use there of logical techniques would encourage
medieval readers similarly to see in logic a tool for theological speculation and
debate.
Not long after Boethius’s move to Theoderic’s court at Ravenna, he was accused
of treason and found himself imprisoned, awaiting execution. It was during this
time that he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, the work by which he would
become best known. Although the Consolation is not directly concerned with
logical questions, it ends with a discussion of God’s foreknowledge and future
contingents that returns to some of the issues Boethius had raised in his logical
writings.
We shall look at each area of Boethius’s contribution to logic in turn: as translator,
as commentator and as a writer of text-books.
Boethius the Translator
Boethius put the whole of Aristotle’s logical Organon (along with Porphyry’s Isagoge:
see below) into Latin, except for the Posterior Analytics. (Ed.inAristoteles
Latinus [Aristotle, 1961; 1962; 1965; 1966; 1969; 1975].) He seems to have been
led into this task of translation by his work as a commentator. For the first
commentary he wrote, on the Isagoge, he relied on an existing version by Marius
Victorinus. But for his next commentary, on the Categories, he made his own