Handbook of the History of Logic: - Fordham University Faculty

Logic in the 14 th Century after Ockham 435
will be mentioned in the thematic sections to follow this one.
1.1 Beyond Paris and Oxford
What is perhaps most interesting in the historical development of logic in the 14 th
century is the spread of logical and philosophical knowledge to places other than
the two traditional centers, Paris and Oxford. Indeed, even though it would be
incorrect to say that Paris and Oxford were the only centers of intellectual and
academic development in Christian Europe in the centuries preceding the 14 th
century (the University of Bologna is generally considered to be the oldest university
in Christian Europe, and there were important studia, i.e. schools of higher
learning, in many European cities), it is undeniable that Oxford and especially
Paris (which was the great center for theology from the 12 th up to the 15 th century)
were the two great poles of development concerning the Ars in general (i.e.
logic, rhetoric, grammar, geometry, astronomy, music and arithmetic, plus the
three ‘philosophies’: moral philosophy, metaphysics and natural philosophy), and
concerning logic in particular (cf. [De Libera, 1982], on the Paris and Oxford traditions
in the 13 th century). In the 14 th century, however, especially in the second
half of the century, this was no longer the case.
The regional element was always an important one in how academic learning
was organized in the Faculty of Paris, which was divided in ‘nations’ in such a way
that it was most common for a student to study under a master originally coming
from his own home region (cf. [Courtenay, 2004]). 1 But with the creation of several
new universities in different locations in Europe, by the end of the 14 th century
it was no longer necessary for a student to go to Paris or Oxford to obtain his
degree; he could often stay within the boundaries of his own country. By the same
token, the two traditional centers were no longer the only places where original
and influential work in philosophy and logic was being done. It may still be useful,
though, for explanatory purposes, to draw a distinction between the British and
the Paris traditions in logic in the 14 th century (even though there are of course
multiple points of contact and mutual influence between the two traditions), and to
track how each of these traditions was exported to and reworked in new centers of
knowledge. Indeed, even at the time this distinction was recognized: Continental
authors usually referred to the authors of the British tradition (in particular those
currently referred to as the ‘Mertonians’) as ‘Anglici’or‘Britannici’ (cf. [Sylla,
1982, 541]).
Two interesting examples of the transmission of the British and Parisian traditions
in logic are the influence of British logic in Italy and the influence of Parisian
logic in Eastern Europe. Take Italy, for example: even though the country already
had a great tradition of institutions of knowledge, an interesting phenomenon is
1 The four Parisian nations were: Normandy, Picardy, France and the English/German nation.
Other universities often followed Paris’ example and were organized in (usually four) nations as
well (but naturally, different nations other than the original Parisian ones). The University of
Prague, for example, was organized in the Bohemian, Bavarian, Saxon and Polish nations (see
[Ashworth, 2006, 212]).