Handbook of the History of Logic: - Fordham University Faculty

446 Catarina Dutilh Novaes
underestimated. His most important logical work is his Perutilis Logica (Very
useful logic — [Albert of Saxony, 1988; Kann, 1993] for the second treatise 14 ),
where he deals extensively with properties of terms, in particular supposition,
with consequences, fallacies, insolubilia and obligations — in sum, the traditional
logical topics in the 14 th century. His treatise on obligations in the Perutilis Logica
is one of the only three genuinely ‘continental’ treatises on obligations of this period
(the others being overwhelmingly British or written under British influence — cf.
[Braakhuis, 1993]). He also wrote a Sophismata and several question commentaries
in logic (cf. [Biard, 2004, section 1]) (one of such sets of questions has received a
modern edition — [Albert of Saxony, 2002]). We shall be interested in particular
in his treatment of supposition, and, to some extent, his treatment of consequence.
William Buser may have been a pupil of Albert of Saxony (they were members
of the same English-German nation in Paris), and in turn Thomas of Cleves and
Marsilius of Inghen (who will be discussed below) were later pupils of William (cf.
[Read, 1991, 71]). Besides these interesting relations of ‘intellectual hereditariness’,
the importance of William Buser for the present purposes is mainly that he is the
author of one of the only three continental treatises on obligations. Other than
his treatise on obligations, no other logical text by him is known (in fact the only
other written record by him still extant is his last will — cf. [Kneepkens, 1993,
343]).
Thomas of Cleves is another still obscure Parisian figure of the mid-14 th century
(for his biography, see [Bos and Read, 2001, 15–18]). He was a pupil of William
Buser, and appears to have become a full master of arts in 1365, in Paris. One
interesting aspect of his biography is the fact that he became the schoolmaster of
the St. Stephen’s Cathedral School in Vienna, which (as already mentioned) was
the foundation for the University of Vienna to be re-founded in 1384, exemplifying
thus the spread of the ‘Buridanian’ tradition in logic in Eastern Europe. As
far as his writings are concerned, we have now recent editions of his treatise on
concepts [Bos and Read, 2001] and a reconstruction of his Logica (in [Bos, 2004]).
For the present purposes, his position with respect the fourth mode of personal
supposition, i.e. collective supposition, will be particularly important in the section
on supposition theory below.
Marsilius of Inghen, who was a few years younger than Albert of Saxony (born
around 1340) and also a pupil of William Buser, had a decisive role in the establishment
of the via Buridanii as one of the two main approaches to logic in
the late 14 th and 15 th century. In particular, as already mentioned, he was one
of the founders and many times the rector of the University of Heidelberg, again
exemplifying the spread of Parisian logic in Eastern Europe. At a later stage of his
life he eventually obtained his degree in theology, but for most of his career he was
writing predominantly on logic, natural philosophy and metaphysics (see [Hoenen,
2001, section 1]). Noteworthy are his treatises on the properties of terms: on
supposition, ampliation, appellation, restriction; and his treatises on obligations,
14 Selections from Albert’s masterpiece are available in English translation by T. Parsons et al.
at http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/phil/faculty/tparsons/download/AlbertSL.pdf