Handbook of the History of Logic: - Fordham University Faculty

THE LATIN TRADITION OF LOGIC TO 1100
John Marenbon
1 INTRODUCTION
The twelfth century, like the fourteenth, was arguably one of the great creative
periods in the history of logic. The same is not true for period that precedes it,
and forms the subject of this chapter: Latin logic in the early Middle Ages, up to
1100, and the Latin tradition from Cicero to Boethius, Cassiodorus and Isidore, on
which, along with some translations of Aristotle and Porphyry, it drew. It had no
great logicians, but only influential ones, like Boethius, and outstanding philosophers,
like Eriugena and Anselm, who were interested in logic. Yet it is worth
studying, for at least two, very different reasons. First, twelfth-century logicians
such as Abelard worked in a tradition that continued from the earlier medieval
one: the text-books were the same and the methods and questions asked were
related. Knowing about the Latin tradition and the early medieval background
helps in understanding and assessing their ideas. Second, although the early medieval
logicians may not have innovated in the contents of their teaching, they
achieved something importantly novel with regard to the position of logic in the
curriculum. 1
In the ancient world, logic had never been a central, or even mainstream, subject
in ordinary education. Educated Romans would have studied, above all, rhetoric
and the literary classics — Augustine gives a vivid account of such an education in
his Confessions. But in the Middle Ages logic became a fundamental discipline for
every student who went beyond the elementary level of studying Latin grammar.
This central placing of logic had its origins in the revival of learning in the Carolingian
period: logic was given a position within the standard scheme of education
1 At the beginning of each section and subsection, I give references to the main secondary works
on the area. Parts of the chapter are based on a series of studies I have published on Boethius
and on early medieval logic over the last 25 years. I mention these as and where relevant in these
initial lists, but I do not then repeat my reference to them, except where I wish to indicate some
special discussion. Readers will, therefore, be able to find a fuller exposition of the views here
by consulting these more detailed discussions. But in many areas (for example, Eriugena and
Anselm), I have reached different conclusions from those I previously argued, and even where
my views have remained more constant, I have taken the opportunity to correct errors, add new
ideas and take account of the most recent scholarship. There has not been any previous attempt
(outside short sections in general histories) to give a complete account of this long period in
Latin logic, but the medieval part of was to some extent treated in [Van de Vyver, 1929; 1942;
Lewry, 1981].
Handbook of the History of Logic. Volume 2: Mediaeval and Renaissance Logic
Dov M. Gabbay and John Woods (Editors)
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