The nominales, Sempiternal Truth, and Tensed Propositional Contents
In: VivariumSearch for other papers by Wojciech Wciórka in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
This article distinguishes between two historical ways of presenting the catchphrase “Once true, always true” (semel verum, semper verum), associated with the twelfth-century logical school of the nominales. Within the Time-Jumping Model, a hypothetical tenseless propositional content (enuntiabile) is treated as the common significate of differently tensed statements, such as “Socrates will die” and “Socrates died,” uttered before and after Socrates’s death. This hypothetical enuntiabile is “always true” thanks to its tenseless nature. By contrast, the Fixed-Present Model preserves the tensed character of enuntiabilia. By revealing an implicit temporal index, the nominales could apply “Once true, always true” to enuntiabilia such as Christum venisse (that Christ has come), which not only is true and will always be true but also – paradoxically – has always been true. It has always been true because it amounts to the propositional content that Christ came before this instant, where “this instant” rigidly denotes the present moment. The Fixed-Present Model alleviates the worry that the nominales confused truth-bearers with truthmakers.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Alexander Nequam, Speculum speculationum, ed. R. M. Thomson (Oxford, 1988).
-
Anonymous, Ars Meliduna. Oxford, Bodleian Library, ms Digby 174, 211 ra–241 va.
-
Anonymus Berolinensis, In Peri hermeneias (H17). Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, ms lat. fol. 624, 87 vb–96 vb.
-
Anonymus Berolinensis, In Praedicamenta (C17). Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, ms lat. fol. 624, 81 ra–87 vb.
-
Anonymus Patavinus, In Praedicamenta (C15). Padova, Biblioteca Universitaria, ms 2087, 1 ra–48 vb.
-
Augustine, In Iohannis euangelium tractatus, ed. R. Willems. Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 36 (Turnhout, 1954).
-
Gerard of Novara (of Sesso), Summa “Ne transgrediaris.” Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms Vat. lat. 10.754, 1 ra–82 rb; Zwettl, Zisterzienserstift, ms 305, 1 ra–54 vb.
-
Hubert of Pirovano, Summa “Colligite fragmenta.” München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 28.799, 1 ra–207 rb.
-
Otto of Sankt Blasien, Chronica, ed. A. Hofmeister (Hannover, 1912).
-
Peter Abelard, Glossae super Peri hermeneias, eds. K. Jacobi and C. Strub. Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis 206 (Turnhout, 2010).
-
Peter Abelard, Sententiae Parisienses, ed. A. Landgraf, Écrits théologiques de l’école d’Abélard: textes inédits (Leuven, 1934).
-
Peter Capuano, Summa theologiae. München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14.508, 1ra–63vb; Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms Vat. lat. 4296, 1 ra–74 rb; Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ms Vat. lat. 4304, 1 ra–69 vb.
-
Praepositinus of Cremona, Summa “Qui producit ventos.” Oxford, Balliol College Library, ms 210, 3 ra–71 rb.
-
Stephen Langton, Quaestiones theologiae, Liber i, eds. R. Quinto and M. Bieniak (Oxford, 2014).
-
Stephen Langton, Quaestiones theologiae, Liber iii, vol. 1, eds. M. Bieniak and W. Wciórka (Oxford, 2021).
-
Alberzoni, M. P. “Pirovano, Uberto da.” In Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, vol. 84 (2015). url = https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/uberto-da-pirovano_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ .
-
Angelini, G. L’ortodossia e la grammatica: Analisi di struttura e deduzione storica della Teologia Trinitaria di Prepositino (Roma, 1972).
-
Bieniak, M. “Faith.” In Stephen Langton, Quaestiones theologiae, Liber iii, vol. 1, eds. M. Bieniak and W. Wciórka (Oxford, 2021), 70–85.
-
Chenu, M.-D. “Contribution à l’histoire du traité de la foi: Commentaire historique de la IIa IIae, q. 1, a. 2.” In Mélanges Thomistes (Kain, 1923), 123–140.
-
Chenu, M.-D. “Grammaire et théologie aux xiie et xiiie siècles.” Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 10 (1935–1936), 5–28; a truncated version published as “Grammaire et théologie,” in M.-D. Chenu, Théologie au douzième siècle (Paris, 1957), 90–107.
-
Cipollone, M. “Gerardo da Sesso vescovo eletto di Novara, Albano e Milano.” Aevum 60 (1986), 223–239.
-
Colish, M. “Scholastic Theology at Paris around 1200.” In Crossing Boundaries at Medieval Universities, ed. S. E. Young (Leiden, 2011), 29–50.
-
Courtenay, W. J. “Nominales and Nominalism in the Twelfth Century.” In Lectionum varietates. Hommage à Paul Vignaux (1904–1987), eds. J. Jolivet, Z. Kaluza and A. de Libera (Paris, 1991), 11–48. Reprinted in W. J. Courtenay, Ockham and Ockhamism: Studies in the Dissemination and Impact of His Thought (Leiden, 2008), 39–80.
-
Courtenay, W. J. “Schools and Schools of Thought in the Twelfth Century.” In Mind Matters: Studies of Medieval and Early Modern Intellectual History in Honour of Marcia Colish, eds. C. J. Nederman, N. Van Deusen, and E. A. Matter (Turnhout, 2009), 13–45.
-
D’Alverny, M.-T. “Humbertus de Balesma.” Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 51 (1984), 127–191.
-
De Leo, P. “La Summa ‘Ne transgrediaris’ di Gerardo di Novara.” Novarien 1 (1967), 13–20.
-
Donato, E. “Abelard on Eternal Truths,” Vivarium 60 (2022), 226–247.
-
Donato, E., and H. Hansen. “Abelard and the Albricani on Truth Variability.” In Time, Tense, and Modality: Proceedings of thexxiiith European Symposium of Medieval Logic and Semantics, eds. W. Wciórka and M. Bieniak, forthcoming.
-
Ebbesen, S. “Anonymus D’Orvillensis on the Categories.” In La tradition médiévale des Catégories (xiie–xiiiesiècles): Actes duxiiieSymposium européen de logique et de sémantique médiévales (Avignon, 6–10 juin 2000), eds. J. Biard and I. Rosier-Catach (Leuven, 2003), 347–363.
-
Ebbesen, S. “Early Supposition Theory ii.” Vivarium 51 (2013), 60–78.
-
Ebbesen, S. “What Must One Have an Opinion About.” Vivarium 30 (1992), 62–79.
-
Hansen, H. “Anonymus Berolinensis [C17] in Praedicamenta Aristotelis, cap. de ad aliquid.” Aigis 15.2 (2015), 1–5.
-
Hansen, H. “Anonymus Patavinus on Categories 7.” Cahiers de l’Institut du Moyen-Âge Grec et Latin 84 (2015), 129–163.
-
Heinzmann, R. Die Summe “Colligite Fragmenta” des Magister Hubertus (Clm 28799): Ein Beitrag zur theologischen Systembildung in der Scholastik (Munich, 1974).
-
Horst, U. Die Trinitäts- und Gotteslehre des Robert von Melun (Mainz, 1964).
-
Hunt, R. W. “Absoluta: The Summa of Petrus Hispanus on Priscianus Minor.” Historiographia Linguistica 2 (1975), 1–23; reprinted in R. W. Hunt, The History of Grammar in the Middle Ages: Collected Papers (Amsterdam, 1980), 95–116.
-
Iwakuma, Y. “Enuntiabilia in Twelfth-Century Logic and Theology.” In Vestigia, Imagines, Verba. Semiotics and Logic in Medieval Theological Texts (xiith–xivthCentury), ed. C. Marmo (Turnhout, 1997), 19–35
-
Iwakuma, Y. “Influence.” In The Cambridge Companion to Abelard, eds. J. E. Brower and K. Guilfoy (Cambridge, 2004), 305–335.
-
Iwakuma, Y., and S. Ebbesen. “Logico-Theological Schools from the Second Half of the 12th Century: A List of Sources.” Vivarium 30 (1992), 173–210.
-
Kaeppeli, T. “Gerardus Novariensis: Auteur de la Somme Ne transgrediaris.” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 29 (1962), 294–297.
-
Kneepkens, C. H. “Please, Don’t Call Me Peter: I Am an Enuntiabile, Not a Thing: A Note on the Enuntiabile and the Proper Noun.” In Vestigia, Imagines, Verba. Semiotics and Logic in Medieval Theological Texts (xiith–xivthCentury), ed. C. Marmo (Turnhout, 1997), 83–98.
-
Landgraf, A. “Studien zur Theologie des zwölften Jahrhunderts.” Traditio 1 (1943), 183–222.
-
Lewis, N. L. Time and Modality in Robert Grosseteste, Dissertation (University of Pittsburgh, 1988).
-
Lewis., N. L. “William of Auvergne’s Account of the Enuntiable: Its Relations to Nominalism and the Doctrine of the Eternal Truths.” Vivarium 33 (1995), 113–136.
-
Maleczek, W. Pietro Capuano: Patrizio Amalfitano, cardinale, legato alla quarta crociata, teologo (†1214), trans. F. Delle Donne (Amalfi, 1997).
-
Marenbon, J. “The Tradition of Studying the Categories in the Early Middle Ages (until c. 1200): A Revised Working Catalogue of Glosses, Commentaries and Treatises.” In Aristotle’s Categories in the Byzantine, Arabic and Latin Traditions, eds. S. Ebbesen, J. Marenbon and P. Thom (Copenhagen, 2013), 139–173.
-
Marenbon, J. “Vocalism, Nominalism and the Commentaries on the Categories from the Earlier Twelfth Century.” Vivarium 30 (1992), 51–61.
-
Martin, C. J. “Generaliter de nullo enuntiabili aliquid scio: Meaning and Propositional Content in the Ars Meliduna.” In Thinking and Calculating: Essays in Logic, Its History and Its Philosophical Applications in Honour of Massimo Mugnai, eds. F. Ademollo, F. Amerini and V. De Risi (Cham, 2022), 103–125.
-
Martin, C. J. “The Logic of Growth: Twelfth-Century Nominalists and the Development of Theories of the Incarnation.” Medieval Philosophy and Theology 7 (1988), 1–15.
-
Noël, R. In the Wake of Abelard: Nominalisms in the Twelfth Century, Dissertation (University of Cambridge, 2022). url = https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.85666 .
-
Normore, C. G. “The Tradition of Mediaeval Nominalism.” In Studies in Medieval Philosophy, ed. J. F. Wippel (Washington, DC, 1987), 201–217.
-
Nuchelmans, G. Theories of the Proposition: Ancient and Medieval Conceptions of the Bearers of Truth and Falsity (Amsterdam, 1973).
-
Pilarczyk, D. E. Praepositini Cancellarii De Sacramentis et de Novissimis (Roma, 1964).
-
Pioppi, C. La dottrina sui nomi essenziali di Dio nella Summa theologiae di Pietro Capuano: Edizione critica delle quaestionesi–xxiv (Roma, 2003).
-
Rijk, L. M. de. Logica modernorum: A Contribution to the History of Early Terminist Logic. Vol. II.1. The Origin and Early Development of the Theory of Supposition (Assen, 1967).
-
Rijk, L. M. de. “Some New Evidence on Twelfth Century Logic: Alberic and the School of Mont Ste Geneviève (Montani).” Vivarium 4 (1966), 1–57.
-
Todd P., and B. Rabern. “Future Contingents and the Logic of Temporal Omniscience.” Noûs 55 (2021), 102–127.
-
Wciórka, W. “Further References to the nominales and Reales in Stephen Langton’s Works.” Cahiers de l’Institut du Moyen-Âge Grec et Latin, forthcoming.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 225 | 225 | 16 |
| Full Text Views | 20 | 20 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 90 | 90 | 0 |
The nominales, Sempiternal Truth, and Tensed Propositional Contents
In: VivariumSearch for other papers by Wojciech Wciórka in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
This article distinguishes between two historical ways of presenting the catchphrase “Once true, always true” (semel verum, semper verum), associated with the twelfth-century logical school of the nominales. Within the Time-Jumping Model, a hypothetical tenseless propositional content (enuntiabile) is treated as the common significate of differently tensed statements, such as “Socrates will die” and “Socrates died,” uttered before and after Socrates’s death. This hypothetical enuntiabile is “always true” thanks to its tenseless nature. By contrast, the Fixed-Present Model preserves the tensed character of enuntiabilia. By revealing an implicit temporal index, the nominales could apply “Once true, always true” to enuntiabilia such as Christum venisse (that Christ has come), which not only is true and will always be true but also – paradoxically – has always been true. It has always been true because it amounts to the propositional content that Christ came before this instant, where “this instant” rigidly denotes the present moment. The Fixed-Present Model alleviates the worry that the nominales confused truth-bearers with truthmakers.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 225 | 225 | 16 |
| Full Text Views | 20 | 20 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 90 | 90 | 0 |
