NOL Seminar with Ana María Mora-Márquez
published: 2024-05-08
event date:
2024-05-27
The Nordic Online Logic Seminar
is organised monthly over Zoom, with expository talks on topics of interest for
the broader logic community. The seminar is open for professional or aspiring
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Date: Monday, 27 May 2024 at 16:00 CEST (UTC+2) on Zoom
Speaker: Ana María Mora-Márquez (Researcher and Wallenberg Academy Fellow,
University of Gothenburg)
Title: Medieval Aristotelian Logic is Scientific Method
Abstract:
This presentation aims to show that medieval Aristotelian logic can be generally
characterized as scientific method. To be sure, this method includes formal
logic as one of its parts, but formal logic is by no means the crucial part. In
fact, if, as I intend to show, the main aim of medieval Aristotelian logic is to
provide methods for knowledge production and distribution, so its crucial parts
are the methods for scientific proof provided in commentaries on Aristotle’s
Posterior Analytics and Topics.
In the first part of the presentation, I argue for the possibility of talking of medieval ‘science’, ‘scientific knowledge’, and ‘scientific method’ from a modern perspective, and discuss how the modern perspective relates to the Latin ‘scientia’ in its different senses. In the second part, I show the progression from Nicholas of Paris (1240s) and Albert the Great (1250s), who see Aristotelian logic as a systematic scientific method where syllogistic argument is fundamental, but who struggle to coherently organize it around syllogistic argument, to Radulphus Brito (1290s) who, still seeing Aristotelian logic as scientific method, uses the notion of ‘second intention’ in order to coherently structure it around syllogistic argument.