Abstract
Both Pierre Duhem and his successors emphasized that medieval scholastics created a science of mechanics by bringing both observation and mathematical techniques to bear on natural effects. Recent research into medieval and early modern science has suggested that Aristotle's subalternate sciences also were used in this program, although the degree to which the theory of subalternation had been modified is still not entirely clear. This paper focuses on the English tradition of subalternation between 1310 and 1350, and concludes with a discussion of the theory advanced by Thomas Claxton early in the fifteenth century.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Manuscripts of Commentaries on the Sentences
Assisi, B. Communale 172, fol. 29v–34r, William of Alnwick.
Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College MS 281(674), Adam Wodeham.
Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College MS 370(592), Thomas Claxton.
Florence, B. Laurenziana MS Plut. XVII sin. cod. 10, Stephen Patrington, Repertorium diversorum auctorum.
Florence, BN Centrale, Conv. Soppr. D.IV.95, John of Reading.
London, Westminster Abbey MS 13, pp. 141b–143a, 156b–157b, Robert Graystanes.
Oxford, Balliol College MS 63, fol. 67r–85v, anonymous.
Oxford, Merton College MS 103, fol. 216ra–216va, anonymous.
Oxford, Merton College MS 284, anonymous.
Oxford, Oriel College MS 15, fol. 3ra–4va, Richard Fitzralph.
Paris, BN lat. 14514, fol. 277vb–280rb, Robert of Halifax.
Paris, BN lat. 15880, fol. 36ra–38vb, Robert of Halifax.
Printed Sources
Augustine: 1962, De doctrina christiana, Joseph Martin (ed.), Corpus Christianorum, ser. lat. 32, Brepols, Turnholt.
Blakiston, H. E. D.: 1896, ‘Some Durham College Rolls’, in Collectanea III, M. Burrows (ed.), Oxford Historical Society, Oxford, pp. 1–76.
Buonamici, F.: 1591, De motu libri X, B. Sermartellium, Florence.
Courtenay, W.: 1987, Schools and Scholars in Fourteenth-Century England, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
d'Souza, J.: 1973, ‘William of Alnwick and the Problem of Faith and Reason’, Salesianum 35, 425–88.
Duhem, P.: 1905–1906, Les origines de la statique, A. Hermann, Paris.
Duhem, P.: 1913, Etudes sur Léonard de Vinci, 3e série, A. Hermann, Paris.
Duhem, P.: 1987, ‘An Account of the Scientific Titles and Works of Pierre Duhem’, Science in Context 1, 333–48.
Emden, A. B.: 1957–1959, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to AD 1500, 3 volumes, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Etzkorn, G.: 1987, ‘Codex Merton 284: Evidence of Ockham's Early Influence in Oxford’, From Ockham to Wyclif, A. Hudson and M. Wilks (eds.), Basil Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 31–42.
Glorieux, P.: 1941, ‘Sentences. (Commentaires sur les)’, in Dictionnaire de théologie Catholique, A. Vacant, E. Mangenot, E. Amann (eds.), vol. 14, Librairie Letouzey et ané, Paris, col. 1860–1884.
Graham, D. W.: 1987, Aristotle's Two Systems, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Jaki, S.: 1984, Uneasy Genius: The Life and Work of Pierre Duhem, Nijhoff, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Kennedy, L. A.: 1986, ‘Robert Graystanes Commentary on the Sentences’, Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 53, 185–89.
Kuhn, T. S.: 1977, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, second edition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Laird, W. R.: 1983, ‘The Scientiae mediae in Medieval Commentaries on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics’, Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, Centre for Medieval Studies.
Leff, G.: 1963, Richard Fitzralph, Commentator on the Sentences, a Study in Theological Orthodoxy, Manchester University Press, Manchester.
Lennox, J. G.: 1986, ‘Aristotle, Galileo, and “Mixed Sciences”’, Reinterpreting Galileo, William A. Wallace (ed.), Catholic University Press, Washington, D.C., 29–51.
Livesey, S. J.: 1985, ‘William of Ockham, the Subalternate Sciences, and Aristotle's Theory of metabasis’, British Journal for the History of Science 18, 127–45.
Livesey, S. J.: 1987, ‘On Pierre Duhem’, Science in Context 1, 363–70.
Livesey, S. J.: 1989, Theology and Science in the Fourteenth Century: Three Questions on the Unity and Subalternation of the Sciences from John of Reading's Commentary on the Sentences, E. J. Brill, Leiden.
Lohr, C.: 1967–1974, ‘Medieval Latin Aristotle Commentaries’, Traditio 23, 313–413; 24, 149–245; 26, 135–216; 27, 251–351; 28, 281–396; 29, 93–197; and 30, 119–44.
McKirahan, R. D.: 1978, ‘Aristotle's Subordinate Sciences’, British Journal for the History of Science 11, 197–220.
McMullin, E.: 1978, ‘The Conception of Science in Galileo's Work’, New Perspectives on Galileo, R. E. Butts and J. C. Pitt (eds.), Reidel, Dordrecht and Boston, pp. 209–57.
Moody, E. A. and M. Clagett (eds.): 1960, The Medieval Science of Weights (Scientia de ponderibus), University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Muckle, J. T., Muckle, C. S. B.: 1958, ‘Utrum Theologia sit Scientia, A Quodlibet Question of Robert Holcot OP’, Mediaeval Studies 20, 127–53.
Pelster, F.: 1955, ‘Zur ersten Polemik gegen Aureoli: Raymundus Bequini O.P., seine Quästionen und sein Correctorium Petri Aureoli, das Quodlibet des Jacobus de Apamiis OESA’, Franciscan Studies 15, 30–47.
Lombard, P.: 1971: Sententiae in IV libris distinctae, 3rd ed., Collegio S. Bonaventurae, Grottaferrata.
Pomponazzi, P.: 1525, De intensione et remissione formarum ac de parvitate et magnitudine, sumptibus heredum Octaviani Scoti, Venice.
Reina, M. E.: 1970, ‘La prima questione del prologo del “Commento alle Sentenze” di Walter Catton’, Rivista critica di storia della filosofia 25, 48–74, 290–314.
Grosseteste, R.: 1981, Commentarius in Posteriorum Analyticorum libros, Pietro Rossi (ed.), L. Olschki, Florence.
Robinson, J. A. and M. R. James: 1909, The Manuscripts of Westminster Abbey, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Salter, H. E., W. A. Pantin and H. G. Richardson (eds.): 1942, Formularies Which Bear on the History of Oxford c. 1204–1420, Oxford Historical Society, Oxford.
Sarton, G.: 1959, A History of Science: Hellenistic Science in the Last Three Centuries B.C., Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Shapiro, H.: 1957, Motion, Time and Place according to William Ockham, Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure, New York.
Steneck, N. H.: 1975, ‘A Late Medieval Arbor Scientiarum’, Speculum 50, 245–69.
Tachau, K.: 1988, Vision and Certitude in the Age of Ockham, Brill, Leiden.
Theissing, H.: 1970, Glaube und Theologie bei Robert Cowton OFM, Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Münster i. W.
Wallace, W. A.: 1981, Prelude to Galileo. Essays on Medieval and Sixteenth-Century Sources of Galileo's Thought, Reidel, Dordrecht and Boston.
Wallace, W. A.: 1984, Galileo and His Sources, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Weisheipl, J. A.: 1968, ‘Ockham and Some Mertonians’, Mediaveal Studies 30, 163–213.
William of Ockham: 1970, Scriptum in I Sententiarum Ordinatio, G. Gál and S. Brown (eds.), Opera Theologica, vol. 1, Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure, New York.
William of Ockham: 1974, Summa logicae, P. Boehner and S. Brown (eds.), Opera philosophica, vol. 1, Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure, New York.
Wodeham, A.: forthcoming, Lectura Secunda, Rega Wood (ed.), Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
I am especially grateful to the Fulbright Comission and the National Science Foundation, whose assistance made possible the research involved in this paper. I would also like to thank the librarians of institutions listed in the bibliography to this paper, who facilitated my research by permitting the use of manuscripts in their collections.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Livesey, S.J. Science and theology in the fourteenth century: The subalternate sciences in Oxford commentaries on the sentences . Synthese 83, 273–292 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413761
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413761