Abstract
In a general sense, epistemology aims to provide criteria for knowledge, and in a more restricted sense, an elaboration of a theory of scientific knowledge. The Medievals, under the influence of Aristotle and a brand of Platonism, defend a heightened conception of knowledge defending the infallibility of objects (due to their necessity and universality) in as much as that of discursive methods (theories of demonstration). After a refresher on this double heritage, we will examine three models of scientific reasoning developed in the Middle Ages bolstered by different procedures of guaranteeing the certainty of knowledge and its application to a contingent world.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Aristotle. (1962). Analytica posteriora. Translationes Iacobi, Anonymi sive Ioannis Gerardi et Recensio Guillelmi de Moerbeke. Aristoteles Latinus (ed.: Minio-Paluello, L., & Dod, B. G.). Bruges/Paris: Desclée de Brouwer.
Aquinas, T. (1969). Sententia ethicorum. Opera omnia XLVII. Rome: Commissio Leonina.
Aquinas, T. (1989). Expositio libri posteriorum. Opera omnia I*-2. Rome/Paris: Commissio Leonina.
Buridan, J. (unpublished). Quaestiones in primum librum analyticorum posteriorum (ed.: Hubien, H.).
Buridan, J. (1513). Quaestiones super decem libros ethicorum Aristotelis ad Nicomachum. Paris: Poncet Le Preux. (repr Minerva, Frankfurt, 1968).
Buridan, J. (2001). Summulae de demonstrationibus (ed.: De Rijk, L. M.). Ingenium: Groeningen.
Burley, W. (2000). Quaestiones super librum posteriorum (ed.: Sommers, M. C.). Toronto: PIMS.
Duns Scotus, J. (1950–). Opera omnia (ed.: Balić, C., et al.). Vatican City: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis.
Grosseteste, R. (1981). Commentarius in posteriorum analyticorum libros (ed.: Rossi, P.). Florence: L.S. Olschki.
John of Salisbury. (1991). Metalogicon libri III (ed.: Hall, J. B.). Turnhout: Brepols.
Themistius. (1958). Themistius’ paraphrasis of the Posterior Analytics in Gerard of Cremona’s translation (ed.: O’Donnell, J. R.). Medieval Studies, 20, 239–315.
William of Ockham. (1974). Summa logicae. Opera philosophica (Vol. I). New York: Saint-Bonaventure.
Secondary Sources
Biard, J. (2004a). Les controverses sur l’objet du savoir et les “complexe significabilia” à Paris au XIVe siècle. In S. Caroti (Ed.), Quia inter doctores est magna dissensio. Les débats de philosophie naturelle à Paris au XIVesiècle (pp. 1–31). Firenze: Olschki.
Biard, J. (2004b). L’organisation des sciences spéculatives selon Jean Buridan. In C. Grellard (Ed.), Méthodes et statut des sciences à la fin du Moyen Âge (pp. 26–40). Lille: Presses universitaires du Septentrion.
Biard, J. (2006). John Buridan and the mathematical demonstration. In V. Hirvonen, T. J. Holopainen, & M. Tuominen (Eds.), Mind and modality. Studies in the history of philosophy in honour of Simo Knuuttila (pp. 199–215). Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Bloch, D. (forthcoming). John of Salisbury on Science.
Burnyeat, M. (1981). Aristotle on Understanding Knowledge. In E. Berti (Ed.), Aristotle on Science: The “Posterior Analytics” (pp. 97–139). Padua: Editrice Antenore.
Byrne, E. (1968). Probability and opinion. In A study in the medieval presuppositions of post-medieval theories of probability. The Hague: Martin Nijhoff.
Corbini, A. (2006). La teoria della scienza nel xiii secolo. I commenti agli Analitici secondi. Firenze: Edizioni del Galuzzo.
Demange, D. (2007). Jean Duns Scot. La théorie du savoir. Paris: Vrin.
Fitzgerald. (2003). The medieval roots of reliabilist epistemology: Albert of Saxony’s View of Immediate Apprehension. Synthese, 136(3), 409–434.
Grellard, C. (2005). Croire et savoir. Les principes de la connaissance selon Nicolas d’Autrécourt. Paris: Vrin.
King, P. (1987). Jean Buridan’s Philosophy of Science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 18, 109–132.
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. Leiden: Brill.
Panaccio, C. (2009). Le savoir selon Guillaume d’Ockham. In R. Nadeau (Ed.), Philosophies de la connaissance. Paris/Québec: Vrin/Presses de l’université de Laval.
Pasnau, R. (1995). William Heytesbury on knowledge: Epistemology without necessary and sufficient conditions. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 12, 347–366.
Pasnau, R. (1997). Theories of cognition in the later Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pasnau, R. (2009). Science and certainty. In R. Pasnau (Ed.), Cambridge history of medieval philosophy (pp. 357–368). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Perini-Santos, E. (2006). La théorie ockhamienne de la connaissance évidente. Paris: Vrin.
Rossi, P. (1995). Robert Grosseteste and the object of scientific knowledge. In J. McEvoy (Ed.), Robert Grosseteste: New perspectives on his thought and scholarship (pp. 53–75). Turnhout: Brepols.
Scott, T. K. (1965). John Buridan on the objects of demonstrative science. Speculum XL, 654–673.
Sereene, E. (1979). Robert Grosseteste on induction and demonstrative science. Synthese, 40, 97–115.
Zupko, J. (2003). John Buridan. Portrait of fourteenth century arts master. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Grellard, C. (2020). Epistemology. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1665-7_154
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1665-7_154
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1663-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1665-7
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities