Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham

by Claude Panaccio, Joshua P. Hochschild (Translator), Meredith K. Ziebart (Translator)

Overview

The notion that human thought is structured like a language, with a precise syntax and semantics, has been pivotal in recent philosophy of mind. Yet it is not a new idea: it was systematically explored in the fourteenth century by William of Ockham and became central in late medieval philosophy. Mental Language examines the background of Ockham's innovation by tracing the history of the mental language theme in ancient and medieval thought. Panaccio identifies two important traditions: one philosophical, stemming from Plato and Aristotle, and the other theological, rooted in the Fathers of the Christian Church. The study then focuses on the merging of the two traditions in the Middle Ages, as they gave rise to detailed discussions over the structure of human thought and its relations with signs and language. Ultimately, Panaccio stresses the originality and significance of Ockham's doctrine of the oratio mentalis (mental discourse) and the strong impression it made upon his immediate successors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823272600
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	02/01/2017
Series:	Medieval Philosophy: Texts and Studies
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Claude Panaccio held the Canada Research Chair in the Theory of Knowledge in the
Department of Philosophy of the University of Québec at Montréal until his retirement in 2016
and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of Ockham on Concepts, which won the Canadian Philosophical Association Biennial Book Prize.

Joshua P. Hochschild is Monsignor Robert R.Kline Professor of Philosophy, and former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, at Mount St. Mary's University.

Meredith K. Ziebart teaches philosophy at Loyola University, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part I: The Sources
1. Plato to Aristotle
The soul's dialogue with itself, — The locus of logical relations, — The composition of thought
2. Logos Endiathetos
A Stoic notion?, — Philo and allegorical exegesis, — From Plutarch to Plotinus, — John Damascene and his source
3. Verbum in Corde
The battle against Gnosis, — The emergence of Latin theology, — Augustine: the development of a doctrine
4. Oratio mentalis
The case of Porphyry, — The testimony of Ammonius, — The commentaries of Boethius, — The passage through Islam

Part II: Thirteenth-Century Controversies
5. Triple is the Word
Anselm's Augustinianism, — The play of triads, — Sermo in mente
6. Act versus Idol
The Thomistic synthesis, — The first criticisms, — Back to the things themselves
7. Concept and sign
Signs in the intellect, — John Duns Scotus and the question of the significate, — The language of angels
8. What Is Logic About?
Logic, composition and truth, — Deep structure and logical form, — The subject of the Perihermeneias, — The elements of syllogism

Part III: The Via Moderna
9. Ockham's Intervention
The object of knowledge, — The ontology of the intelligible, — The semantics of concepts, — Natural signification
10. Reactions
The nature of mental language, — The structure of mental language, — Parisian nominalism
Conclusion
Postscript (2014)
On the Ancient and Patristic Sources, — On Augustine and Boethius, — On Abelard and the twelfth century, — On Aquinas and the thirteenth century, — On Ockham and the Late Medieval Period,

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Mental language was no twentieth-century philosophical invention, and Claude Panaccio's book, Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham, first published in French in 1999, remains the best guide to the many theories that were formulated in antiquity and the Middle Ages. There is no more complete or authoritative work on the subject. The book is philosophically astute and sophisticated, but eminently readable. A postscript brings the work completely up to date, with an exhaustive discussion of the copious literature that has appeared on the topic in the past fifteen years." — Richard Cross, University of Notre Dame

From the Publisher

...an indispensable and encyclopedic history of the idea of mental language.

Logos & Episteme

Mental language was no twentieth-century philosophical invention, and Claude Panaccio’s book, Mental Language: From Plato to William of Ockham, first published in French in 1999, remains the best guide to the many theories that were formulated in antiquity and the Middle Ages. There is no more complete or authoritative work on the subject. The book is philosophically astute and sophisticated, but eminently readable. A postscript brings the work completely up to date, with an exhaustive discussion of the copious literature that has appeared on the topic in the past fifteen years.

University of Notre Dame - Richard Cross