John Buridan (ca. 1300-1361) was one of the most influential philosophers of his time.
During his long career at the Faculty of Arts at the University of
Paris, he taught many logic courses, for which he wrote a textbook,
entitled Summulaedialecticae. This work
consists of nine treatises; the present volume contains the first
critical edition of the Preface and the first treatise of the Summulae: De propositionibus. As the bearers
of truth and falsity, propositions are the primary concern of
logic, the art that serves as a general tool for reaching truth and
avoiding falsity in any field of knowledge, whether in
contemplative or practical contexts. Most important is
Buridan’s commitment to the semantic primacy of mental
language and the treatment of written and spoken propositions as
conventional signs, which designate the primary bearers truth and
falsity, namely mental propositions. In De propositionibus Buridan
develops his nominalist conception of the relations between mind,
language, and reality, which he goes on to employ in the subsequent
treatises of the Summulae.