•  3
    This chapter focuses on how Aquinas’ solution of the problem of the persistence of eucharistic species and other scholastics’ reactions to it opened up certain conceptual possibilities in the Scholastic Aristotelian tradition that would not have been there without it, and which, therefore, were pointing the way toward later conceptual developments in the post-medieval and early modern philosophical traditions in logic, and metaphysics.
  •  12
    This volume is about the most mind-boggling sacrament of the Christian faith, also referred to as the Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist: in its Roman Catholic interpretation, the conversion of the substance of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ for Holy Communion. The challenge of providing a rational interpretation of this doctrine of faith proved to be one of the most contentious issues in the Western history of ideas, apparently going against self-evident metaphysical pr…Read more
  •  12
    This book provides the Latin text and its annotated English translation of the question-commentary of John Buridan (ca. 1300-1360) on Aristotle’s “On the Soul”. Buridan was the most influential Parisian nominalist philosopher of his time. His work speaks across centuries to our modern concerns in the philosophy of mind. This volume completes the project of a volume published earlier in the same series: “Questions on the Soul by John Buridan and Others”. An appealing book for scholars of Aristotl…Read more
  •  3
    Thomas of Sutton
    In Jorge J. E. Gracia & Timothy B. Noone (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Blackwell. 2005.
  •  2
    John Buridan
    In Jorge J. E. Gracia & Timothy B. Noone (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Blackwell. 2005.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Logic Metaphysics and physics Ethics.
  •  3
    Peter of Spain
    In Jorge J. E. Gracia & Timothy B. Noone (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Blackwell. 2005.
    This chapter contains sections titled: The author of the Summulae The Summulae and the realism of Peter of Spain.
  •  6
    Aquinas vs. Buridan on Essence and Existence, and the Commensurability of Paradigms
    In Lukás Novák, Daniel D. Novotný, Prokop Sousedík & David Svoboda (eds.), Metaphysics: Aristotelian, Scholastic, Analytic, Ontos Verlag. pp. 169-182. 2012.
  •  12
    Aquinas vs. Buridan on the Universality of Human Concepts and the Immateriality of the Human Intellect
    Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy 30 (1): 33-47. 2022.
    Under the traditional classification of medieval positions on the issue of universals, both Aquinas and Buridan would have to be deemed to be “conceptualists”: they both deny the existence of mind-independent, Platonic universals (against “realists”), and they both attribute universality primarily to the representative function of our universal concepts, and thus only secondarily to universal names of human languages (against “nominalists”). Yet, Aquinas is quite appropriately classified as a “m…Read more
  •  35
    Aquinas on the Union of Body and Soul
    Quaestiones Disputatae 10 (2): 31-52. 2020.
  •  5
    The Metaphysics of Habits in Buridan
    In Nicolas Faucher & Magali Roques (eds.), The Ontology, Psychology and Axiology of Habits in Medieval Philosophy, Springer. pp. 321-331. 2018.
    This paper presents John Buridan’s nominalist ontology of habits, as the acquired qualities of innate powers aiding or hampering their operations, against the background of a more traditional interpretation of Aristotle’s doctrine to be found in Boethius, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and Cajetan. The paper argues that considerations of his late question commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics may have forced Buridan to rethink some of his earlier arguments for his parsimonious nominali…Read more
  •  210
    Artificial intelligence and its natural limits
    with Karl D. Stephan
    AI and Society (1): 9-18. 2021.
    An argument with roots in ancient Greek philosophy claims that only humans are capable of a certain class of thought termed conceptual, as opposed to perceptual thought, which is common to humans, the higher animals, and some machines. We outline the most detailed modern version of this argument due to Mortimer Adler, who in the 1960s argued for the uniqueness of the human power of conceptual thought. He also admitted that if conceptual thought were ever manifested by machines, such an achieveme…Read more
  •  11
    Thomistic “Monism” vs. Cartesian “Dualism”
    History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 10 (1): 92-112. 2007.
  •  21
    Aquinas’ Theory of the Copula and the Analogy of Being
    History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 5 (1): 159-176. 2002.
  •  82
    Medieval Philosophy: Essential Readings with Commentary (edited book)
    with Fritz Allhoff and Anand Vaidya
    Wiley-Blackwell. 2007.
    This collection of readings with extensive editorial commentary brings together key texts of the most influential philosophers of the medieval era to provide a comprehensive introduction for students of philosophy. Features the writings of Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Boethius, John Duns Scotus and other leading medieval thinkers Features several new translations of key thinkers of the medieval era, including John Buridan and Averroes Readings are accompanied by expert commentary from the editors,…Read more
  •  50
    This paper is not going to offer any criticism of the way Gaven Kerr treats Aquinas’ argument. Instead, it offers an alternative way of reconstructing Aquinas’ argument, intending to strengthen especially those controversial aspects of it that Kerr’s reconstruction left untreated or in relative obscurity. Accordingly, although the paper’s treatment will have to have some overlaps with Kerr’s, it will deal with issues essential to adequate replies to certain competent criticisms of his argument u…Read more
  •  28
    Aquinas’ Balancing Act
    Bochumer Philosophisches Jahrbuch Fur Antike Und Mittelalter 21 (1): 29-48. 2018.
    In this paper, I will primarily argue for the consistency of Aquinas’ conception, according to which the human soul, uniquely in God’s creation, is both the inherent, material, substantial form of the human body, and the subsistent immaterial substance underlying the immaterial operations of its immaterial, rational powers, namely, intellect and will. In this discussion, I will point out that typical challenges to Aquinas’ conception usually rely on semantic or ontological assumptions that can p…Read more
  •  3
    Questions on the soul by John Buridan and others (edited book)
    Springer. 2017.
    This volume features essays that explore the insights of the 14th-century Parisian nominalist philosopher, John Buridan. It serves as a companion to the Latin text edition and annotated English translation of his question-commentary on Aristotle's On the Soul. The contributors survey Buridan's work both in its own historical-theoretical context and in relation to contemporary issues. The essays come in three main sections, which correspond to the three books of Buridan's Questions. Coverage firs…Read more
  •  46
    Universality and Immateriality
    Acta Philosophica 24 (1): 31-42. 2015.
  •  8
    Essay Review
    History and Philosophy of Logic 24 (2): 141-162. 2003.
  •  211
    It is supposed to be common knowledge about the history of ideas that one of the few medieval philosophical contributions preserved in modern philosophical thought is the idea that mental phenomena are distinguished from physical phenomena by their intentionality, their directedness toward some object. As is usually the case with such commonplaces about the history of ideas, this claim is not quite true. Medieval philosophers routinely described ordinary physical phenomena, such as reflections i…Read more
  • A Világ Örökkévalóságáról (review)
    Magyar Filozofiai Szemle 6. 1999.