•  93
    Robert Boyle and Natural Kinds
    Journal of the American Philosophical Association 9 (3): 554-573. 2023.
    This paper studies Robert Boyle's account of kinds and classification. A number of commentators have argued that, for Boyle, classifications are inevitably the product of conventions. Others have challenged this reading, arguing that, according to Boyle, the corpuscular makeup of bodies gives rise to hard-edged natural kinds and classes. We argue that Boyle's position is more complicated than the available realist and conventionalist readings acknowledge. We argue that, according to Boyle, the i…Read more
  •  34
    This collection of new essays locates Boethius' Consolatio Philosophiae in the medieval context of Latin learning and vernacular translations. The first part is devoted to the Latin commentary tradition, while the other parts explore the vernacular traditions.
  •  5
    Which language should philosophers use: technical or common language? In a book as important for intellectual historians as it is for philosophers, Lodi Nauta addresses a vital question which still has resonance today: is the discipline of philosophy assisted or disadvantaged by employing a special vocabulary? By the Middle Ages philosophy had become a highly technical discipline, with its own lexicon and methods. The Renaissance humanist critique of this specialised language has been dismissed …Read more
  •  2
    Hobbes the Pessimist?
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 10 (1): 31-54. 2002.
  •  31
    Philology as Philosophy: Giovanni Pontano on Language, Meaning, and Grammar
    Journal of the History of Ideas 72 (4): 481-502. 2011.
    The article discusses 15th-century humanist Giovanni Pontano. Particular focus is given to his philosophical views on the origin of language, its impact on everyday life, and grammar. According to the author, Pontano brought forward ideas on the social uses of language which scholars have usually attributed to the later Enlightenment period. It is suggested that Renaissance humanism may be more important to philosophical history than previously thought. Details related to Pontano's views on sema…Read more
  •  2
    Agricola, Letters (review)
    Isis 95 287-288. 2004.
  •  52
    Rudolph Agricola’s De inventione dialectica has rightly been regarded as the most original and influential textbook on argumentation, reading, writing, and communication in the Renaissance. At the heart of his treatment are the topics ( loci ), such as definition, genus, species, place, whole, parts, similars, and so on. While their function in Agricola’s system is argumentative and rhetorical, the roots of the topics are metaphysical, as Agricola himself explicitly acknowledges. It has led scho…Read more
  •  13
    The Order of Knowing: Juan Luis Vives on Language, Thought, and the Topics
    Journal of the History of Ideas 76 (3): 325-345. 2015.
    This article seeks to locate Vives's work in the tradition of humanist thought that criticized the linguistic and philosophical abstraction of the scholastics. After discussing Vives's views on language and knowledge as functions of man’s biological nature, the article argues that for Vives the topics, as seats of argumentation, are a reflection of the ontological order and as such an instrument and heuristic aid for the human mind. They form a grid through which knowledge can be acquired and ar…Read more
  •  42
    Introduction -- The attack on aristotelian-scholastic metaphysics -- The analysis of things : substance, quality, and the tree of porphyry -- Thing and word : a critique of transcendental terms -- From a grammatical point of view : the reduction of the categories -- Soul, nature, morality, and God -- Soul and nature : a critique of aristotelian psychology and natural philosophy -- The virtues and the road to heavenly pleasure -- Speaking about the ineffable : the Trinity -- Towards a humanist di…Read more
  • Letters (review)
    Isis 95 287-288. 2004.
  •  80
    This article argues that there is much more continuity in Hobbes’s thinking on the church and religion than critics have recognized. I consider three issues which have been taken as prime illustrations of Hobbes’s alleged ‘new departure’ in the Leviathan: the nature and fate of the soul; the character of magic and revelation; and church-state relations. I show that in particular Richard Tuck’s interpretation of Hobbes’s intellecual development is mistaken. There is no ‘fundamental reversal’ or ‘…Read more
  •  24
    The Preexistence of the Soul in Medieval Thought
    Recherches de Theologie Et Philosophie Medievales 63 (n/a): 93-135. 1996.
    While the concept of the human soul was always central to Christian thought, as to the origin of the soul Christian thinkers felt uneasy and did not hesitate to declare themselves ignorant. For once, Augustine did not point the way and found himself “beset with great trouble and utterly lost for an answer” in view of some of the difficulties that the issue raised. Of course, man's soul was universally believed to be created by God, but the questions “how”, “when” and “where” did not admit of str…Read more
  •  67
    Lorenzo valla's critique of aristotelian psychology
    Vivarium 41 (1): 120-143. 2003.
    In his Repastinatio . . . Lorenzo Valla launched a heavy attack on Aristotelian-scholastic thought. While most of this book is devoted to metaphysics, language and argumenta- tion, Valla also incorporates chapters on the soul and natural philosophy. Using as criteria good Latin, common sense and common observation, he rejected much of standard Aristotelian teaching on the soul, replacing the hylopmorphic account of the scholastics by an Augustinian one. In this article his arguments on the soul’…Read more
  •  25
    Imagination in the later Middle Ages and Early Modern times (edited book)
    with Detlev Pätzold
    Peeters. 2004.
    Imagination has always been recognised as an important faculty of the human soul. As mediator between the senses and reason, it is rooted in philosophical and psychological-medical theories of human sensation and cognition. Linked to these theories was the use of the imagination in rhetoric and the arts: images had not only an epistemological role in transmitting information from the outside world to the mind's inner eye, but could also be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience. In this…Read more
  • Philosophische Rede vom Menschen. Studien zur Anthropologie Helmuth Plessners
    with B. Delfgaauw and H. H. Holz
    Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 49 (1): 143-143. 1987.
  •  24
    Lorenzo valla
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2010.
  •  104
    Hobbes the pessimist?
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 10 (1). 2002.
    This article criticises recent interpretations of Hobbes’s intellectual development as a result of his engagement with rhetoric. In particular Johnston and Skinner have argued that Leviathan differs significantly, both in style and contents, from the earlier, ‘scientific’ works, The Elements and De Cive. They have argued that Hobbes’s re-appropriation of rhetoric in Leviathan was caused by a growing pessimism about men’s rational capacities. I think the textual evidence does not show such a shif…Read more
  •  49
    Between demonstration and imagination: essays in the history of science and philosophy presented to John D. North (edited book)
    with John David North and Arie Johan Vanderjagt
    Brill. 1999.
    The essays in this volume reflect the wide-ranging interests of John D. North, distinguished historian of science and philosophy.
  •  33
    (1996). Platonic and Cartesian philosophy in the commentary on boethius’ consolatio philosophiae by Pierre Cally. British Journal for the History of Philosophy: Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 79-100.
  •  8
    II The Consolation: the Latin
    In John Marenbon (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Boethius, Cambridge University Press. pp. 255. 2009.
  •  122
    In his Repastinatio . . . Lorenzo Valla launched a heavy attack on Aristotelian-scholastic thought. While most of this book is devoted to metaphysics, language and argumentation, Valla also incorporates chapters on the soul and natural philosophy. Using as criteria good Latin, common sense and common observation, he rejected much of standard Aristotelian teaching on the soul, replacing the hylopmorphic account of the scholastics by an Augustinian one. In this article his arguments on the soul's …Read more
  • Thomas Hobbes: Elementorum Philosophiae Sectio Prima De Corpore,(ed.) Karl Schuhmann
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 9 (3): 579-582. 2001.
  •  71
    Lorenzo valla and quattrocento scepticism
    Vivarium 44 (s 2-3): 375-395. 2006.
    Lorenzo Valla has often been considered to be a sceptic. Equipped with an extremely polemical and critical mind, his whole oeuvre seemed to aim at undermining received philosophical and theological dogmas. More specifically he has been associated with the burgeoning interests in ancient scepticism in the fifteenth century. In this article the arguments in support of this interpretation will be critically examined and evaluated. Based on a discussion of two of his major works, De vero bono and th…Read more
  • Introduction
    with Detlev Pätzold
    In Lodi Nauta & Detlev Pätzold (eds.), Imagination in the Later Middle Ages and Early Modern Times, Peeters. 2004.