Universals in the Fourteenth Century

The so called problem of universals raises (and falls) with attempts to provide philosophical accounts of generality. Generality, in turn, is at least a fact of cognitive psychology: human beings are such that they have thoughts (and words expressing those thoughts) that apply equally to several individuals, for example, the thoughts (and words expressing them) ‘animal’, ‘human being’, ‘female’, ‘musician’, and many more – let us call that fact ‘the cognitive fact’. The at least clause above means two things: first, it means that the cognitive fact is non-controversial, for no one seriously denies that human beings do have such thoughts and words; second, it means that the cognitive fact is not all there is to be said in order to give a philosophical account of generality. The present volume aims at highlighting the contribution of late medieval thought to the philosophical treatment of the problem of universals in presenting and discussing the most significant strategies and authors of the 14th century. On the other hand, it endeavours to reconstruct the specific doctrinal and historical context in which the debate on the nature of universals flourished during the later Middle Ages. Chapters in this volume deal with figures, historical moments and geographical areas of the 14th century that, in spite of their crucial importance for the history of the eponymous question, have not, in our view, been sufficiently discussed in contemporary literature. The contributions gathered here offer a representative selection of theories on both sides of the Channel, elaborated especially by Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians or secular masters.