QUADERNI DI NOCTUA
La tradizione filosofica dall’antico al moderno. Studi e testi
History of Philosophy from the Ancient to the Modern Age. Studies and Editions
Autore / Author: Irene Binini
Affiliazione / Author affiliation: Università degli Studi di Parma
Titolo / Title: Riflessioni sul concetto di necessità nella prima metà del XII secolo
Abstract: In this essay, I consider some logical treatises and commentaries from the first decades of the 12th century (many of which are still unedited) which contain a discussion on modalities and modal logic. After presenting a short catalogue of these sources and a description of their common features, I shall focus on some definitions of the modal term “necessarium” which are provided in them. As we will see, Abelard and logicians of his time advanced three different characterizations of this term: necessity was either defined in terms of unavoidability (ineuitabilitas), or in terms of immutability and omnitemporality (impermutabilitas, sempiternitas), or again in terms of absolute necessity as opposed to conditioned one (necessitas absoluta vs. determinata). I argue that the temporal understanding of necessity in terms of omnitemporality, inherited from ancient sources and extensively used by Abelard and others in the first years of the twelfth-century, started to disappear in texts datable from around the 1120, perhaps due to several difficulties that were related to this definition when applied in logical contexts. I also discuss how the notion of necessitas determinata was used by Abelard’s contemporaries to qualify the modal status of present and past events, which were generally believed to be necessary only in a “weak” and harmless sense that did not prevent them from being contingent.
Keywords: Peter Abelard; twelfth-century logic; medieval theories of modalities; necessity; absolute vs. conditioned necessity.
English title: Reflections on the Concept of Necessity in the First Half of the 12th Century
DOI: 10.14640/QuadernidiNoctua5-25
Volume: 5
Pagine / Pages: 1045-1088
Pubblicazione / Publication date: 01/02/2019
Permalink: https://dx.doi.org/10.14640/QuadernidiNoctua5-25
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ISSN 2723-9225