The humanist treatises presented here are only peripheral to the history of logic, but I think historians of logic may read them with interest, if perhaps with irritation. In the early sixteenth century the humanists set about to demolish medieval logic based on syllogistic and disputation, and to replace it in the university curriculum with a 'rhetorical' logic based on the use of topics and persuasion. To a very large extent they succeeded. Although Aris totelian logic retained a vigorous life in the schools, it never again attained to the overwhelming primacy it had so long enjoyed in the northern universities. It has been the custom to take the arguments of the humanists at face value, and the word 'scholastic' has continued to have pejorative overtones. This is easy to understand, because until recently our knowledge of the high period of medieval logic has been slight, and the humanists' testimony as to its decadent state in the sixteenth century has, for the most part, been accepted uncritically. Within the past two decades important work on medieval logic has recovered the brilliant achievement of thirteenth and fourteenth century logicians, philosophers, and natural scientists. New studies are constantly appearing, and the logico-semantic system of the terminists has become fruitful territory not only for historians of logic but also for students of modern linguistics and semiotics.

In 1503, for the first time, a student in Paris was able to spend his entire university career studying only the printed textbooks of his teacher, thanks to the works of the humanist and university reformer Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (c. 1455-1536). As printed books became central to the intellectual habits of following generations, Lefèvre turned especially to mathematics as a way to renovate the medieval university. Making Mathematical Culture argues this was a pivatol moment in the cultural history of Europe and explores how the rise of the printed book contributed to the growing profile of mathematics in the region. Using student manuscripts and annotated books, Making Mathematical Culture offers a new account of printed textbooks, as jointly made by masters and students, and how such collaborative practices informed approaches to mathematics.

Locating literature at the intersection of distinct areas of thinking on the nature, scope and methods of knowledge - philosophy, theology, science, and the law - this book engages with literary texts across periods and genres to address questions of probability, problems of evidence, the uses of experiment and the poetics and ethics of doubt.

This is the first volume in a series of studies on the late Middle Ages, covering the period from around 1300 to 1550. Each volume aims to provide exhaustive and diverse treatments of one significant example of late medieval culture. Volume one explores the late medieval epistle.

No detailed description available for "Studies on the History of Logic".

This book shows how the Age of Reason actually began during the late Middle Ages.

Problems of Authority in the Reformation Debates shows that in the early sixteenth century much was seen to be wrong with both the doctrine and the practice of authority in the Western Church. A great deal of scholarly effort was devoted at the time to trying to understand the nature of the problem, but this, as the author points out, was largely a piecemeal endeavour. No one succeeded in providing a comprehensive account of the complex 'authority' questions which were being raised about absolute divine sovereignty, the centrality of Christ, the primacy of scripture, the necessity of grace, and so on. Dr Evans aims here to piece together underlying connections in the theology of the Reformation period, as a contribution to ecumenical dialogue. She shows how, as theologians struggle today about words and meanings, the detailed texture of semantic debate similarly underlies many of the Reformation controversies.

Latin lives of Thomas More / Germain Marc'hadour -- Modern biographies of Sir Thomas More / Michael Ackland -- More's letters and "The comfort of the truth" / Alison V. Scott -- Humanism, female education, and myth : Erasmus, Vives, and More's To Candidus / A.D. Cousins -- Virtue, transformation, and exemplarity in The Lyfe of Johan Picus / L.E. Semmler -- Inhabiting time : Sir Thomas More's Historia Richardi Tertii / Arthur F. Kinney -- The epigrams of More and Erasmus : a literary diptych / Clarence H. Miller -- Erasmus and More : exploring vocations / Bruce Mansfield -- "Civitas philosophica" : ideas and community in Thomas More / Dominic Baker-Smith -- Utopia / Damian Grace -- The reluctant champion : More's Responsio ad Lutherum and Letter to Bugenhagen / Alistair Fox -- "The field is won" : an introduction to the Tower works / Seymour Baker House.

Sandra Bihlmaier constitutes a historical and philosophical analysis of Philipp Melanchthon's concept of method and philosophy. By means of a detailed inquiry into Melanchthon's textbooks of dialectic and rhetoric it uncovers the emergence and development of a notion of method which underlies an encyclopedic understanding of philosophy. The work reveals both the traditions of rhetoric and dialectic which Melanchthon builds on in his own works, as well as the Reformer's own original reinterpretation of these traditions. Moreover, the reinterpretation and transformation of essential concepts taken from traditional accounts is thematized against the background of the canon of arts and sciences, which undergoes a fundamental change during the European Renaissance. The understanding, configuration, and the applicability of this canon is deeply influenced by this original concept of method.Philipp Melanchthon's concept of method and philosophy is central to the understanding of 16th century definition of philosophy. Melanchthon's attempt to integrate into a former theoretical discipline, both the aspect of usefulness, as well as a degree of general applicability in human affairs, testifies to the fertility of his philosophical program. Also his project is highly relevant for an understanding of philosophy which transgresses contemporary idiosyncratic categories of philosophical knowledge and draws attention to two fundamental historiographical aspects. First, it cautions historians and philosophers against transferring current definitions of philosophy to works which emerge from different historical, social and intellectual traditions. Second, it raises the awareness of the reader regarding his own understanding of philosophy and of its underlying presuppositions.