Walter Burley

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De intensione et remissione formarum , 1496

Walter Burley (also Walter von Burley, Latin Burlaeus or Burleus; the name form "Burleigh" is wrong; * 1274 or 1275 in Burley-in-Wharfedale [Yorkshire], † after 1344) was a late medieval English philosopher and a spiritual pioneer of Oxford Calculators . He gained importance primarily as a critic of the nominalism represented by Wilhelm von Ockham . His honorary name was Doctor planus et perspicuus ("clear, clear teacher").

Life

Burley studied at Merton College of Oxford University , where he a degree no later than 1301 master of arts gained. He then taught there at least until 1305 at the artist faculty . From 1310 at the latest, he lived in Paris, where he studied theology with Thomas Wilton and obtained his master's degree in theology in 1324 at the latest. He is first attested as a priest in 1321. At the Paris University he taught until 1327. On February 1, 1327 King Edward III ascended in England . after the forced abdication of his father Edward II the throne. This change of power opened up new career opportunities for Burley, who was an opponent of Edward II and supporters of the new ruler. Already in February 1327 Edward III commissioned him. with an embassy to the papal court in Avignon . In the following years he was on the road repeatedly on behalf of the king; so he was again at the Curia in 1330 and 1343, where his resolute opposition to Ockham was certainly appreciated. In 1341 he held a disputation ( disputatio de quolibet ) in Bologna . For a time he also stayed in his English homeland. There he was sentenced to imprisonment in 1336 for a forest crime - he had cut two oaks without permission - but was pardoned at the instigation of his patron Richard de Bury , the Bishop of Durham. In 1344 he is attested for the last time as living.

Burley was previously considered the author of the Liber de vita et moribus philosophorum , a doxographic-biographical representation of the non-Christian ancient spiritual life. Only recent research has shown that this work, which was very popular in the late Middle Ages, was wrongly ascribed to him.

Works

Burley wrote over 50 works, some of which have only been published. These are mainly commentaries on many of Aristotle's writings . Burley's particular interest was logic. Among other things, he commented on the following works of the Corpus Aristotelicum : Categories , De interpretatione , Analytica posteriora , Topik , Sophistic refutations , Physics , De generatione et corruptione , De anima , Parva naturalia , Problemata , De motu animalium , Metaphysics , Nicomachean Ethics , Politics . In dealing with the nominalist position of Wilhelm von Ockham, he represented a moderate universal realism in the universality dispute . Burley's sharp remarks indicate that his conflict with Ockham was violent. In addition to the Aristotle Commentaries, he wrote the following works, among others:

  • Expositio super librum Porphyrii (Commentary on the Isagogue of Porphyrios )
  • Commentary on the Liber sex principiorum by Gilbert of Poitiers
  • De puritate artis logicae
  • Tractatus de universalibus realibus (1492/93) (Treatise on the real universals)
  • Tractatus de potentiis animae (Treatise on the faculties - faculties - of the soul)
  • Summa alphabetica problematum (a kind of lexicon of Aristotelian philosophy)
  • Sophismata insolubilia

Text editions and translations

  • In physicam Aristotelis expositio et quaestiones: ac etiam quaestio de primo & ultimo instanti . Venetiis: Torresanis de Asula, 1501 ( digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf ).
  • In physicam Aristotelis expositio et quaestiones . Hildesheim 1972, ISBN 3-487-04143-X (reprint of the Venice 1501 edition of the commentary on the physics of Aristotle).
  • De sensibus. Edited by Herman Shapiro and Frederick Scott. Munich 1966 ( online )
  • On the purity of the art of logic. First treatise. Edited by Peter Kunze. Meiner, Hamburg 1988. ISBN 978-3-7873-0717-3 (Latin text from De puritate artis logicae tractatus longior with German translation).
  • Tractatus de universalibus. Treatise on universals, Latin-German. (= Treatises of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. Phil.-Hist. Class, Bd. 75, H. 5). Translated and edited. by Hans-Ulrich Wöhler. Stuttgart / Leipzig 1999.
  • Commentarium in Aristotelis De Anima L.III , Manuscripts facsimiles: MS. Vaticano lat. 2151, f.1-88 [1] , MS. Lambeth 143, pp. 76-138 [2] , MS. Lambeth 74, pp. 33-109 [3] , MS. Oxford Balliol College 92, f.9-200 [4] , online interactive paleography transcription with French and Italian translation by Mario Tonelotto, 2014.

literature

  • Peter Kunze: sentence truth and linguistic reference. Walter Burleigh's doctrine of the suppositio termini dealing with medieval tradition and the logic of William of Ockham . Dissertation, Freiburg / B. 1980.
  • Olga L. Larre: Walter Burley. Las primeras reacciones contra Ockham desde el realismo . In: Estudios franciscanos , Vol. 98 (1997), pp. 11-28, ISSN  0210-4385 .
  • Jennifer Ottman and Rega Wood: Walter of Burley. His Life and Works . In: Vivarium . An international journal for the philosophy and intellectual life of the middle ages and the renaissance , Vol. 37 (1999), pp. 1-23, ISSN  0042-7543 .
  • Frederick J. Scott: Walter Burley's treatise "De formis" . Beck, Munich 1970.
  • Herman Shapiro: Walter Burley and the Intension and remission of Forms , in: Speculum 34 (1959) 413-427.
  • A Companion to Walter Burley. Late Medieval Logician and Metaphysician, ed. By Alessandro D. Conti, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2013 [= Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition, Vol. 41]

Web links

Wikisource: Gualterus Burlaeus  - Sources and full texts (Latin)

Remarks

  1. ^ Digitized version of the 1886 edition.
  2. ↑ Jan Prelog: "De Pictagora phylosopho". The biography of Pythagoras in the "Liber de vita et moribus philosophorum" attributed to Walter Burley . In: Medioevo. Rivista di storia della filosofia medievale , Vol. 16 (1990), pp. 192-195, ISSN  0391-2566
    Mario Grignaschi: Lo pseudo Walter Burley e il "Liber de vita et moribus philosophorum" . In: Medioevo , Vol. 16 (1990), pp. 131-190
    Mario Grignaschi: "Corrigenda et addenda" sulla questione dello Ps. Burleo . In: Medioevo , Vol. 16 (1990), pp. 325-354.
personal data
SURNAME Burley, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walter from Burley
BRIEF DESCRIPTION late medieval philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 1274 or 1275
PLACE OF BIRTH Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire
DATE OF DEATH after 1344