Article published In: Bochumer Philosophisches Jahrbuch für Antike und Mittelalter: Band 26
Herausgegeben von Manuel Baumbach und Olaf Pluta
[Bochumer Philosophisches Jahrbuch für Antike und Mittelalter 26] 2023
► pp. 115–143
Beiträge
Inhering hylomorphic modes or hylomorphic modes of inherence?
The anti-modist hylomorphism argument in the Destructions of the Modes of Signifying
Published online: 24 April 2025
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpjam.00103.cri
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpjam.00103.cri
Abstract
I analyze the Hylomorphism Argument in the anonymous Destructions of the Modes of Signifying (DMS), which attempts to
reduce the Modist Inherence Thesis (MIT) to absurdity. I note that the Hylomorphism Argument rests on a misunderstanding of MIT,
which posits distinct hylomorphic ways that modes inhere, rather than distinct hylomorphic modes. These hylomorphic inherence
relations can be seen to ground the derivation scheme among modes and therefore the correspondence relation appealed to in the
Modist Correspondence Thesis (MCT). This results in a formulation of MCT that more accurately represents Thomas of Erfurt’s
understanding of it than the caricatures appealed to in the DMS author’s anti-modist arguments.
Article outline
- Introduction
- 1.The modist correspondence thesis and the derivation of modes
- 2.The modist inherence thesis and the hylomorphism argument
- 3.Formal and material inherence
- 4.Building a hylomorphic correspondence relation
- Conclusion
- Notes
References
References (22)
Primary literature
Anonymous, Destructions of the Modes of Signifying
Crimi, Milo (trans.). 2020. “Destroying
the Modes of Signifying: Anti-Modism in Late Medieval Philosophy of Language,” PhD
Dissertation, UCLA.
Kaczmarek, Ludger (ed.). 1994. Destructiones
modorum significandi. Amsterdam: B.R. Grüner.
Michael of Marbais, Summary of the Modes of Signifying
Radulphus Brito, Questions on Priscian Minor
Siger of Courtrai, Summary of the Modes of Signifying
Pinborg, Jan (ed.). 1977. Sigerus
de Cortraco: Summa modorum significandi
sophismata. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Thomas of Erfurt, On the Modes of Signifying or Speculative Grammar
Secondary literature
Bursill-Hall, G. L. 1971. Speculative
Grammars of the Middle Ages: The Doctrine of the partes orationis of the Modistae. The Hague: Mouton.
1972. “Introduction.” In Grammatica
Speculativa of Thomas of Erfurt, edited and translated by G. L. Bursill-Hall, 1–126. London: Longman.
Covington, Michael. 2009. Syntactic
Theory in the High Middle
Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crimi, Milo. Forthcoming[a]. “From
Modes to Modes of Modes: The Anti-Modist Regress Argument in the Destructions of the Modes of
Signifying.” In Language, Thought, and Reality:
The Continental and British Traditions of Medieval Logic Revisited, edited
by Christoph Kann and Christian Rode. Recherches
de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales, Bibliotheca
series. Leuven: Peeters.
. 2024. “No
Mode of Being, No Mode of Signifying: The Anti-Modist Emptiness Argument in the Destructions of the Modes of
Signifying. Vivarium, 621: 1–36.
. 2020. “Destroying
the Modes of Signifying: Anti-Modism in Late Medieval Philosophy of Language,” PhD
Dissertation, UCLA.
Graffi, Giorgio and Stefano Pagliaroli. 2016. “Terminans
or Determinans in Thomas of Erfurt: A Proposal for Some Emendations of the Text of the
Grammatica
Speculativa.” Medioevo 411: 187–215.
Kaczmarek, Ludger. 1994. “Einleitung.” In Destructiones
modorum significandi: Herausgegeben und mit Einleitung und Registern versehen, edited
by Ludger Kaczmarek, ix–lx. Amsterdam: B.R. Grüner.
Marmo, Constantino. 1994. Semiotica
e linguaggio nella scolastica: Parigi, Bologna, Erfurt, 1270–1330. La semiotica dei
Modisti. Rome: Nella Sede Dell’Instituto Palazzo Borromini.
Pinborg, Jan. 1967. Die
Entwicklung der Sprachtheorie im
Mittelalter. Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung.
. 1982. “Speculative
Grammar.” In The Cambridge History of Later Medieval
Philosophy: From the Recovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of Scholasticism,
1100–1600, edited by Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny, Jan Pinborg, and Eleonore Stump, 254–269. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rosier-Catach [Rosier], Irène. 1982. “Le
théorie médiévale des Modes de
signifier.” Languages 651, Signification
et référence dans l’antiquité et au moyen âge
(MARS1982): 117–128.
. 1994. La
Parole comme Acte: Sur la Grammaire et la Sémantique au XIIIe
Siècle. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin.
Rosier-Catach, Irène. 2010. “Grammar.” In The
Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy, edited by Robert Pasnau and Christina Van Dyke, 196–216. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zupko, Jack. 2015. “Thomas
of Erfurt.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition), edited
by Edward N. Zalta. 〈[URL]〉.