John Buridan

This is a brief, accessible introduction to the thought of the philosopher John Buridan. Klima argues that many of Buridan's academic concerns are strikingly similar to those of modern philosophy and his work sometimes quite directly addresses modern philosophical questions.

Gyula Klima is a Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University.

Preface
1: Buridans Life, Works, and Influence
2: Buridans logic and the medieval logical tradition
3: The Primacy of Mental Language
4: The various kinds of concepts and the idea of a mental language
5: Natural language and the idea of a formal syntax in Buridan
6: Existential import and the Square of Opposition
7: Ontological commitment
8: The properties of terms (proprietates terminorum)
9: The semantics of propositions
10: Logical validity in a token-based, semantically closed logic
11: The possibility of scientific knowledge
12: Buridans anti-skepticism
13: Buridans essentialist nominalism
Bibliography