An introduction to mental language in late medieval philosophy
pp. 1-25
in: Jenny Pelletier, Magali Roques (eds), The language of thought in late medieval philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
The introduction to this volume is divided into two parts. The first part includes an overview of the state of the art on mental language as a key topic and tool in the philosophical analyses of the fourteenth century. We describe the current state of scholarship in five main areas: (1) the mental language hypothesis in general and in the work of William of Ockham in particular; (2) the comparison of Ockham to John Buridan (1295/1300–1358/61), another leading figure in the first half of fourteenth century, on mental language and related semantic issues; (3) situating Ockham within a broader context by examining themes in mental language in other philosophers both preceding and following him; (4) developments in Ockham's semantics and its connection to concept formation and cognitive psychology; (5) the relationship, if any, between mental language and nominalism. The second part of the introduction briefly describes the chapters of the present volume and explains their organization.