The role of the speaker in Roger Bacon and William of Ockham's supposition theories
A contrast
pp. 169-182
in: Jenny Pelletier, Magali Roques (eds), The language of thought in late medieval philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
While supposition theory is perhaps the closest thing medieval logicians have to a formal approach to semantics, it grants speakers a role. This role varies in importance from one logician to another. If we were to place the different positions on an axis stretching from the most semantic to the most pragmatic, William of Ockham and Roger Bacon would likely occupy the two extremes. On the semantic side, we would find William of Ockham and his apparent willingness to propose a system that seeks to determine sentences' truth conditions as formally as possible. On the pragmatic side and a few decades before Ockham, we would find Roger Bacon and his attempt to translate supposition theory into an intensional semantics of signification, so that the central importance of speakers is better described. This paper will rely on Claude Panaccio's work on Ockham's semantics and attempt to show that, in spite of the considerable differences that oppose the two theories, they share some fundamental ideas about the speakers' involvement in the semantic processes.
