Linguistic externalism and mental language in Ockham and Buridan

Claude Panaccio

pp. 225-237

in: Gyula Klíma (ed), Questions on the soul by John Buridan and others, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

Panaccio's chapter takes on the issue of objects of thought in a purely nominalist setting, comparing Ockham's and Buridan's accounts of the same questions. The chapter argues that whereas William of Ockham can legitimately be branded as a linguistic externalist, Buridan's considered position with respect to linguistic meaning is a form of internalism. In this discussion, much hinges on the precise understanding of the medieval doctrine of imposition, the mechanism whereby written and spoken symbols are subordinated to acts of thought, and how this mechanism relates individual acts of thought to their publicly recognized objects.

Cited authors

Ockham William

Buridan Jean