2 - Anonymous: Abbreviatio Montana

Summary

Introduction

By the middle of the twelfth century, one of the most important schools for the study of logic was the one at Mont Ste. Geneviève in Paris, from which several logic treatises or fragments remain. The treatise translated here is a twelfth-century summary (abbreviatio) of an introductory logic text, called ‘Montana’ because of its association with Mont Ste. Geneviève.

The abbreviatio begins with the subjects traditional for logic texts in this period: the nature of dialectic, vocal sound, names and verbs, and expressions (i.e., phrases, clauses, or sentences). This introductory material is followed by a detailed discussion of the nature and kinds of categorical propositions and the way such propositions convert with one another. A brief analysis of hypothetical (or conditional) propositions precedes the lengthy examination of inferences that constitutes the bulk of the treatise.

The first inferences considered are Topical. Topics are warrants for the inferential move from the antecedent to the consequent in a true hypothetical proposition. The treatise analyzes Topics that bear some resemblance to the Boethian Topics traditionally discussed in this connection – from the whole, from parts, from equals, and from opposites. It then goes on to discuss combinations such as the Topic from a double whole, which is supposed to warrant such conditionals as ‘If no tree is an animal, no oak tree is either a rational or an irrational animal.’