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Walter Burley on Motion in a Vacuum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Rega Wood
Rega Wood*
Affiliation:
Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure, New York
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Extract

We all ‘know’ that medieval Aristotelians did not believe that a vacuum was possible, and we are complacent in our ‘knowledge’ that they were wrong. Even if we have an inkling of the sophistication of much medieval thinking on this topic, we are unlikely to suppose that anything medievals had to say on the subject is worth the trouble to study. What we may not realize is that not all medievals thought a vacuum or motion in a vacuum was impossible; following Avempace, in fact, many medieval philosophers argued that motion in a vacuum was possible, at least in theory.

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Articles
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Traditio , Volume 45 , 1990 , pp. 191 - 217
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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Professors Marilyn McCord Adams, Norman Kretzmann, Lang, Helen, and Allen Wood, W. were kind enough to read this paper. I am most grateful for their useful and constructive comments. The errors which remain are my own.Google Scholar

2 215a24–215b20.Google Scholar

3 See Wood, R., ‘Walter Burley's Physics Commentaries,’ Franciscan Studies 44 (1984).Google Scholar

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5 Duns Scotus, Ioannes, Ordinatio II, dist. 2, pars 2, q. 5, nn. 430–38 (ed. Vaticana 7 [Vatican 1973] 346–50). See Grant, Edward, Much Ado About Nothing (Cambridge 1981) 32f. Father Gál, G. has suggested that Burley may be arguing against Franciscus Rubeus de Marchia, who read the Sentences in 1320–23. A Sententia et compilatio super libros Physicorum by Marchia is preserved in MSS Vat. Ottob. lat. 1816, fols. 30–49r, and Munich Clm 5874. See Lohr, Charles, ‘Medieval Latin Aristotle Commentaries, Authors A–F,’ Traditio 23 (1967) 411–12.Google Scholar

6 Burley, Gualterus, Quaestiones super libros Physicorum 39 (Lib. IV, quaest. 6: Utrum vacuum possit esse): MS Basel, Bibl. Univ. F.V.12, fol. 166va–vb:Google Scholar

Quod autem in ista significatione non possit vacuum esse probo, quia si aliquod spatium esset separatum a corpore, et tamen hoc esset natum repleri corpore, sequitur quod duo corpora possunt esse simul et similiter duae dimensiones. Quia tale spatium separatum aut esset in aliqua substantia sicut in subiecto vel non. Si sic, tunc illa substantia esset substantia dimensionata, quia huiusmodi spatium esset dimensionatum. Et si sit substantia dimensionata, ergo est corpus. Si tunc illud spatium possit repleri aliquo corpore, sequitur quod duo corpora essent nata esse simul. Similiter sequitur quod plures dimensiones profundae distinctae possunt esse simul, et sic dimensiones penetrarent se.Google Scholar

Si tale spatium vacuum non sit aliqua substantia, nec in substantia sicut in subiecto, ergo ibi essent dimensiones separatae ab omni substantia, et per consequens quantitas esset sine subiecto, quod est contra naturam. Google Scholar

Similiter sequitur quod illae dimensiones possunt esse simul cum dimensionibus corporis intrinsecis. Hoc est falsum, quia per Philosophum, I huius, sola dimensio facit distare. Licet ergo illa dimensio esset separata ab omni subiecto, adhuc sic distaret ab aliis dimensionibus quod ei repugnaret simul esse cum aliis dimensionibus.Google Scholar

Si dicas quod talis dimensio separata potest esse simul cum aliis dimensionibus: Contra: si illa dimensio vacui permittat secum dimensiones corporis, et (?) multo fortiori permitteret secum aliam dimensionem vacuam [fol. 166vb], et per consequens una pars vacui permitteret secum aliam partem eiusdem vacui, et sic esset possibile quod unum totum [or ro-um] maximum vacuum esset in puncto indivisibili. Quia quaelibet pars vacui permitteret secum aliam partem eiusdem vacui. Sequitur ergo quod dimensiones vacui non permittant secum alias dimensiones, et per consequens vacuum non est, intelligendo per vacuum spatium non repletum corpore, aptum tamen repleri.Google Scholar

7 Note that this is quantity separated from substance and sensible quality, not separated from substance and sensible quantity, as Grant maintains on the basis of a mistake in the printed edition he quotes: The Principle of the Impenetrability of Bodies in the History of Concepts of Separate Space from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century,’ Isis 69 (1978) 64. See appendix § 2.22–30, 78f., 102–5.Google Scholar

8 Grant's major discussion of Burley on motion in a vacuum is found in his 1978 Isis article 567f. In 1979, in an isolated paragraph of another study, Grant indicated that Burley argued for the possibility of motion in a vacuum on the hypothesis that quantity can exist separately: ‘The Condemnation of 1277, God's Absolute Power and Physical Thought in the Late Middle Ages,’ Viator 10 (1979) 233f. But the Isis article reappeared in 1981 without addition or revision: Much Ado About Nothing (above, n. 5) 33.Google Scholar

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15 We might be tempted to speak of instantaneous motion, but many medievals considered this a contradiction in terms and reserved the term ‘mutation’ or ‘transmutation’ for this purpose. ‘Mutation’ described cases where a new form was introduced; this terminology is designed to avoid suggesting that gradual alteration, however rapid, could accomplish this substantial change. ‘Local mutation,’ or ‘mutation of place,’ sounds odd, but it is found in Latin translations of Aristotle, and it is used in preference to ‘instantaneous motion’ by authors as diverse as Giles of Rome and Peter John Olivi (Egidii Romani Commentaria in octo libros Phisicorum Aristotelis V lect. 3; III lect. 1 [Venice 1502; repr. Frankfurt 1968], fols. 119ra–rb; 50va--51rb; Petrus Ioannis Olivi, Quodlibet I quaest. 1: An Deus possit in uno instanti transferre aliquam rem de uno loco ad alterum per spatium intermedium [Venice 1505; no pagination]). Cf. Ockham, , Expositio physicorum III c. 2 § 7 (ed. Richter, V., Guillelmi de Ockham Opera Philosophica [OPh] 4 [St. Bonaventure, , N.Y. 1985] 438f.).Google Scholar

16 See appendix § 2.35–40, 53–60.Google Scholar

17 See appendix § 2.41–52.Google Scholar

18 See appendix § 2.70–79.Google Scholar

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20 See appendix § 3.3–15.Google Scholar

21 See appendix § 3.16–23. Here Burley has slipped, and spoken of ‘motus … subito et in instanti,’ where strictly speaking he should have said ‘mutatio … subito et in instanti.’Google Scholar

22 See appendix § 3.24–28.Google Scholar

23 See appendix § 3.29–36.Google Scholar

24 See appendix § 3.37–48; Grant, ‘Impenetrability’ 568 n.68.Google Scholar

25 See appendix § 3.49–64.Google Scholar

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28 See appendix § 6.3–11.Google Scholar

29 See appendix § 6.12–20.Google Scholar

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34 Expositio Physicorum IV c. 12 § 1; 14 § 7 (OPh 5.132, 162).Google Scholar

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39 Aquinas, Thomas, In Physicorum Aristotelis IV lect. 10.Google Scholar

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42 Expositio s. totum IV t. c. 71, tr. 2, c. 4, fol. 115vb.Google Scholar

43 Expositio Physicorum IV c. 14 § 5 (OPh 5.156, 158).Google Scholar

44 Quodlibet I q. 8 (OTh 9.45–48); Brevis Summa IV c. 4 (ed. Brown, S.; OPh 6 [St. Bonaventure 1984] 70).Google Scholar

45 Expositio Physicorum IV c. 14 § 4 (OPh 5.150f.). Ockham's exposition of t. c. 71 was written as a reply to Giles of Rome. Ockham attributed to Giles the view that a vacuum is a separated quantity. And he agrees with Burley that if quantity is assumed to be capable of independent existence, a vacuum consisting of a quantity of space lacking any substance or quality would require time for its traversal. But unlike Burley, Ockham held that such separated quantity would be completely inactive; it could coexist with, or be compatible with, the presence of a moving object. See Ockham, , Expositio Physicorum IV c. 14 § 4 (OPh 5.148). Cf. Moody, E., ‘Ockham and Aegidius of Rome,’ Studies in Medieval Philosophy, Science and Logic (Los Angeles 1975) 170–76.Google Scholar

46 Expositio Physicorum IV c. 14 § 5 (OPh 5.155).Google Scholar

47 Expositio Physicorum IV c. 14 § 5 (OPh 5.155f.).Google Scholar

48 See appendix § 2.31–43. Note that Burley consistently maintained that sola quantitas facit distare; see his Quaestiones 39 (above, n. 6) fol. 166va.Google Scholar

49 Ockham, , Quaest. in IV Sent. 6 (edd. Wood, R., G. Gál, Green, R.; OTh 7 [St. Bonaventure 1984] 71). For a discussion of Ockham's views on the physics of the Eucharist, see Stump, E., Theology and Physics in De sacramento altaris,’ in N. Kretzmann (ed.), Infinity and Continuity in Ancient and Medieval Thought (Ithaca 1982) 213–16.Google Scholar