Temporal necessity in Buridan and Jandun
debates over De Caelo I.12
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2024.1.45576Keywords:
John Buridan, John of Jandun, varieties of necessity, medieval modalities, De CaeloAbstract
This article investigates the connection between modality and temporality in two Parisian Arts Masters active in the first half of the fourteenth century, namely John Buridan (c.1290-c.1361) and John of Jandun (c.1286-c.1328). My aim is to clarify the approach taken by both concerning the nature of that connection in an underexplored set of texts, the commentaries on Aristotle’s De Caelo. The interpretation of the relationship between the ‘necessary’ and ‘what always is’ received divergent interpretations about the assimilation of necessity and omnitemporality in pre-modern modal conceptions. Through the analysis of the debate surrounding Aristotle’s passages by both philosophers belonging to the milieu of the Arts faculty in Paris, the paper aims to show that such an assimilation was not consensual. Contrasting Jandun’s and Buridan’s approaches, I conclude that even though Buridan accommodates the kind of temporal necessity involved in De Caelo as a conditional form of necessity, he develops a critique of the general validity of Aristotle’s arguments insofar as absolute modalities are involved.
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