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Publication Details

Signification in William Ockham

(Original title: K problematike signifikácie u Williama Ockhama)
Filozofia, 66 (2011), 1, 24-34.
Type of work: Papers
Publication language: Slovak
Abstract

The paper describes W. Ockham’s theory of signification on the background of the classical medieval philosophy, with which Ockham comes to terms by the help of an original metaphysical-logical theory of sign having its effects also on the theory of universals. There are two approaches rejected by Ockham: First, the Aquinas’s theory of species which in Ockham’s view can not correspond to the really perceived world; secondly, from the metaphysical perspective he also rejects Scot’s metaphy- sics and epistemology, whose terminology in his view was too detailed and expanded. Ockham’s logic and metaphysics intertwine in his theory of signification, which, seen from the semantic perspective, makes the resolution of the relationship between world and language reflecting the former possible.

Keywords

Medieval logic, William Ockham, The theory of sign, Signification, Supposition

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