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ADAM OF WODEHAM'S QUESTION ON THE "COMPLEXE SIGNIFICABILE' AS THE IMMEDIATE OBJECT OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE* When H. Elie's book, entitled Le Complexe Significabile, appeared in 1936, it was greeted as a major contribution to the history of philosophy . The warm reception of this work was fully justified because it called to the attention of historians of philosophy a problem which, after being hotly debated during the 14th and 15th centuries, had been completely forgotten until the end of the 19th century, when it was revived — in a modified form — in Alexius Meinong's theory of objects.1 No one had suspected, least of all Meinong himself, that at least part of his 'new theory' was more than 500 years old. The theory of the 'complexe significabile' (what is signifiable by a proposition)2 was intended to answer the question: What is the im- * I wish to thank Fr. Musie Gheberghiorghis, O.F.M. Cap. and Dr. Rega Wood for their kind help in preparing this article. 1 H. Elie, Le Complexe Significabile, Paris 1936. Reviewed by A. Teetaert (a Zedelgem), in Collectanea Franciscana, 10 (1940), 408-413. Teeaert writes: "Hoc in opere A. intendit sortem et fortunam explanare, quam habuit decursu saeculorum doctrina de "significabili per complexum" seu de "complexo significabili " a Gregorio ab Arimino, O. Erem. S. Aug., (j 1358), prima medietate saec. XIV excogitata ac ab eius discipulis sparsa, necnon secunda medietate eiusdem saeculi ab Andrea de Novo Castro (Neufchateau) O.F.M., retractata et, sub nova hac sua forma, a non paucis philosophis propugnata usque ad initium saeculi XVI, quo schola terminista Joannis Mair illi complete adhaesit. Summum momentum huius dissertationis eruitur ex eo quod illa doctrina hactenus fere omnino ignota fuit et omnes philosophiae historiographos fugit, necnon ex eo quod illius explanatio maxime collatura est ad novam theoriam de obiecto cognitionis recte intelligendam , quam A. Meinong ultimis annis saeculi XIX excogitavit quaeque summam similitudinem cum doctrina Gregorii Ariminensis habet" (ibidem, pp. 408s.). 2 'Complexum' is an Aristotelian term for proposition. In the 2nd chapter Adam of Wodeham's Question on the Complexe Significabile67 mediate object of scientific knowledge? Is it the reality signified by the terms (subject and predicate) of the conclusion? Or is it the conclusion of a demonstrative syllogism? Or is it the signifícate or meaning of the conclusion? Or, finally, is it the signifícate of the whole syllogism — namely, of the premises and the conclusion together? One of the possible answers is that the immediate object which terminates an act of scientific knowledge is the total and adequate signifícate of the conclusion of a demonstrative syllogism. Or, to be more precise, it is what can be signified by the conclusion (complexe significabile). For it is not necessary to formulate the conclusion and actually signify its meaning; it is enough that it be signifiable. For example, the total and adequate signifícate of the proposition 'God is eternal' (Deus est aeternus) is 'God-being-eternal' (Deum esse aeternum). It is, therefore, neither God nor eternity nor the proposition 'God is eternal' but the dictum* of the proposition, precisely 'God-being-eternal.' And although this signifícate is not a real entity — that is, neither substance nor accident — it is not nothing. The author who is generally credited with this ingenious solution is Gregory of Rimini, O.E.S.A.4 The purpose of the present article is to show that the real author of this solution is not Gregory of Rimini but Adam of Wodeham, O.F.M., who originated it as a via meof his Categories (ia 16-19) Aristotle states that whatever we say we express either by simple terms or by a complex of terms. 8 According to William of Ockham, Summa Logicae, pars II, c. 9, lin. 18-19: "dictum propositionis dicitur quando termini propositionis accipiuntur in accusativo casu et verbum in infinitivo modo" (Opera Philosophica I, ed. Ph. Boehner, G. Gal and S. Brown, St. Bonaventure, N.Y. 1974, 273). 4 Cf. J. Würsdorfer, Erkennen und Wissen nach Gregor von Rimini, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, XX, Münster in W. 1922, 40-43; H. Elie: "Tout d'abord, le...

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