Introduction
(2011) Pere Tomàs, Tractatus brevis de modis distinctionum, text edited by — ISBN: [978-84-937590-8-7], p. 12-270, published
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- The Tractatus brevis de modis distinctionum is a short metaphysical treatise by the late-medieval Franciscan philosopher and theologian Peter Thomae. In this treatise we see the development of what in historical terms constitutes a highly influential theory of identity and distinction. The author elaborates upon theories concerning this subject as found in the works of John Duns Scotus (c. 1265-1308) and others; however, he goes further than his predecessors, working out an original classification of kinds of distinction and identity. If the Scholastics in general are known for their highly speculative division of everything that might, at first sight, appear indivisible, as the above quote from Francis Bacon suggests, what Peter Thomae uncovers are the very foundations presupposed by any such activity. The classification of seven kinds of distinction found in our treatise was widely received in later generations of scholastic authors, both within the European Latin tradition in general and the Iberian Hebrew tradition in particular. The history of its reception is characterised not only by favourable but also by highly critical responses, and the theory still elicited discussion within seventeenth- and eighteenth-century textbooks on scholastic philosophy. This in itself is one reason why the present-day historiography of philosophy should pay serious attention to Peter Thomae’s treatise. Another interesting – though historically not so influential – perspective in our text is the application of the theory of distinction to the ten Aristotelian categories, an application that secures Peter Thomae a unique place in the history of how Aristotle’s doctrine on the categories was received by the Latin tradition.
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Andersen, C. (2011). Introduction. In Celia López Alcalde, Josep Batalla, Claus A. Andersen, Robert D. Hughes (ed.), Pere Tomàs, Tractatus brevis de modis distinctionum, text edited by (p. p. 12-270). Obrador Edèndum. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/275373