Gerard Odon's "De Suppositionibus"

GERARD ODON'S "DE SUPPOSITIONIBUS' Gerard Odón, successor to the deposed Michael of Cesena as Minister General of the Franciscans, is mostly remembered in our times for his administrative career during the pontificates of John XXII and Benedict XII. * He was fiercely attacked within the Franciscan Order by the friends of Michael of Cesena: Francis of Marchia called him "Theologiae doctor indoctus;" Blaise of Muro charged him with teaching many things contrary to solid learning and Christian faith as well as with unduly persecuting Friars who lived praiseworthy Franciscan lives; and William of Ockham accused him of seven heresies.2 Concerning his educational career, Gerard in his own era was given the title "Doctor Moralis," perhaps as Fortunatus of SaintBonaventure argued, because of the moral insight he manifests on many points in his Commentary on the Sentences,3 or maybe on account of his elaborate Scriptum super Librum Ethicorum, without doubt his principal work. James J. Walsh has indicated Gerard's importance in the ethical discussions of the 14th and 15th centuries.4 Vassili P. Zoubov has studied his question "Utrum continuum componatur ex indivisibilibus " and has shown the relation of our author to his finitist disciples, Nicholas Bonet and Nicholas of Autrecourt, and his opponents on this question: John the Canon, Peter Tartaret and Cajetan of Tiène.5 Aside from these points of ethics and physics the doctrinal positions of Gerard are hardly known. Especially are we ignorant of Gerard 's contribution to the field of logic. In the present article we will 1 For a general introduction to the life and writings of Gerard see N. Valois, "Guiral Ot, Frère Mineur" in Histoire littéraire de la France, 36 (1927), 203-225. 2 N. Valois, "Guiral Ot...," 206-210. 8 N. Valois, "Guiral Ot...," 224. 4 James J. Walsh, "Buridan and Seneca" in Journal of the History of Ideas, 27 (rg66), 39. s Vassili P. Zoubov, "Walter Catton, Gerard d'Odon et Nicolas Bonet" Physis, ? (1959), 261-278. STEPHEN F. BROWN try to fill in this gap by editing his De Suppositionibus — such a central treatise for medieval logic, philosophy and theology. A. The Definition of Supposition Gerard begins his De Suppositionibus with a definition of supposition which at once criticizes an earlier definition of supposition as inadequate and goes on to complete it. "Suppositio autem termini est acceptio termini pro aliquo in usum loquendi de ipso."* The first part of the definition is granted by all logicians, our author tells us. Peter of Spain, for example, gives exactly the first part — but as his complete definition: "Suppositio autem est acceptio termini substantivi pro aliquo."7 Gerard, however, argues that a definition like Peter's is incomplete. You must add "in usum loquendi de ipso" to render it complete. The addition links Gerard with the position of Roger (?) Bacon, Walter Burley and William of Ockham who insist that supposition is the property of a term actually and knowingly employed in a proposition to refer to something.8 It also implies a denial of natural supposition. Neither does Gerard limit supposition to substantive terms after the manner of Peter of Spain, but rather, like Lambert of Auxerre, Walter Burley and William of Ockham, he takes supposition in a more common way to include non-substantive terms. He thus appears to follow the trend in these same authors to unify the once disparate treatises on supposition (limited to substantive terms) and on copulation (limited to adjectival terms).9 Attacking the position represented by Walter Burley's De Suppositionibus , and employing the latter's very argument and example, Gerard considers it an oversimplification to contend that part of a term or extreme cannot have supposition. First of all, an argument like Burley's could likewise be used to prove no complete term or extreme has supposition.10 Secondly, the question of the supposition of parts of extremes needs a number of distinctions, and in discussing 6 Gerard Odon, De Suppositionibus, infra, n. i.i. 7 Peter of Spain, Summulae Logicales, ed. I. M. Bochenski (Rome, 1947), 68. 8 See S. F. Brown, "Walter Burleigh's Treatise De Suppositionibus and its Influence on William of Ockham," Franciscan Studies, 32...