The focus of Valla's argument is language and, more precisely, the meaning of terms, such as "sect" and "religion": "You think that our Rule should be called a "sect" and not a "religious order," says the Friar, "Thereby you call into question not only the merits of our profession, which constitutes the subject of our discussion, but indeed the name itself." (8) By an explicit connection between rhetoric and
terminist logic, Valla defines "sects" as "...
(57) At the end of the twelfth century, the development of the so-called '
terminist' logic attempted to recognize the difference of signification that each word assumes into a given context: that is, the determination of correct 'suppositions' (particular use of words into a context) with respect to 'impositions' (higher order of words' signification); cf.
In doing this he performs a valuable service to the scholarly community, allowing Aristotle scholars and others to apply seminal ideas from the Philosopher to topics in the history of philosophy, for example, the
Terminist tradition, and to contemporary discussions.
(45) Galileo was more influenced by
Terminist reflections on kinematics and the critical tradition of Italian Aristotelianism along with the newly rediscovered work of Archimedes.
The facts that Calvin was trained as a Parisian
Terminist and also studied Augustine deeply have long been determined, but to assume that this means that Calvin was taught by members of a Schola needs much more demonstration than McGrath provides.
On the one hand, we find statements which favor a
terminist interpretation, that is, categories as categories of terms, not things.
(52) Lambert Marie de Rijk, Logica Modernorum: A Contribution to the History of Early
Terminist Logic, 2 vols.
John Buridan especially advocated the pedagogical principle that whereas strict "
terminist" logic should be employed in the speculative sciences (logic, physics, metaphysics) a more rhetorical "logic" should be used in the practical sciences (ethics and theology); since this principle governs the Statute, Zenon Kaluza for one argues that Buridan was its leading author.
First, there was the revival of
terminist logic, to supersede the modist logic fashionable in Paris at the end of the thirteenth century.