Directory:Logic Museum/Syncategoremata

In medieval logic, syncategoremata are words which are not categorematic: they cannot be used on their own as a subject term or as a predicate term. Syncategorematic terms can occur in a categorical or hypothetical proposition only with at least one matched pair of categorematic words – e.g., only Socrates runs (Solus Socrates currit), Socrates does not run (Socrates non currit).

More than fifty different words were considered in the medieval logicians' treatment of syncategoremata.

Primary sources

• Quaestiones Victorinae 1st half 12th century
  • In de Rijk, Logica Modernorum Vol. 2, Assen: Van Gorcum 1967.
• Tractatus de univocatione (ed. de Rijk) 3rd quarter 12th century
• Ars Emmerana (ed. de Rijk) 3rd quarter 12th century
• Ars Meliduna (ed. de Rijk) 1170/80
• Syncategoremata Monacensia (ed. Braakhuis) 4th quarter 12th century
• Tractatus implicitarum end of 12th century
• Dialectia Monacensis (ed. de Rijk) 4th quarter 12th century
• Tractatus Anagnini (ed. de Rijk) 1st decades 13th century
• Robert Bacon Syncategoremata (ed. Braakhuis) 1200/1210
• John le Page Syncategoremata (ed. Braakhuis) 1220/1230
• Richard the Sophister Abstractiones 1220/1230?
• Peter of Spain Tractatus (ed. de Rijk) 1230/1240
• Peter of Spain Syncategoremata (ed. Braakhuis) 1230/1240
• William of Sherwood Syncategoremata (ed. O'Donnell) 1230/1240
• Sophismata logicalia after 1230
• Nicholas of Paris Summe Metenses (exc. de Rijk) c. 1250
• Nicholas of Paris Syncategoremata (ed. de Rijk) c. 1250
• Quoniam ignoratis communibus (exc. Grabmann) c. 1250

References

• Kretzmann, Norman. "Syncategoremata, exponibilia, sophismata." The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy