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==Introduction==

==Introduction==

Here is a translation of question 24 from Simon of Faversham' s book of questions On Sophistical Refutations.  The question is whether 'Caesar is dead' is true - a favourite topic of modist logicians of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century.  For more source material on the same or similar questions, see Radulphus Brito on [[Directory:Logic Museum/Radulphus Brito/Quaestiones super Artem veterem|whether]] the existence of a dead man implies the existence of a man.  More material written by Duns Scotus and an anonymous writer of the same period, to follow.  (<b>Links to follow</b>).  Is Caesar dead?  The problem is that the proper name  'Caesar'  signifies a man.  But a man is by definition something that lives.  So how can Caesar, a man, be dead?  Much mental energy was expended on this question in this period,

Here is a translation of question 24 from Simon of Faversham' s book of questions On Sophistical Refutations.  The question is whether 'Caesar is dead' is true - a favourite topic of modist logicians of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century.  For more source material on the same or similar questions, see Radulphus Brito on [[Directory:Logic Museum/Radulphus Brito/Quaestiones super Artem veterem|whether]] the existence of a dead man implies the existence of a man.  More material written by Duns Scotus and an anonymous writer of the same period, to follow.  (<b>Links to follow</b>).  Is Caesar dead?  The problem is that the proper name  'Caesar'  signifies a man.  But a man is by definition something that lives.  So how can Caesar, a man, be dead?  Much mental energy was expended on this question in this period.

this piece is a classic.

Note that Simon of Faversham has been invoked by those who have tried to explain why a work apparently written by Duns Scotus (questions on Aristotle 's <i>De Interpretatione</i>) in the 1290 's, contains so much knowledge of questions such as these, when he was not in Paris until the 1300 's.  It has been supposed that Simon was the connection, having taught in Paris in the 1280 's and having brought back modist doctrine and material to Oxford in the 1290 's.

Note that Simon of Faversham has been invoked by those who have tried to explain why a work apparently written by Duns Scotus (questions on Aristotle 's <i>De Interpretatione</i>) in the 1290 's, contains so much knowledge of questions such as these, when he was not in Paris until the 1300 's.  It has been supposed that Simon was the connection, having taught in Paris in the 1280 's and having brought back modist doctrine and material to Oxford in the 1290 's.