Abstract

This is a marvelous book, a “must read’ for anyone interested in understanding the philosophical debates of the later Middle Ages and a useful book for contemporary philosophers who will find in it a sophisticated articulation of a philosophical position well able to provide perspective on a number of contemporary debates. It is exceptionally well-written, clear, and insightful.We are now in a fairly good position to understand Buridan’s role in later medieval philosophy, his general philosophical orientation, and the milieu in which he worked. What we have lacked is a detailed study of the core of his philosophy, and it is this gap that Gyula Klima’s book splendidly fills—just as our picture of Buridan’s thought is coming into focus. Much of Buridan’s work is either unedited or exists only in incunabula, and there are underway editing projects of central texts that will shed considerable new light on the man and his work. We are fortunate, however, to have already a splendid English translation of and commentary on Buridan’s massive and rich Summulae de dialectica by Klima himself, and this, together with incunabula and with recent editions of some of his other logical works, forms a sufficient basis of text for reasonable confidence that Klima’s.