Abstract

The Neuzeit is that of "modern Scholasticism", a period rich in the investigation of logical questions, but relatively neglected by historians and philosophers interested in these matters. Hickman here offers a general outline and interpretation of the major tendencies of Neuzeit theories of second intentions through the examination of several characteristic examples. The opening chapter is devoted primarily to an interpretation of modern scholastic predication theory in terms of class membership and class inclusion, following which he proceeds to a discussion of the sense in which "intention" was used by various authors and schools, distinguishing several basic trends, the more detailed analysis of which occupies the greater part of the book. 1) "Psychologistic Conceptualism and Nominalism", is a series of variations on a single theme, represented here chiefly by William of Ockham for the former and John Major for the latter. Hickman notes that albeit one distinguished first and second intentions, the theory did not formally recognise higher level predicates as such, since intentions were understood as psychological entities and though a second intention was thus considered the concept of a concept or sign or a sign, it nonetheless signifies a first level existent, viz., another sign, really existing in the thinker. The tendency was carried even further, Hickman says, by John Major and his disciples, who tended to neglect in practice the distinction between intentions and words.