Richard Brinkley on Supposition

Abstract

This study comments on six notabiiia found in the general observations (praemittenda) with which Brinkley begins his treatise on supposition in his Summa logicae: i) the logico-metaphysical explanation ofthe distinction between significatio and suppositio, ii) the ontic division principle of supposition. Hi) the relationship between supposita and truth-makers, iv) what seems to be a late (and English) resurgence of natural supposition, v) a pragmatic suspension of the regula appellationum and vi) Brinkle/s apparently incompatible claims that there are communicable things and that there are only singular things, a position that is a medieval form of immanent realism. Based on the two manuscripts that contain the treatise on supposition, an appendix offers a provisional edition of part of Brinkle/s Summa, a collaboration between the author and Joël Lonfat. Keywords significatio, suppositio, suppositio naturalis, appeiiatio, truth-makersWe know little ofthe life of Richard Brinkley beyond that he was a Franciscan theologian and philosopher active at the University of Oxford in the middle of the fourteenth century.' Although only fragments and abbreviations of his theological works survive, his pertinent writings had a significant impact on Parisian theology throughout the 1360s and 1370s. Working backwards, and given its content and the normal academic cursus ofthe time, we might guess that Brinke/s Summa logicae was written in the late 1340s, although some date it as late as the 1360s. The Summa logicae consists of seven parts: 'De terminis in genere', 'De universalibus', 'De predicamentis', 'De suppositionibus'.