De Obligationibus: Rekonstruktion Einer Spatmittelalterlichen

Description: The late-scholastic logical treatises 'De Obligationibus' deal with disputes between two participants, called opponent and respondent, who debate according to strict rules. So-called 'sophismata', in which the rules seem to lead to paradoxical situations, are constructed and discussed by the medieval authors. In this book, the view that the treatises are intended to put forward a theory of disputation is advocated and pursued into the details of the medieval discussion. A thorough reconstruction of the arts obligatoria by the methods of modern logic and set theory is elaborated, which helps to clarify various medieval conceptions in this context. The use of formal means for an understanding of the author's intentions is justified by a specific hermeneutic conception, called 'structural hermeneutics'.