MAREK GENSLER, ROBERT PODKOŃSKI, On the Critical Edition of Walter Burley’s “Parva Naturalia” Commentaries

SUMMARY

Walter Burley was an English philosopher and theologian active in the first half of the fourteenth century. He is best known for his contributions to logic and the philosophy of nature. His five commentaries on the Parva naturalia: De sensu et sensato, De memoria et reminiscentia, De longitudine et brevitate vitae and De somno (comprising all three of Aristotle’s works on the issue), are, most probably, the fruits of his long regency at the Arts Faculty in Oxford. Until recently, they have not attracted much interest among historians of philosophy. A preliminary study of these works, however, shows that they deserve attention for a number of reasons. They document an early stage in the development of Burley’s views on natural philosophy. They are also a display of a valuable variety of approaches to the texts usually commented upon for teaching purposes in the Oxford schools of that time.