Between Peckham and Buridan. Visual Representation in 15th-Century Vienna Disputations

0576126 - FLÚ 2024 RIV eng A - Abstract
Lička, Lukáš
Between Peckham and Buridan. Visual Representation in 15th-Century Vienna Disputations.
[Sight and Light in the Late Middle Ages. Leuven, 12.06.2023-13.06.2023]
Method of presentation: Přednáška
Event organizer: KU Leuven
URL events: https://hiw.kuleuven.be/dwmc/events/agenda/sight-light 
EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 949710 - ACADEMIA
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : medieval philosophy * perception * medieval optics * medieval Vienna university * medieval disputations * John Peckham * John Buridan * Martin Hamerlin * Henry Platerberger
OECD category: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

This presentation analyses theories of visual representation extracted from various mostly unpublished texts from the 15th-century University of Vienna: disputation materials, commentaries on Aristotle’s De anima and John Peckham’s Perspectiva communis, and compendia of natural philosophy. Two idiosyncratic tenets developed and defended by Vienna masters are examined. The first claim proposes that visual representations are extended and, in some way, ‘shaped’ according to the objects seen, with parts distinctly representing the respective parts of the latter. The second claim is that acts of external senses are a sort of concepts signifying the substance of the object seen and connoting its colour, shape, place and other accidents. Thus, the Vienna masters advocated and expanded the Buridanian idea of the rich content of visual representation: we do not see only colours, but objects as modified by diverse visible properties. It is investigated whether any Vienna author endorsed both claims, and whether they are compatible in principle.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0346148