Johannes Breslauer: "Quaestiones circa libros De anima Aristotelis", liber I, quaestio 6.

What is it about?

Johannes Breslauer (1420-1485), a thomistic philosopher at the young University of Leipzig, wrote among other things a commentary on Aristotle´s "De Anima". The present critical edition concerns one special question of that commentary, i.e. "Utrum universale nihil sit aut posterius suis singularibus". After confronting the respective different positions of the "moderni" and the "antiqui" in view of the universals Breslauer makes a decision of that classical question by means of some conclusions. His theory of abstraction, a keystone of his solution, clearly showes his dissent with the "via moderna" of his times. In his own philosophical thinking the author tries to combine the philosophical positions of Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus with each other. This aspect ought to be respeced for a historical evaluation of that text and this author.

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