Metaphysics Through Semantics: The Philosophical Recovery of the Medieval Mind

“More than any other living scholar of medieval philosophy, Gyula Klima has influenced the way we read and understand philosophical texts by showing how the questions they ask can be placed in a modern context without loss or distortion. The key to his approach is a respect for medieval authors coupled with a commitment to regarding their texts as a genuine source of insight on questions in metaphysics, theology, psychology, logic, and the philosophy of language—as opposed to assimilating what they say to modern doctrines, or using medieval discussions as a foil for ‘new and improved’ conceptual schemes.”  Jack Zupko, University of Alberta

“Gyula Klima is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on thirteenth and fourteenth-century Latin philosophy, with his own, distinctive analytic approach, which brings out both the similarities and differences between medieval and contemporary logic and semantics.”  John Marenbon, Trinity College, University of Cambridge

 “Gyula Klima has been a towering figure in the field of medieval philosophy for decades. His influence comprises not only the scholarly results of his work, but also intense and generous mentorship of students and junior colleagues. This volume is a perfect reflection of the esteem that he enjoys around the world, collecting excellent pieces by established as well as up-and-coming scholars of medieval philosophy.”  Catarina Dutilh Novaes, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

“For four decades now, Gyula Klima has been setting the standard among medievalists for philosophical sophistication and historical rigor. This collection of wide-ranging studies from leading scholars in the field offers a worthy tribute to that legacy.”  Robert Pasnau, University of Colorado Boulder

Gyula Klima is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, and Senior Research Fellow, Consultant, and the Director of Institute for the History of Ideas of the Hungarian Research Institute in Budapest.  In 2022, the President of Hungary awarded him the Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, “in recognition of his outstanding academic career, significant research work and exemplary leadership.”  In this volume, colleagues, collaborators, and students celebrate Klima’s project with new essays on Plotinus, Anselm, Aquinas, Buridan, Ockham and others, exploring specific questions in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and logic.

No contemporary surpasses Kripke and Klima in semantics and metaphysics, but only Gyula Klima’s thought ranges flawlessly over classical philosophy as well. The volume is a fitting tribute to the master. David Twetten, Marquette University

Joshua P. Hochschild studied at Yale (B.A. 1994) and the University of Notre Dame (Ph.D. 2001), and his primary research is in medieval logic, semantics, and metaphysics.  He has published articles and reviews in International Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of the History of Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy and Theology, and The Thomist among other journals.  He is the author of The Semantics of Analogy: Rereading Cajetan’s De Nominum Analogia (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), and translator of Claude Panaccio’s Mental Language: From Plato to Ockham (Fordham University Press, 2017).  He is one of the founding members and former secretary of the Society for Medieval Logic and Metaphysics, and for 2020-2021 was President of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

Turner C. Nevitt is a graduate of the University of St. Thomas, TX (BA) and Fordham University (MA, MPhil, PhD). He specializes in medieval philosophy, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion. His work has appeared in such journals as The Thomist, History of Philosophy Quarterly, and American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. He is the translator, with Brian Davies, OP, of Thomas Aquinas’s Quodlibetal Questions (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Adam Wood studied philosophy and ancient languages at Wheaton College, Illinois (B.A. 2004) and wrote a dissertation on Aquinas's philosophical psychology with Gyula Klima at Fordham University (Ph.D. 2012). He is now associate professor and chair of Wheaton's philosophy department, and the dissertation developed into a book: Thomas Aquinas on the Immateriality of the Human Intellect (Catholic University of America Press, 2020). In addition to medieval metaphysics and philosophy of mind, he works on philosophical theology and philosophy of religion, with articles on the resurrection and the problem of hell in Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy, European Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, Res Philosophica and elsewhere. 

Gábor Borbély (Ph.D. 1994), Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest. Before taking up his position at ELTE in 2008, he had done research at the University of Innsbruck (1991), he had been an Andrew W. Mellon Research Fellow at The Warburg Institute, London (1998), and had taught philosophy in several universities in Hungary. Later during his tenure at ELTE he taught at Tel Aviv University (2017). He was the director of the Office for Higher Education Programmes, Ministry of Education, Hungary (1997–2003), the head of Department for Higher Education Programmes and Scientific Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Hungary (2003–2005), and the director of the Institute for Philosophy at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2005–2008). His publications, besides scholarly papers, include a Hungarian translation and commentary on Aquinas’s De unitate intellectus (On the Unity of Intellect. Introduction, Translation and Commentaries. Ikon Klett-Cotta, Budapest, 1993) and an introduction to medieval philosophy (Civakodó angyalok / Quarrelling Angels. Introduction to Medieval Philosophy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 2008).