BURLEY, WALTER

b. England, c. 1275; d. c. 1345),

logic, natural philosophy. For the original article on Burley see DSB, vol. 2.

Although Burley obtained his doctorate in theology from the University of Paris in the mid-1320s, and although he held numerous church livings, as well as serving both the English king and Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, he is unusual, among fourteenth-century

scholars, for having continued to be active in natural philosophy and logic until his death, some time after 1344. Since he also began producing works on the subjects of the Faculty of Arts at Oxford as early as 1300, this means he had a career in philosophy of more than forty years.

Commentaries on Aristotle. Burley’s commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics may be taken as representative. His first commentary on the Physics, in the form of expositions of the text alternating with relatively long questions, is extant in MS Cambridge, Gonville and Caius 448/409. It most likely resulted from his teaching at Oxford before leaving for Paris to study theology, some time before 1310 and possibly as early as 1307. Besides this earliest work, which may be referred to as his Expositio cum quaestionibus on the Physics, there are several manuscripts that contain only Quaestiones on the Physics by Burley (and these only for certain books), without accompanying expositions. Although scholars have considered this a second work by Burley on the Physics, it is probably more accurate to understand it consisting of selected questions from the Expositio cum quaestionibus apart from the related expositions. And, finally, there is Burley’s Expositio in libros octo de phisico auditu, compiled when he was in Paris and even later in the employ of Richard de Bury back in England, which was printed eleven times between 1476 and 1609. Book IV of this version, which includes revised versions of significant sections of Burley’s Oxford Expositio cum quaestionibus, was finished at Paris in 1326. Books VII and VIII were revised ten years later, between 1334 and 1337, at the suggestion of Richard de Bury. In this final Expositio Burley on numerous occasions defends his views against the novel theories of William of Ockham. So, for instance, in response to Ockham, Burley inserted a long defense of the existence of indivisibles such as instants of time or geometric points into Book I of the final Expositio, something he had not thought it necessary to do in earlier versions, before Ockham and other ontological minimalists denied their reality.

Although much work has been done on Walter Burley since the original DSB article, he was so prolific, and his ideas may have developed from one period of his life to the next to such an extent, that it is still difficult to see his contribution as a whole and to place it within its fourteenth-century context, either at Oxford or on the Continent, where he is known to have lectured or disputed not only at Paris, but also at Toulouse and Bologna. In 1978 Agustin Uña Juarez published a large book devoted to Burley (see bibliography below). Uña Juarez discusses, for instance, Burley’s relationships to Averroës, on the one hand, and to Ockham, on the other—both issues that scholars have continued to take up.

Relationship to Wylton. An issue yet to be resolved is Burley’s relationship to Thomas Wylton. From remarks in Burley’s Tractatus Primus, which derives from the principia or initial lectures on Peter Lombard’s Sentences that Burley gave as a bachelor of the Sentences at Paris, it is probably safely concluded that it was Thomas Wylton who oversaw Burley’s work in theology at Paris. But Wylton and Burley were also near contemporaries at Merton College in Oxford, and there are many passages in their works, such as their questions on Aristotle’s Physics, that are so close as to be almost identical. Although this has been noticed, the explanation is unclear. Might Burley have first heard Wylton lecture on the Physics and then made use of Wylton’s lectures when he came to teach the Physics himself? Would the source of the similarities have come from the men hearing each other lecture and dispute, or might one have had the manuscript of the other on hand while writing his own? At Burley’s principium on Book IV of the Sentences at Paris, Wylton was very clearly in the room, raising objections orally. Was there also a live connection at Oxford? So far this remains an open question.

Relationship to Ockham. In the case of individuals from earlier times, such as Averroës, Thomas Aquinas, and Robert Grosseteste, Burley very clearly had manuscripts of each man’s work in front of him as he wrote his own commentaries. He copied their opinions so exactly that his commentaries have been used in establishing editions of the others’ works. The communication between Burley and Ockham is unclear, particularly if Ockham is supposed to have been living in the Franciscan house of studies in London for some time, where Burley, as a secular, would presumably not have been present. It has already been noted above that Burley reacted to Ockham’s ontological parsimony in composing his final Expositio on the Physics. Did Burley become familiar with Ockham’s views through Ockham’s logical and natural philosophical works, or was he reacting to things that Ockham propounded in his commentary on the Sentences? In editing Ockham’s Quaestiones on the Physics, Stephen Brown noted that several of Ockham’s questions make wholesale use of Burley’s Tractatus Primus(related to Burley’s commentary on the Sentences) both in formulating questions and in proposing responses. Ockham comes sometimes to the same conclusion as Burley and sometimes to the opposing solution. There is little doubt in this case that Ockham was working from a manuscript of Burley’s Tractatus Primus, so it is not necessary to conclude that Burley was involved in person in this transfer of ideas.

Ideas about Qualities. In his De causis mirabilium, Nicole d’Oresme cited Burley’s opinion that contraries like hot and cold, white and black, and so forth belong to the same species—an opinion that Burley had argued for in his Tractatus Primus— no doubt distantly related at least to the qualities in the Eucharist, since the Tractatus Primus derived from Burley’s principium on Book IV of Peter Lombard’s Sentences. Oresme connected Burley’s views on hot and cold and other qualities to the subjectivity of sensation—that what seems hot to one person may feel cold to another. Burley’s influence on later authors seems to have derived primarily from the clarity and thoroughness of his writing, both in logic and in natural philosophy. His positions were established before William of Ockham electrified his contemporaries with his so-called nominalism or ontological minimalism. Although Burley is often characterized as Ockham’s realist opponent, there are many similarities between the physical views of Burley and Ockham, particularly to the extent that both Burley and Ockham were influenced by the ideas of John Duns Scotus. The originality of the theory of beginning and ceasing expounded in Burley’s De primo et ultimo instanti is becoming clearer to historians as it is realized that, unlike Burley, Peter of Spain in his earlier theory held that there is a last instant of permanent beings (this had been obscured because a fifteenth-century revision of Peter of Spain’s Tractatus syncategorematum revised it along the lines of Burley’s theory).

Burley’s Logic. A great deal of the scholarship concerning Burley’s work that has been done in recent decades concerns his logic, rather than his natural philosophy. Thus scholars have been interested in Burley’s formulation of the logical exercise called “obligations,” participation in which was required of late medieval university students. Although logic may normally be considered to fall outside the realm of “science,” it would be a mistake to exclude contributions to logic from the history of medieval science, given that logic was as much the instrument of late medieval science as mathematics was to become the instrument of science par excellence in later periods. In the supplementary bibliography that follows are included a sample of recent articles on Burley’s logical work. In his commentary on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics, and on Book I of the Physics, Burley argues that natural knowledge first derives from experience, following the pattern made famous by Robert Grosseteste of distinguishing knowledge of facts (quia) from knowledge of their causes (propter quid).

Institutional Context. As far as the institutional context of Walter Burley’s work is concerned, his work first in the faculty of arts at Oxford and then in the faculty of theology at Paris falls into expected patterns. More intriguing is his continued participation, orally and in writing, in philosophical concerns after leaving the University of Paris about 1327. In part, Burley’s continued scholarly activity may be ascribed to his having been a member of the group of clerks with whom Richard de Bury surrounded himself, a group that included at different times Thomas Bradwar-dine, Richard Kilvington, and others. As Burley carried out diplomatic missions for Richard de Bury and for the king, he seems to have had occasion to communicate with other scholars—sometimes, perhaps, at the papal court in Avignon. Burley’s peregrinations to Bologna and elsewhere, and the dedications of the revised versions of his works to Richard de Bury, found in several manuscripts, reveal a pattern of lifelong learning on the part of individuals outside universities or other educational institutions.

SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY

WORKS BY BURLEY

Obligationes. Introduction to the Logical Treatise ‘De Obligationibus’: with Critical Texts of William of Sherwood (?) and Walter Burley. Edited by Romuald Green. Louvain, Belgium: Université catholique, Institut Supérieur de Philosophie, 1963. Partial translation in Logic and Philosophy of Language. The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts, vol. 1, edited by Norman Kretzmann and Eleonore Stump, 370–412. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Insolubilia. Edited by Marie Louise Roure. “La Problématique des propositions insolubiles au XIIIe siècle et au début de XIVe, suivie de l’édition des traités de W. Shyreswood, W. Burley and Th. Bradwardine.” Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge37 (1970): 262–284.

Tractatus de formis. Edited by Frederick J. D. Scott. Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für die Herausgabe ungedruckter Texte aus der mittelalterlichen Geisteswelt, Bd. 4. Munich, Germany: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1970.

Tractatus de suppositionibus. Edited by Stephen Brown. In “Walter Burleigh’s Treatise De suppositionibus and Its influence on William of Ockham.” Franciscan Studies 32 (1972): 15–64.

“Middle Commentary” on the Perihermeneias. Edited by Stephen Brown. “Walter Burley’s Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Perihermeneias.” Franciscan Studies33 (1973): 42–134.

Quaestiones in Librum Perihermeneias. Edited by Stephen Brown.Franciscan Studies34 (1974): 200–295.

De exclusivis. Edited by Lambertus M. de Rijk. In “Walter Burley’s Tract De exclusivis: An Edition.” Vivarium23 (1985): 23–54.

De exceptivis. Edited by Lambertus M. de Rijk. In “Walter Burley’s De exceptivis, an Edition.” Vivarium24 (1986): 22–49.

Utrum contradictio sit maxima oppositio. Edited by Lambertus M. de Rijk. In “Burley’s So-Called ‘Tractatus Primus,’ with an edition of the additional questio ‘Utrum contradictio sit maxima oppositio.’” Vivarium34 (1996): 161–191.

With Adam Burley. Questions on the De anima of Aristotle. Edited by Edward A. Synan. Leiden, Netherlands, and New York: E.J. Brill, 1997. Krieger (see below) lists this as a doubtful or spurious work.

On the Purity of the Art of Logic: The Shorter and the Longer Treatises. Translated by Paul Vincent Spade. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.

Quaestiones super librum Posteriorum. Edited by Mary Catherine Sommers. Studies and Texts 136. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2000.

OTHER SOURCES

Brown, Stephen. Notes. In Guillelmi de Ockham, Brevis Summa Libri Physicorum; Summula Philosophiae Naturalis, et Quaestiones in libros Physicorum Aristoteles. Opera Philosophica VI. St. Bonaventure, NY: St. Bonaventure University Press, 1984. 41ff. and 773ff. Notices Ockham’s use of Burley’s Tractatus Primus in his Quaestiones in libros Physicorum. If Ockham’s Quaestiones date from 1323–1324, then the Tractatus Primus must have been available before that date.

Caroti, Stefano. “Da Walter Burley al ‘Tractatus sex inconvenientium’: la tradizioine inglese della discussione medievale ‘De reactione.’” Medioevo21 (1995): 257–374.

Dutilh Novaes, Catarina. “Medieval Obligationes as Logical Games of Consistency Maintenance.” Synthese145 (2005): 371–395. In the first section, surveys modern interpretations of the purposes of obligationes as university exercises, focusing on Walter Burley’s treatise, and concluding with a bibliography of recent studies on obligationes.

Feltrin, Paola. “Il problema del primo e ultimo istante in Walter Burley.” Medioevo9 (1983): 137–178.

Grignaschi, Mario. “Lo pseudo Walter Burley e il ‘Liber de vita et moribus philosophorum.’” Medioevo16 (1990): 131–190. Calls Burley’s authorship of the Liber de vita et moribus philosophorum into question.

Kretzmann, Norman, Anthony Kenny, and Jan Pinborg, eds. The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Covers the work of Walter Burley in many sections (see index under Walter Burley).

Krieger, Gerhard. “Studies on Walter Burley, 1989–1997.” Vivarium37 (1999): 94–100.

Lagerlund, Henrik, and Erik J. Olsson. “Disputation and Change of Belief—Burley’s Theory of Obligationes as a Theory of Belief Revision.” In Medieval Formal Logic: Obligations, Insolubles and Consequences, edited by Mikko Yrjönsuuri. Dordrecht, Netherlands, and Boston: Kluwer, 2001. An example of how Burley’s views on logic are taken seriously, although the article involves modern theories of belief change as much as Burley’s work on obligationes.

Lohr, Charles. “Medieval Latin Aristotle Commentaries.” Traditio24 (1968): 179–180. List of Burley’s commentaries. Ottman, Jennifer, and Rega Wood. “Walter Burley: His Life and Works.” Vivarium37 (1999): 1–23. This is the lead article in a volume also containing papers by Elizabeth Karger, Paul Vincent Spade, Risto Saarinen, Rega Wood, and Gerhard Krieger on Burley. Two of these articles are on logic and two others are on ethics.

Spade, Paul. “Three Theories of Obligationes: Burley, Kilvington and Swyneshed on Counterfactual Reasoning.” History and Philosophy of Logic3 (1982): 1–32.

———. “If Obligationes Were Counterfactuals.” Philosophical Topics20 (1992): 171–188. Retracts the theory of obligations as counterfactuals that he espoused in his 1982 article. ———. “How to Start and Stop: Walter Burley on the Instant of Transition.” Journal of Philosophical Research19 (1994): 193–221.

Stump, Eleonore. “The Logic of Disputation in Walter Burley’s Treatise on Obligations.” Synthese63 (1985): 355–374.

Sylla, Edith Dudley. “The A Posteriori Foundations of Natural Science. Some Commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics, Book I, Chapters 1 and 2.” Synthese40 (1979): 147–187. See pages 169–176 for Burley’s commentaries and their relations to those of Thomas of Wylton and William of Ockham, as well as to the earlier commentaries of Averroës, Thomas Aquinas, and Robert Grosseteste.

_______. “Walter Burley’s Tractatus Primus: Evidence concerning the Relations of Disputations and Written Works.” Franciscan Studies 44 (1984): 257–174.

_______.The Oxford Calculators and the Mathematics of Motion, 1320–1350. Physics and Measurement by Latitudes. New York and London: Garland, 1991. Contains outlines of Burley’s Tractatus Primus and Tractatus Secundus, as well as a discussion of his theory of latitudes and degrees.

_______. “Walter Burley’s Physics Commentaries and the Mathematics of Alteration.” Early Science and Medicine 6 (2001): 149–184.

_______. “Walter Burley’s Practice as a Commentator on Aristotle’s Physics,” Medioevo27 (2002): 301–372.

_______. “The Status of Astronomy between Experience and Demonstration in the Commentaries on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics of Robert Grosseteste and Walter Burley.” In Erfahrung und Beweis: Die Wissenschaften von der Natur im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert, edited by Alexander Fiodora and Matthias Lutz-Bachmann. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2007.

Trifogli, Cecilia. “The Reality of Time in the Commentary Tradition on the Physics: The Case of Wylton and Burley.” In Il Commento Filosofico nell’Occidente Latino, Secoli XIII–XV, edited by Bianfranco Fioravanti, Claudio Leonardi, and Stefano Perfetti, 233–252. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2002.

Uña Juarez, Agustin. La Filosofia del Siglo XIV. Contexto Cultural de Walter Burley. Madrid: Biblioteca “La cuidad de Dios” Real Monasterio de el Escorial, 1978.

Weisheipl, James. “Repertorium Mertonense.” Mediaeval Studies31 (1969): 185–208.

Wood, Rega. “Walter Burley’s Physics Commentaries.”Franciscan Studies44 (1984): 275–327. Burley’s earliest Physics commentary, consisting of an exposition and questions, which Wood labels the “pre-1316 commentary,” was probably written before Burley left Oxford for Paris, perhaps as early as Easter 1307 and in any case by 1310. From this earliest commentary are derived many if not all of the questions in Burley’s separate Questiones super libros Physicorum, which Wood tentatively dates before 1322. Thus the separate questions might also have been completed at Oxford before 1310 or even 1307.

_______. “Studies on Walter Burley, 1968–1988.” Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale30 (1988): 233–250.

_______. “Walter Burley on Motion in a Vacuum.” Traditio45 (1989–1990): 191–217.

Edith Dudley Sylla