Discussion on the existence of universals in Paul of Pyskowice’s autonomous question Utrum universalia subsistant preserved in cod. BJ 1900
Discussion on the existence of universals in Paul of Pyskowice’s autonomous question Utrum universalia subsistant preserved in cod. BJ 1900

Summary/Abstract: The problem of the ontological status of universals is one of the most important topics of the medieval discussion, which was also attended by Paul of Pyskowice, a scholar from Krakow in the first half of the 15th century. He addressed this question in his very extensive commentary on Isagoge (preserved in Krakow, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, cod. BJ 1900, mostly in Paul’s hand- writing), whose authorship was for years wrongly attributed to Benedict Hesse. In this com- mentary, 9 questions were devoted to the so-called difficult Porfrian questions. Two of them bear the title Utrum univeralia subsistant. The same title is also given to the stand-alone ques- tion (written in Paul’s handwriting but loosely attached to cod. BJ 1900) which is the subject of this paper. Although it repeats the matter of two questions belonging to the commentary, it definitely differs from them — not only in substance but also in form. At the beginning, Paul presents three realistic positions: two extreme ones, i.e. Platonic and Wyclifist, and a moderate one — Aristotelian. Referring to them, he adopts the Aristotelian solution, according to which there is no universal in essendo separated from individual things. Paul analyses universals on two levels: the metaphysical or epistemological, and the logical.

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