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Alan Perreiah

Education:
Ph.D. Indiana University, 1967
Biography:

Dr. Perreiah is a Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Philosophy.  His research focuses on the development of logic in Western Europe from the fifth to fifteenth century, with an increasing emphasis on the Asian contributions to philosophies to logic, cosmology, metaphysics and ethics.  He regularly teaches a course on the ‘Philosophy of Human Nature,’ which explores questions like, ‘What kind of relations tie a human being to environment, society and history?’  Thus, both his research and teaching interests provide a valuable and unique perspective to the Peace Studies program.

Research Interests:
logic in Western Europe from the Fifth to the Fifteenth century
Semantical theory of Donald Davidson
medieval logic
Asian Philosophy
Research

Alan Perreiah’s research has focused on the development of logic in Western Europe from the Fifth to the Fifteenth century.  After the Semantical theory of Donald Davidson he has stressed the importance of logical form, truth-theory and holism in the interpretation of medieval logic.  As a Fellow of Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy, he furthered his interests in the transitional period between late Scholasticism and early Humanism.  He has published several works on the logic of Paul of Venice (Paolo Nicoletto Veneto) who was a professor at Padua University in the first quarter of the 15th century and whose writings evoked strong Humanist reactions.  Since discovering his family’s Jewish origins in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India, he has studied increasingly the contributions of Asian philosophies to logic, cosmology, metaphysics and ethics.

Selected Publications:

Books:

  • Paul of Venice: Logica Parva, First critical edition of the Latin text from the manuscripts with introduction and commentary. Leiden:  E. J. Brill, 2002.
  • Paul of Venice: A Bibliographical Guide, including a census of the manuscripts. Bowling Green, Ohio: Philosophy Documentation Center, 1986.
  • Paulus Venetus: Logica Parva, an English translation of the 1472 Edition with introductory essays and notes.  Munich: Philosophia Verlag and the Catholic University of America Press, 1984.
  • Paul of Venice: Logica Magna, "Treatise on Suppositions," an edition, translation and introduction to the Tractatus de suppositionibus.  Text series 15.  New York: Franciscan Institute Publications, 1971.

Reviews:

  • Wolfgang Khnne, Conceptions of Truth, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) 493+xiii pp. in Transcendent Philosophy, Volume VII, December 2006.
  • Simo Knuuttila, Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) 341+x pp. in Transcendent Philosophy, forthcoming.
  • Scott G. Schreiber, Aristotle on False Reasoning, Language and the World in the Sophistical Refutations (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 2003) 248+xi in Transcendent Philosophy, Volume VI, 2005.
  • Jonathan Barnes, Porphyry Introduction, Translated with an Introduction and Commentary, Later Ancient Philosophers Series (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003) 415 + xxvi pp. in Transcendent Philosophy, Volume VI, December 2005.
  • Ann Moss.  Renaissance Truth and the Latin Language Turn.  New York: Oxford  University Press, 2003.  Pp. 306 in Journal of the History of Philosophy, April 2006, 319-321.
  • Review of John Marebon, Boethius, Great Medieval Thinkers Series (Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2003) In Transcendent Philosophy, March 2004.
  • Review of  L.M.  De Rijk, Johannes Venator Anglicus, LOGICA.  Grammatica  Speculativa, Bd 6. 1,2.  Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog. 1999.  Two Volumes. In History and Philosophy of Logic, 22 (2001).
  • Review of Richard Cross,  The Physics of Duns Scotus: The Scientific Context of a Theological Vision. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. In Isis, An International  Review Devoted  to the History of Science and its Cultural Influences.  The History of  Science Society, June 2000.
  • Review of Alessandro D. Conti, Esistenza e Verita, Forme e Strutture del Reale in Paolo Veneto e nel Pensiero Filosofico del Tardo Medioevo.  Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo, Nuovi Studi Storici - 33.  Roma: Nella Sede Dell'istituto Palazzo Borromini, 1996 in Speculum Journal of the Medieval Academy of America, January, 1999.
  • Reviews of L.M. De Rijk (ed.) Iohannes Buridanus Summulae de Praedicabilibus, Artistarium 10-2 (Nijmegen: Ingenium, 1995); E.P. Bos (ed.) Iohannes Buridanus  Summulae in Praedicamenta  Artistarium 10-3. (Nijmegen: Ingenium, 1994); R. Van der  Lecq and H.A.G. Brakhuis (eds.) Iohannes Buridanus Questiones Elenchorum, Artistarium 9 (Nijmegen: Ingenium, 1994) for History and Philosophy of Logic 17,1996, 165-167.
  • Review of Constantino Marmo, Semiotica e linguaggio nella Scolastica:  P arigi,Bologna, Erfurt, 1270-1330.  La semiotica degli Modisti.  Nuovi Studi Storici, 26 (Rome: Instituto Storico Italiano per ii Meio Evo, 1994) for Speculum Journal of the Mediaeval Academy of America, Vol.71, No. 4, October 1996.
  • Review of Stephen Read, ed., Sophisms in Medieval Logic and Grammar,  Nijhoff  Philosophy Series, volume. 48.  (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993) for History and Philosophy of Logic 15, 1994, 246-248. 
  • Review of Desmond Paul Henry, Medieval Mereology, Bochumer Studien zur  Philosophie, vol. 16  (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: B. R. Gruner, 1991) in History and Philosophy of Logic 14 (1993), 230-232.
  • Review of Paulus Venetus, Logica Magna 2/3: Tractatus de hypotheticis, ed. and trans.Alexander Broadie.  (Classical and Medieval Logic Texts, 7).  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, for the British Academy, 1990._____, Logica Magna 2/4: Capitula de Conditionali et de Rationali ed. and  trans.  G.E.Hughes.  (Classical and Medieval Logic Texts, 6)  Oxford: Oxford University  Press for the British Academy, 1990, in Speculum, Journal of the Medieval  Academy of America. January, 1992), 231-234.      
  • Review of E. Stump, Dialectic and its Place in the Development of Medieval Logic (Ithaca, NY:  Cornell University Press, 1989) in History and Philosophy of Logic, II (1990), 232-234.
  • Review of E.J. Ashworth, Paul of Venice: Logica Magna l/8: Tractatus de Obligationibus.  Classical and Medieval Logic Texts 5.  (London:  Oxford University Press, 1988).  In Speculum, January, 1991.
  • Review of E.P. Bos, ed. Four Tracts on Logic, Suppositiones, Fallacie, Obligationes,  Insolubilia (Nijmegen: Ingenium, 1985).  In Speculum, Journal of the Medieval Academy of America, Winter, 1989, Vol. XXV, No. 1, 41-49.
  • Review of Peter King, transl., Jean Buridan's Logic: The Treatise on Supposition, The Treatise on Consequences. Synthese Historical Library 27.  Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1985. In The Review of Metaphysics Volume 12, 1989, 13-21.