Abstract

In Peter Abelard's writings, the dictum performs the role a twentieth-century philosopher would assign to a proposition. A dictum is what is said or asserted by a sentence. We are able to call a sentence "true" or "false", "possible" or "necessary", if the dictum asserted by the sentence is true, false, possible, or necessary. It is clear that the dictum is the central element in Abelard's theory of the proposition. Nonetheless, that the dictum performs an important role, is perhaps the only claim about Abelard's theory of the proposition to which there is general agreement among current thinkers. There is a good deal of dispute and confusion with regard to the proper interpretation of Abelard's theory of the proposition. Much of this dispute centers on the fundamental question: What is the dictum? This dissertation is an extended attempt to answer this question. ;There are three parts to the dissertation. In part one the dissertation disputes the common assumption that dicta are composed of status. This discussion serves to separate Abelard's theory of the proposition from his theory of universals. The second part of the dissertation argues that Abelard, at different times, advanced two distinct theories of the proposition, one in his Dialectica the other in his Logica Ingredientibus. The dissertation contends that Abelard's more mature view is found in his Logica lngredientibus. The remainder of the dissertation is an account of Abelard's theory of the proposition as it is found in the Logica Ingredientibus