Medieval Metaphysics of Artefacts, 1250-1500 - Investigating Medieval Philosophy by Kamil Majcherek Hardcover

About the Book

This book is the first in-depth analysis of an important but hitherto largely neglected medieval debate concerning the metaphysical status of artefacts: is an artefact, that is, a human-made object, something distinct from the natural things it is made out of?

Book Synopsis

Are artefacts, that is, human-made objects, distinct from the natural things that they are made out of? For example, is a chair a thing distinct from the pieces of wood used in making it? This question is intensely debated in contemporary metaphysics, but it is little known that there was an equally heated and sophisticated debate concerning this issue in the late Middle Ages.
This book provides the first comprehensive reconstruction, analysis, and evaluation of this discussion, looking at both the most famous figures such as William of Ockham as well as dozens of previously unstudied texts available in manuscript form only.

About the Author

Kamil Majcherek, Ph.D. (2022), University of Toronto, is Title A Fellow in History of Philosophy of Trinity College, Cambridge. His main interests lie in late medieval metaphysics and natural philosophy. He is currently mainly interested in late medieval metaphysics of numbers.