Walter Burley (c. 1275 – c. 1344) was an English philosopher and logician who was active during the 14th century. He is best known for his work in natural philosophy, particularly his commentary on Aristotle’s Physics. Burley was also an important figure in the development of medieval logic, and he made significant contributions to the debate on the nature of universals.
Burley was born in Burley-in-Wharfedale, a village in West Yorkshire, England. He studied at Oxford University, where he became a pupil of William of Ockham, one of the most influential philosophers of the medieval period. Burley was strongly influenced by Ockham’s nominalism, which held that universals are not real entities but are only names or concepts that we use to classify particular things.
After completing his studies at Oxford, Burley became a Franciscan friar and entered the order’s studium generale in Paris, where he continued his philosophical studies. He soon became a prominent member of the Parisian philosophical community, and he participated in many of the debates and discussions that were taking place at the time.
Burley’s most important contributions to philosophy were in the area of natural philosophy. He wrote commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics, De caelo et mundo, and Meteorologica, which were widely read and influential. In his commentary on the Physics, Burley developed a modified version of Aristotelian physics that was more compatible with Ockham’s nominalism. He argued that the laws of nature were not necessary, but were contingent on the will of God. This view was known as divine voluntarism, and it had important implications for the way that natural philosophy was practiced in the late medieval period.
Burley was also an important figure in the development of medieval logic. He wrote several works on logic, including a commentary on Aristotle’s Organon and a treatise on supposition theory, which was a branch of medieval logic concerned with the ways in which terms could be used to refer to things in the world. Burley was one of the leading proponents of the so-called “moderate realism” position on universals, which held that universals exist in particular things but have a real existence of their own as well. This view was a compromise between the extreme realism of figures such as Thomas Aquinas and the nominalism of Ockham.
Burley’s work in natural philosophy and logic was widely influential in the later medieval period. His ideas were discussed and debated by many other philosophers, and they helped to shape the development of philosophy in the early modern period. For example, the divine voluntarism that Burley developed in his commentary on the Physics was a precursor to the voluntarism of figures such as John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham, who were important philosophers in the 14th and 15th centuries.
In addition to his work in natural philosophy and logic, Burley also wrote on a variety of other topics. He wrote a treatise on the nature of the soul, in which he argued that the soul was a substantial form that gave life to the body. He also wrote on political philosophy, arguing that the ruler had a duty to govern justly and that the people had a right to resist unjust rule. Burley’s political ideas were influential in the later medieval period, and they were cited by figures such as Marsilius of Padua and John of Paris.
Burley’s legacy in the history of philosophy is significant. His ideas on natural philosophy and logic helped to shape the development of philosophy in the late medieval period, and his work was influential in the early modern period as well.