''Obligationes'' or disputations ''de obligationibus'' were a medieval
disputation
In the scholastic system of education of the Middle Ages, disputations (in Latin: ''disputationes'', singular: ''disputatio'') offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish truths in theology and in sciences. Fixed ru ...
format common in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Despite the name, they had nothing to do with ethics or morals but rather dealt with logical formalisms; the name comes from the fact that the participants were "obliged" to follow the rules. Typically, there were two disputants, one ''Opponens'' and one ''Respondens''. At the start of a debate, both the disputants would agree on a ‘''positum''’, usually a false statement. The task of ''Respondens'' was to answer rationally to the questions from the ''Opponens'', assuming the truth of the ''positum'' and without contradicting himself. On the opposite, the task of the ''Opponens'' was to try to force the ''Respondens'' into contradictions.
Several styles of ''Obligationes'' were distinguished in the medieval literature with the most widely studied being called "''positio''" (positing). "Obligational" disputations resemble recent theories of counterfactual reasoning and are believed to precede the modern practice of the academic "thesis defense." ''Obligationes'' also resembles a stylized, highly formalized, version of
Socratic dialogues
Socratic dialogue ( grc, Σωκρατικὸς λόγος) is a genre of literary prose developed in Greece at the turn of the fourth century BC. The earliest ones are preserved in the works of Plato and Xenophon and all involve Socrates as the p ...
. It can also be a form a Aristotelian dialectical situation with an Answerer and a Questioner. It precedes other more modern dialogical accounts of logic such as
Lorenzen games,
Hintikka games and
game semantics
Game semantics (german: dialogische Logik, translated as ''dialogical logic'') is an approach to Formal semantics (logic), formal semantics that grounds the concepts of truth or Validity (logic), validity on game theory, game-theoretic concepts, su ...
.
William of Ockham said ''Obligationes'':
...consists of this that in the beginning some proposition has to be posited, and then propositions have to be proposed as pleases the opponent, and to these the respondent has to answer by granting or denying or doubting or distinguishing. When these answers are given, the opponent, when it pleases him, has to say: “time is finished”. This is, the time of the obligation is finished. And then it is seen whether the respondent has answered well or not.[William of Ockham, c.1323, ''Summa Logicae''; 40, p.67]
References
Bibliography
* Ashworth, E. J. "Obligationes Treatises: A Catalogue of Manuscripts, Editions and Studies." ''Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale'' 36, 1994, pp. 118-147.
* Ekenberg, Thomas. "Order in Obligational Disputations." In: Georgiana Donavin, Carol Poster, Richard Utz (eds.), ''Medieval Forms of Argument: Disputation and Debate''. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2002. pp. 53-66.
Further reading
*
* Novaes, C. Dutilh and S.L. Uckelman (2016). “Obligationes,” in C. Dutilh Novaes and S. Read (eds),
Cambridge Companion to Medieval Logic' (2016).
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pre ...
. pp. 370–95.
External links
*{{cite SEP , url-id=obligationes , title=Medieval Theories of Obligationes , last=Spade , first=Paul Vincent, last2=Yrjönsuuri , first2=Mikko
* Sara L. Uckelman
Bibliography of ''obligationes'' literature
Disputations
Game theory
Philosophical logic