О СООТНОШЕНИИ ВИЗАНТИЙСКОЙ И ЗАПАДНОЙ ЛОГИЧЕСКИХ ТРАДИЦИЙ

Abstract

The article explores a little-known work of Byzantine literature of the 13th century, a textbook on log-ic by Nikephoros Blemmydes, an outstanding figure in a special period in the history of Byzantium, the period of the Nicene Empire, which arose after the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins. Nikephoros Blemmydes (1197—c. 1272) was a philosopher, rhetorician, theologian and teacher. A treatise Epitome logica in Greek is analyzed in the present article in order to identify the sources of this work and its influence on the development of logic in the East and in the West. For a detailed analysis in this article, one of the main sections of scholastic logic is chosen—the doctrine of the categorical syllogism. The presentation of this doctrine by Nikephoros Blemmydes has its peculiarities. First, only three figures with 14, and not 19, correct modes are presented. Second, the presentation is accompanied by Greek lettering and graphic images of the modes of syllogism. In the treatises by Latin authors such a graphic development of the doctrine of categorical syllogism has not been found by us. However, similar patterns were discovered by us in George of Trebizond (1395, Crete—approx. 1473, Rome). George of Trebizond was one of those Greeks who left the de-caying Byzantium and came to the West, enriching it with the culture of the East and becoming the first representatives of the Italian Renaissance. His “Dialectics”, written in 1439–1440, is believed to have become the first textbook on logic in the history of the Renaissance. He wrote it in Latin, but used, as we can see from the text, along with Latin textbooks, mainly Greek manuscripts. Based on the study of the “Logic” of Nikephoros Blemmydes, the conclusion is drawn that the treatise by Nikephoros Blemmydes is least likely to bear traces of Western influence (textbooks by W. Sherwood, Peter of Spain, etc.). It is suggested that the scholastic doctrine of categorical and hypo-thetical syllogisms was developed by peripatetics and Alexandrian neoplatonists, inherited by Byz-antine logicians, and only later underwent its final development in the West.