Lecture: John Marenbon

Abstract
I shall begin by explaining what I mean by the 'social history of logic' and why it is worth pursuing. I shall then explain how we can contribute to this new field by looking, on the one hand, statistically and, on the other hand, closely at some of the ninth, tenth and eleventh century logical manuscripts and their interlinear and marginal glosses. I shall pay special attention to BnF lat. 12949, a much glossed logical collection associated with the tenth-century scholar, Israel Scottus, which, nearly fifty years ago, was my introduction to specialist medieval studies-and nearly brought my interest in them to an end.

John Marenbon was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow. He is now a Senior Research Fellow there, and also a visiting professor at the Universita della Svizzera Italiana. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2009. Among his books are The Philosopfry of Peter Abelard (1997); Pagans and Philosophers (2015); The Problem ef Paganism from Augustine to Leibniz (2015) and, as editor, The Oxford Handbook ef Medieval Philosophy (2012). His interests cover the range of philosophy in the Long Middle Ages and the broad Western tradition. He is now working especially on metaphysical themes in medieval philosophy (modality, relations, facts and states of affairs, matter); early medieval Latin philosophy; European philosophy in the later Middle Ages outside the universities and philosophy as a way of life; medieval methods of cultural comparison; the social history of logic; methodology of history of philosophy.