extracts from "walter burleya nd the intension and remission of forms"

Walter Burley, or Burleigh, (ca. 1275-1344) was one of the most prominent and influential philosophers of the fourteenth century. He had a very long career in both England and France, becoming Master of Arts at Oxford by 1301 and Master of Theology at Paris by 1324. He produced a large body of about fifty works, many of which were widely read in the later Middle Ages.
(just missed being contemporary with Aquinas - 1225-1274)


by herman shapiro

"as yet we know next to nothing about "'s pilosophy (...)"

1.
We hvae all noted that our skintemperature is increased, when, on a summer's day, we expose ourselves to the sun. Again, we may have marked how the verdancy of a favorite plant tends to diminish in intensity as the fall fo the year approaches. These, to employ the Scholastic terminology, are instances in which an existent qualitative form has suffered an intension and a remission. In the first example "heat" has been "intended"; in the second, "greeness" has been "remitted". In capsule, the Scohlastic controversy over hte intension and remission of ofrms centered about the attepmt to provide an adequate explanation of hte mechanics underlying such palpable qualitative variations. (cit - importance of intension and remission in scholastic and role in scientific developmetns eventuating in noc. oresme's discovery of law relating distance traversed to time elapsed in uniformly accelerated motion see P Duhem, Etudes sur Leonard de Vinci, iii (Paris 1955), 314-350. also a german thing.

Byt he time walter burley entered the arena, the Schoolmen appear to have been drawn up into two clear lines of battle. One group, proponents of what we shall callt he "addition" theory, insisted that qualitiatve augmentaiton comes about through the addition of new, real and idstinct, specifically similar qualitative parts, which join the pre-exstent parts to form a qualitiative degree of determinate intensity.
interesting.
The second group, adherents of what we shall refer to as the "admixture" theory, arugedt hat qualitiative intension is to be regarded as a function of the degree of "freedom from admixture" with its contrary, enjoyed by any one member of a contrary qualititative pair.

For example: the addition theory's supporters would acount sipmly for a rise of two degrees in a subject's temeprature by maintaining that two formal parts of heat had been successively addedt ot he previouslyinherent grade making one, per se, with it. This theory allows for simple schematiziation in the following manner (pict) where each increase in tepmerature is accopmlished by the acquisition (mine) of an individual increment of heat which is joined ot the previous grade to increase the total degree by one unit. The remission of heat, on the other hand, comes about through the successive, part-by-part, destruction of degree after degree of the previously "informing" heat.
The second scohol of thought would explaint he same phenomenon by ascribing the subjec'ts temperature riset ot he fact that its informed heat was now two degres "freer from admixture" with its contrary (i.e., "coldness"). According tot he tenets of hte admixture theory, qulaititave variations may be diagrammed thus (another one)

When heat, that is, intended from (say) four to six degrees,coldnessi s simultaneously remitted from six to four degrees, thus "freeing" two degrees of heat form admixture with its cotnrary. The reverse of htisp rocess, then, will account for hte remission of heat - i.e., heat will have become more admixed wiht coldness. (note - it sohuld be noted that at its upper limit, heat is enjoying total freedom from admixture with its contrary).

HOW TO THINK THE PASSIONS - WHERE "APPROACH" is "CONVENIENT" with "RECESSION". BUT the soul being a centre of itself- where is the discussion on "form" here - the sense of "intensio" and "remissio" here is in the context's of a thing's perfection or defect therefrom.
thinking... how every sadness would affect every pleasure?? and then again, some kinds of contemplation actually causing redundancy so that the lower parts don't feel pain?
It's not even that I have to get away from these images - because Aquinas insists on materiality and images when he talks about passions - and the "heart" and "heat" and "intensio" and "remissio" of forms are very important for him.

These were the two explanations of intension and remission which, according to Walter Burley (my ital - is he the only source?) enjoyed the widest currency and favor - indeed, the greatest "fame" int he early fourteenth century.
(note - Shapiro's primary source for Burley's treatment of intension and remission is his tract De intensione et remissione formarum - venice - 1496).

p. 415 - II
The additoin theory, as burley sees it, simply will ont do. Apparenty impatient of merely perpheral considerations, burley knifes at once to the core of this attempt to explain intension and remission, and in his very first objectoin neatly exposest he refratory nature of its most fundamental assupmtion. Ast his first analysis sohws, the additoin theory is rooted in an elementary confusion: for its supporters tacitly assume for entities clearly categorizable as qualities, characteristics which are properly predicable only of quantities.
(...)

416
Now clearly one would be extremely hard put ot provide an explanation of intensive and remissive phenomena without having recourse to quantitative omdes of expresison. How could one even begin to discuss the process invifrtue of whicha subject is said to become hotter, greener, or sweeter, without some trespass of hte line separating the category of quality from that of quanitty? Ist here, indeed, a specific meaning which one may attach to the statement "this body is whiter than it was before," in the manner in which meaing is attached to the statement, 'this body is larger than it was before?"

Why don't they speak in terms of "accidental forms" - it is much more general and gives a gage for determining what constitutes "perfectoin" and what "defect" - accensio - or accessum and remissionem - and it ENCOMPASSES quality and quantity - in a general sense. Because that is what I plan to do. Quality and quantity and the relation, oppositions, failures, dependencies, falling away between them is all very well if I have time. I know we use "quantity" analogically many times becuase maybe we can't get away from 2+2=4 at least as our starting point (and not even 2+2 - thinking of one item added to another item. and I'm working with human passions which ARE concerned with material changes - motus - and certainly quality adn quantity are the categories in which to make sense of these but I am not ONLY there - I am also in the realm of action and passion and not hte qualities and degrees that characterize them as such-an-action and such-a-passion.
I want to use "intensio" in an accessum sense - as form striving towards its perfection by means of the "many" operations and powers for which it is necessary to do so - and "necessary" remissios and "total" remissios which happen in the "withdrawing" that sorrow makes happen - that fear initiaties, that acedia completes.
Shapiro's work extracted from:
Speculum 25, 1950-49, 1975Herman S HAPIRO, Walter Burley and the Intension and Remission of Forms, in: Speculum 34, 1959, p. 413 A.I. D OYLE, An Unrecognized Piece of Piers the Ploughman's Creed and Other Work ...