Robert Baron’s Metaphysica generalis on the nature of free judgment

Broadie, A. (2020) Robert Baron’s Metaphysica generalis on the nature of free judgment. In: Broadie, A. (ed.) Scottish Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century. Oxford University Press, pp. 127-139. ISBN 9780198769842 (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198769842.003.0008)

Abstract

This chapter expounds the concept of ‘judgment’, a concept deployed by seventeenth-century Scottish philosophers in their philosophy of mind. Close attention is paid to the discussion on judgment in the Metaphysica generalis of Robert Baron, where he addresses the idea of judgment as a free act. A notable feature of Baron’s treatment of judgment is his contrast between, on the one hand, the logician’s concern with judgment as a bearer of truth in inferences in which canons of inference are deployed that ensure that if the judgments serving as premises are true then so also must be the judgment drawn as a conclusion from those premises; and, on the other hand, a judgment that is passed by an arbiter, a person agreed upon by two parties in dispute who undertake to accept the judgment he makes as to which party is in the right.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Broadie, Professor Alexander
• Authors: Broadie, A.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISBN: 9780198769842
• Published Online: 01 March 2020