Nicole Oresme

  • Article
  • 3600 words
  • Level: high school and above

An article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) on the 14th-century philosopher Nicole Oresme. Oresme discussed, among other things, non-Aristotelian Concepts of Place, Space, and Time; a Theory of Motion; Cosmology, Astronomy, and Opposition to Astrology; and Mathematics. Oresme also served as Bishop of Lisieux. From the SEP:

Without a doubt Oresme is one of the most eminent scholastic philosophers, famous for his original ideas, his independent thinking and his critique of several Aristotelian tenets. His work provided some basis for the development of modern mathematics and science. Furthermore he is generally considered the greatest medieval economist. By translating, at the behest of King Charles V of France, Aristotle’s Ethics, Politics, and On the Heavens, as well as the pseudo-Aristotelian Economics, from Latin into French, he exerted a considerable influence on the development of French prose, particularly its scientific and philosophical vocabulary.

Click here for the article from the SEP.