Un défi préalable : l’intelligence des textes

Abstract

This article intends to illustrate, by the case of the two main texts of the High Middle Ages relating to the problem of universals —Boethius’ In « Isagogen » Porphyrii Commentorum Editio secunda and Abailard Logica “Ingredientibus”: Super Porphyrium (according to chronological order)—, the long-term challenge that can represent for a historian of medieval philosophy the achievement, however essential both for research and for teaching, of an adequate understanding of such a corpus. Methodologically, in conclusion, the link, reciprocal and dynamic, is underlined between the effort to understand the texts through their reading, in the first place, and the other stages of the work of the historian of philosophy that are critical edition, translation and historical-doctrinal study. The goal being the best possible intelligence of the texts of the past on an always presential mode.