Estimation and Concept Formation (John Blund, Tractatus de anima, Chapter 19)

Abstract

John Blund, born in England around 1175, is one of the first Latin thinkers to discuss Avicenna’s theory of estimation. But even though he adopts this theory he notes that it gives rise to various problems and questions. He wonders, for example, whether intentions are universals, that is, general concepts. They seem to be universal insofar as, for instance, the feature of hostility is found in all wolves. Hence, the question arises whether nonhuman animals such as sheep have access to universals or engage in concept formation by virtue of their estimative power. Does this power conceptualise perceptual contents? Differently speaking, does the sheep see wolves rather than grey furry things? If it does, can it also combine various concepts and form propositions which are true or false? Questions as these puzzled many thirteenth-century thinkers, and John Blund was one of the first to provide an answer to them.