On the Two Versions of the De primo principio complexo by Francis of Meyronnes.

Abstract

When comparing twoversionsofthe treatise On the First Complex Principle by Francis of Meyronnes — a long version and a shorter
one — it becomes clear that these are, in fact, different treatises. By “the first complex principle” Francis means a formula that combines the principles of contradiction and the excluded middle: “Of anything either affirmation or negation, and of nothing both at once”. Francis gives different answers to a question of whether first complex principle is in reality beyond the mind or in the soul: while in the longer treatise his answer to the question is based on the notion of equivocity, in the shorter treatise Francis formulates his solution in terms of propositional realism, which is close to that of his contemporary and confrere, Walter Burley. A better coherence of ideas in the shorter treatise may be taken as a sign of it being a later work.