Jean Buridan - Career

Career

Born, most probably, in Béthune, France, Buridan studied and later taught at the University of Paris. Unusually, he spent his academic life in the faculty of arts, rather than obtaining the doctorate in Theology that typically prepared the way for a career in Philosophy. He further maintained his intellectual independence by remaining a secular cleric, rather than joining a religious Order. By 1340, his confidence had grown sufficiently for him to launch an attack on his predecessor, William of Ockham. Buridan also wrote on solutions to paradoxes such as the liar paradox. An ordinance of Louis XI., in 1473, directed against the nominalists, prohibited the reading of his works.

The bishop Albert of Saxony, himself renowned as a logician, was among the most notable of his students.