Calvin Normore

contemporaryAnalytic Philosophy / History of Medieval Philosophy

b. 1947

Calvin Normore is a contemporary analytic philosopher specializing in medieval philosophy, logic, and metaphysics, based at UCLA. He is known for meticulous historical scholarship on figures such as William of Ockham, Boethius, and John Buridan, with a focus on medieval theories of universals, modality, and semantics. His work bridges the history of medieval thought and contemporary analytic concerns in ontology and philosophy of language.

Notable Achievements

Leading scholarly authority on William of Ockham's nominalism and ontology

Contributed foundational analyses of medieval theories of universals and the realism–nominalism debate

Traced historical connections between Boethian logic and later medieval containment and predication theories

Advanced study of medieval modal logic and its contemporary philosophical relevance

Long-tenured faculty at UCLA shaping analytic history of philosophy as a discipline

Positions & Arguments(1)

Philosophy of Language

claim

Boethius' observations on genus and species may be the historical precursor of the containment principle (Co)