Astrazione e matematica in Ruggero Bacone

In the Communia mathematica, one of his late works, Roger Bacon focuses on several aspects of mathematical thought and of its connections with philosophical assumptions. The fifth distinctio of the first part of this work is devoted to the analysis of the theory of abstraction, applied to the category of quantity, which is the main subject of every mathematical proposition. On the basis of Aristotelian theory of abstraction, Bacon sets forth an articulated distinction of five ways in which abstraction could be regarded, so separating the peculiar mood of mathematical abstraction from all the others. The argumentation is developed by resorting to subtle distinctions, in order to distinguish mathematical abstraction from physical and metaphysical one. [Editor's text]