Project description
Medieval thought and modern insight
Medieval thinkers often discussed impossible things, from chimeras and flying men to idealised geometrical objects and infinite lines. These unusual ideas were not merely fantasies. Scholars used them to test arguments and explore how reasoning works, showing that even impossible or imaginary assumptions could yield meaningful and informative insights. The ERC-funded FICTA project aims to explore how philosophers and scientists used counterpossible reasoning, engaging with physically, metaphysically, or logically impossible scenarios. It will compare medieval and post-medieval approaches, linking them to contemporary debates on imagination, fiction and their epistemic value. FICTA highlights the enduring relevance of impossibility in reasoning. The project crosses history, philosophy, logic, and science, exploring how impossible assumptions can shape scientific and philosophical understanding across centuries.
Objective
Medieval philosophical and scientific language, for many centuries and across different traditions, has been overcrowded with entities and scenarios that are – or were thought to be – fictitious or utterly impossible. These are entities like chimeras, flying men, golden mountains, but also atoms, infinite lines, bodies moving in a void space or at an infinite speed. Incorporating these impossibilities in standard theories of inference, showing how impossible statements can be manageable through valid reasoning while producing interesting conclusions, is one of the greatest achievements of the medieval thought.
FICTA proposes an innovative, comparative and interdisciplinary approach to investigate the notion of impossibility and its epistemic value in medieval logic, philosophy and science. The project’s main aim is to systematically assess the various ways in which philosophers and scientists in the medieval and post-medieval period theorized the use of counterpossible reasoning – that is, reasoning involving entities, assumptions or scenarios that are physically, metaphysically, or logically impossible. The project also aims to explore the parallels between these historical developments and the thriving contemporary debate related to the use of impossibility, fiction and imagination for epistemic purposes.
FICTA’s approach will cross disciplinary boundaries, intersecting the history of medieval and postmedieval logic, medieval literature and art; the history of medieval and early-modern science, and contemporary logic and epistemology.
The project’s guiding questions will be the following: How can we obtain new knowledge by starting from impossible assumptions? Which role do impossible entities and impossible assumptions have in the (history of) sciences and in our epistemic endeavor?
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion philosophy epistemology
- humanities history and archaeology history
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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43121 PARMA
Italy
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