I just saw that as well, on Paul Graham's "On Philosophy" essay.
The footnote says: This is actually from the Ordinatio of Duns Scotus (ca. 1300), with "number" replaced by "gender." Plus ca change.
Wolter, Allan (trans), Duns Scotus: Philosophical Writings, Nelson, 1963, p. 92.
I believe it was to show a point: lots of impressive-sounding words put together in a way that's hard to understand makes it easy to think that there is some underlying meaning that you are missing, as opposed to just being badly written.
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I just saw that as well, on Paul Graham's "On Philosophy" essay.
The footnote says:
This is actually from the Ordinatio of Duns Scotus (ca. 1300), with "number" replaced by "gender." Plus ca change.
Wolter, Allan (trans), Duns Scotus: Philosophical Writings, Nelson, 1963, p. 92.
I believe it was to show a point: lots of impressive-sounding words put together in a way that's hard to understand makes it easy to think that there is some underlying meaning that you are missing, as opposed to just being badly written.