William of Sherwood

Who was William of Sherwood?

William of Sherwood was a medieval English Scholastic philosopher, logician and teacher.

Little is known of his life, but he is thought to have studied in Paris, as a master at Oxford in 1252, treasurer of Lincoln from 1254/8 onwards, and a rector of Aylesbury.

He was the author of two books which were an important influence on the development of Scholastic logic: Introductiones in Logicam, and Syncategoremata. These are the first known works to deal in a systematic way with what is now called supposition theory, known in William's time as the logica moderna.