Ramon Llull


Ramon Llull

Anachronistic portrait of Ramon Llull by Francisco Ribalta (1620)
Bornc. 1232
City of Mallorca, Kingdom of Majorca
(now Palma, Spain)
Died1316 (aged 83–84)
Venerated inCatholic Church
Beatified11 September 1847 by Pope Pius IX
Feast30 June (Third Order of St. Francis)
Anachronistic image of Ramon Llull with speech scroll, by an unknown artist (16th–17th century)
Philosophical work
EraMedieval philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolLullism
Main interests
Notable works
Notable ideas

Ramon Llull TOSF (/lʌl/; Catalan: [rəˈmoɲ ˈʎuʎ]; c. 1232[a] – 1316),[b] sometimes anglicized as Raymond Lully,[1] was a philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, Christian apologist and former knight from the Kingdom of Majorca.

He invented a philosophical system known as the Art, conceived as a type of universal logic to prove the truth of Christian doctrine to interlocutors of all faiths and nationalities. The Art consists of a set of general principles and combinatorial operations. It is illustrated with diagrams.

A prolific writer, he is also known for his literary works written in Catalan, which he composed to make his Art accessible to a wider audience. In addition to Catalan and Latin, he also probably wrote in Arabic (although no texts in Arabic survive). His books were translated into Occitan, French, and Castilian during his lifetime.[2]

Although his work did not enjoy huge success during his lifetime, he has had a rich and continuing reception. In the early modern period his name became associated with alchemical works.[3] More recently he has been recognized as a precursor of the modern field of social choice theory, 450 years before Borda and Condorcet's investigations reopened the field.[4][5] His ideas also prefigured the development of computation theory.[6][7][8]


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  1. ^ Hailstone (1871). "Raymond Lully". The University Magazine. 78 (463): 78(463), 43–60.
  2. ^ Badia, Santanach & Soler 2016.
  3. ^ Pereira 1989.
  4. ^ George G. Szpiro, "Numbers Rule: The Vexing Mathematics of Democracy, from Plato to the Present" (2010).
  5. ^ Colomer, Josep M. (2013-02-01). "Ramon Llull: from 'Ars electionis' to social choice theory". Social Choice and Welfare. 40 (2): 317–328. doi:10.1007/s00355-011-0598-2. ISSN 1432-217X.
  6. ^ The History of Philosophy, Vol. IV: Modern Philosophy: From Descartes to Leibniz by Frederick C. Copleston (1958).
  7. ^ Bonner 2007, p. 290.
  8. ^ Donald Knuth (2006), The Art of Computer Programming: Generating all trees, vol. 4–4, Addison-Wesley Professional, p. 56, ISBN 978-0-321-33570-8

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