The name of rose: analysis of philosophical conflicts

Abstract

This article discusses how philosophy is represented in the work O Nome da Rosa by Umberto Eco.
Therefore, it analyzes the literary text by finding the medieval philosophies that are in the
speeches of the characters, explaining how such philosophies are related to theories outside the
medieval environment. . The text of the beginning of the work related to the arrival at the abbey
and the episode of the horse Brunello were researched, through a critical study of the comparative
literature. The analysis of the text showed references to Charles Peirce’s semiotics; the
nominalism of Guilherme Ockham; and Buridano regarding the theory of the world encyclopedia. It
also made it possible to find the analogy of the world as a book or mirror, referring to Alan das
Ilhas; the connections with Roger Bacon’s new science, the clashes between realism and
nominalism, finally, the reference to the Aristotelian theory of causality. The result shows that the
literary text appears as a tool for the study of philosophy: first as a text that reveals other
philosophical texts; second as a didactic instrument that, through verisimilitude, makes the world
of philosophy more accessible.