John Duns Scotus

John Duns Scotus (c.1266-1308) was a medieval theologian and philosopher and, as with many scholars from this period, little is known of his early life. He was born in Scotland in one of two areas associated with the Duns family name. He entered the Franciscan convent at Dumfries in southwest Scotland in 1277 and was ordained into the priesthood in Northhampton on March 17, 1291. He subsequently lectured at Oxford, Cambridge and Paris. He was briefly exiled from Paris in 1303 for not taking the side of King Philip the Fair against Pope Boniface VIII over taxation of church property for the wars with England. The exile was brief, and he was back in Paris by 1304 where he became regent master of theology in 1305. In 1307 Duns Scotus was transferred to the Franciscan study house at Cologne, where he died the following year, at age 42 or 43.

Like the majority of the great thinkers of his time, Duns Scotus was a professional theologian rather than a philosopher. His early death interrupted the final editing of his most important work, known as the Ordinatio, a monumental commentary on Peter Lombard’s The Four Books of Sentences. These were books of the bible as arranged by Peter Lombard around 1150 and adopted as a theological textbook. Duns Scotus was thoroughly familiar with the writings of Avicenna (980-1037 CE) whose concept of metaphysics was incorporated into his theology. He differs from Avicenna's view that creation proceeded from God by a necessary and inevitable process of emanation; for Scotus, creation was contingent and dependent on God's free election. Scotus saw metaphysics as an autonomous science concerned with the transcendentals, those aspects of realities that transcend the physical. He was most concerned with what philosophy has to say about God and the human spirit.

Reading

For our discussion, read Duns Scotus: Philosophical Writings (Trans. Allan Wolter) available free online or as a paperback for purchase. Also read the section on Duns Scotus, “Six Questions on Individuation” In Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals (Trans. Paul Vincent Spade).

Secondary Resources

Wikipedia: John Duns Scotus
Wikipedia: Univocity of Being
Wikipedia: Formal Distinction
Wikipedia: Haecceity
Wikipedia: Scotistic Realism
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: John Duns Scotus
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: John Duns Scotus
Youtube: Duns Scotus: Medieval Philosophy (History of Philosophy)
Youtube: Duns Scotus
Youtube: Duns Scotus, Minstrel of the Incarnation