Difference between revisions of "John Duns Scotus" - New World Encyclopedia

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This article is about the 13th Century theologian John Duns Scotus. For the 9th century Irish theologian also sometimes referred to as John Scotus, see Johannes Scotus Eriugena.

John Duns Scotus

Blessed John Duns Scotus (c. 1266 – November 8, 1308) was a theologian, philosopher, and logician. Some argue that during his tenure at Oxford, the systematic examination of what differentiates theology from philosophy and science began in earnest.

It is not exactly certain as to where he was born. Some scholars claim that he was born in Duns, Borders, Scotland, whilst others claim Ireland. Ordained a priest in Northampton, England, he studied and taught at Oxford and Paris, and probably also at Cambridge. He was, however, expelled from the University of Paris for siding with Pope Boniface VIII against Philip the Fair of France. Finally, he came to Cologne, Germany, in 1307.

Duns Scotus was one of the most important Franciscan theologians and was the founder of Scotism, a special form of Scholasticism. He was known as Doctor Subtilis because of his subtle merging of differing views. Later philosophers were not so complimentary about his work, and the modern word dunce comes from the name "Dunse" given to his followers.

He died in Cologne and is buried in the Church of the Minorites in Cologne. His sarcophagus bears the Latin inscription: "Scotia me genuit. Anglia me suscepit. Gallia me docuit. Colonia me tenet." ("Scotia^[1] brought me forth. England sustained me. France taught me. Cologne holds me.") He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on March 20, 1993.

Theology

Perhaps the most influential point of Duns Scotus theology was his defense of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. At the time, there was a great deal of argument about the subject. The general opinion was that it was appropriate, but it could not be seen how to resolve the problem that only with Christ's death would the stain of original sin be removed. The great philosophers and theologians of the west were divided on the subject (indeed, it appears that even Thomas Aquinas sided with those who denied the doctrine, though some Thomists dispute this). The feast day had existed in the East since the seventh century and had been introduced in several dioceses in the West as well, even though the philosophical basis was lacking. Citing Anselm of Canterbury's principle, "potuit, decuit, ergo fecit" (God could do it, it was appropriate, therefore he did it), Duns Scotus devised the following argument: Mary was in need of redemption like all other human beings, but through the merits of Jesus' crucifixion, given in advance, she was conceived without the stain of original sin.

This argument appears in Pope Pius IX's declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Pope John XXIII recommended the reading of Duns Scotus' theology to modern theology students.

Scotus is usually associated with voluntarism, the tendency to emphasize God's will and human freedom in all philosophical issues.

Logic

Scotus was perhaps one of the most influential medieval logicians, in the ranks of Peter Abelard and William of Ockham. He was the one of the first medieval logicians to break from the Aristotle's statistical model of possibility and necessity, and to consider instead the concept of logical possibility. His theory moves from considering modal notions with respect to different ways the actual world is arranged at certain times to one where modal notions are considered with respect to conceptual consistency. This interpretation of possiblity and necessity thus foreshadows Leibniz's possible worlds conception of modality.

Duns Scotus also originated the concept of haecceity, or an entity's "thisness", its particularity, as oppose to quiddity, the entity's "whatness", its universality.

Bibliography

Lectura (Early Oxford Lectures)
Opus Pariense (Paris Lectures)
Opus Oxiense (Oxford Lectures)
Tractatus de Primo Principio (Treatise on the First Principle) Latin Version English Translation
Questions on the Metaphysics of Aristotle
Quaestiones Quodlibetales
De Rerum Principio (Of the Beginning of Things) An inauthentic work once attributed to Scotus.

Mary Beth Ingham & Mechthild Dreyer, The Philosophical Vision of John Duns Scotus: An Introduction. Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press 2004
Thomas Williams (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus. Cambridge 2003
John Duns Scotus, Contingency and Freedom. Lectura I 39, transl., comment. and intro. by A. Vos Jaczn, H. Veldhuis, A.H. Looman-Graaskamp, E. Dekker and N.W. den Bok. The New Synthese Historical Library 4. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer, 1994.
A. Vos, H. Veldhuis, E. Dekker, N.W. den Bok and A.J. Beck (ed.). Duns Scotus on Divine Love: Texts and Commentary on Goodness and Freedom, God and Humans, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.
A. Vos. The Philosophy of John Duns Scotus. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
E.P. Bos, (ed.). John Duns Scotus (1265-1308) Renewal of Philosophy. Acts of the Third Symposium organized by the Dutch Society for Medieval Philosophy Medium Aevum. Elementa, 72. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998.
N. Kretzmann, A. Kenny, & J. Pinborg, Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy Cambridge: 1982.

External links

sk:John Duns Scotus fi:Duns Scotus sv:Johannes Duns Scotus

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