Synopsis
DUNS SCOTUS, Johannes, was b. in 1260
or 1274, according to Matthæus Veglensis and Dempster, at Duns, in the
southern part of Scotland; accordiug to Leland and others, at Dunstane, in
Northumberland; according to Wadding, in Tre~and; d. at Cologne, 1308. He early
became a Franciscan, and studied theology at
Oxford, under William de Vuarra (Varro). When the latter went to Paris, Duns
succeeded to his chair, and taught in Oxford with great success. He is said to
have had three thousand pupils. It was especially his keenness and subtlety
which impressed people; for which reason he received the title of doctor
subtilis. While in Oxford he wrote a commentary upon the Sentences of the
Lombard, - Opus Oxoniense. About 1301
he went to Paris, and there he also lectured on the Sentences; which lectures
afterwards were published under the title Reportata Parisiensia. Tn 1305
he obtained the degree of doctor. After the order of Clement V. he held a grand
disputation with the Dominicans concernmg the
immaculate conception of Mary. He came out victorious. Even the marble statue
of the Virgin, standing in the disputation hall, bowed to him when he descended
from the cathedra; and it became a rule in the university, that he who obtained
a degree there should take an oath to defend the doctrine of the immaculate
conception. In 1308 Duns was sent to Cologne, by the general of his order, to
contend with the Beghards, who were numerous in those regions, and with the
Dominicans, who refused to accept the new
dogma. lie was received with great honors, but died in the same year from
apoplexy.
The best edition of his works is that by
Wadding, Lyons, 1639, in 12 vols. fol. The first four volumes contain his
miscellaneous writings on grammar, logic, etc. ; -vols. V.—X., time
Opus Oxoniense; vol. XI., the Reportata Parisiensia; and vol.
XII., the Quodlibeta. ‘l’hese works give striking evidence of the
comprehensive scholarship of their author. Duns was not only familiar with the
writers of his own time and the early middle ages, but he was also deeply
conversant with the works of the fathers, and he had studied both the Greek and
the Arab philosophers. From Averroes and
Avicenna he borrowed many Platonic and
Neoplatonic ideas. Porphyry and Aristotle
he specially treated of: Questiones in quinque universalia Porphyrii,
his commentary on Aristotle’s metaphysics and De anima, etc.
The difference between Duns Scotus and
Thomas Aquinas is very striking. It lodged deep in
the natures of the two men, and it became a stirring element in the
after-history of scholasticism. In their ideas of God, Thomas is always
inclined to emphasize necessity, Puns, freedom; for Thomas had a natural bent
towards generalization, Duns a vivid sense of individuality. While to Thomas
the relation between God and the world is a relation of substance, Puns
vindicates the free causality of God; and while the Thomistic conception of the
Trinity retains a shade of modalism, Puns fully carries through the distinction
between the persons of the Trinity, the attributes of God, etc. The genius of
Thomas was speculative: that of Duns was critical; and his method is,
consequently, negative destruction of error rather than positive construction
of truth. But, just as his natural bent towards individualism never made hirmi
a nominalist, so his natural talent for criticism never made him a sceptic. His
scepticism refers only to the argumentation, and arguments he may destroy until
he has no other basis for truth than the absolute will of God and the voluntary
submission of man; but this basis, the truth of the divine revelation, and the
authority of the Established Church, he never touches.
The relation between God and the world was
to scholasticism the great problem, and in the system of Duns Scotus this
problem received an original and bold treatment. Representing God as the
absolutely self-sufficient and self-controlling subject, he tries to give to
the world a higher degree of independence and substantiality than it ever could
attain in a system of emanation or Pantheism. But the solution is incomplete.
In his innermost being, in his very essence, God remains unknown and unknowable
to man, and consequently his will can never become the direct and natural
contents of the will of man. The will of God is an enigma, manifested only in
the form of arbitrary commands: the will of Than is an empty form, receiving
its contents through voluntary submission to external authorities, -the Church.
A. Dorner, "Duns Scotus," Philip
Schaff, ed., A Religious Encyclopaedia or Dictionary of Biblical,
Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology, 3rd edn, Vol. 1. Toronto,
New York & London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1894. p.674.
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D.A. Cress,
"Towards a bibliography on Duns Scotus on the Existence of God," Franciscan
Studies 35 (1975): 45-65. |
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F. Alluntis,
OFM & A.B. Wolter, OFM God and Creatures; The Quodlibetal Questions.
Princeton, NJ & London: Princeton UNiversity Press, 1975. ISBN: 0691071950.
pp. xxxiv + 549. {Amazon.com} |
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Charles
Balic, ed. Opera Omnia. Vatican City: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis,
1950. |
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John
Duns Scotus, God and Creatures; The Quodlibetal Questions. Princeton
University Press, 1975. ISBN: 0691071950. {Amazon.com} |
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John
Duns Scotus, Concerning Metaphysics: Extracts, Allan B Wolter,
translator. Akros Publications, 1995. Pbk. ISBN: 0861420322. |
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Allan
Wolter, OFM, ed. & trans., Duns Scotus on the Will and Morality.
Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1992. Hbk. ISBN:
0813206227. pp.543. {Amazon.com} |
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Allan
B. Wolter, OFM, ed. & trans. Philosophical Writings, 2nd edn. Nelson
Philosophical Texts. Hackett Publishing Co. Inc., 1987. Hbk. ISBN: 0872200191.
pp.198. {Amazon.com} |
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Marily McCord
Adams, "Duns Scotus on the Goodness of God," Faith and Philosophy 4.4
(1987): 486-505. |
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Bernardino M.
Bonansea, "The Divine Will in the Teaching of John Duns Scotus,"
Antonianum 56.2/3 (1981): 296-335. |
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Bernardino
M. Bonansea, OFM. Man and his Approach to God in John Duns Scotus.
Langham, MD, 1983. |
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Alexander
Broadie, "Duns Scotus on Sinful Thought," Scottish Journal of Theology
49.3 (1996): 291-310. |
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F. Copleston,
SJ. A History of Philosophy, 2 Vols. 1950. pp.476-551. |
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Richard
Cross, "Duns Scotus on Eternity and Timelessness," Faith and Philosophy
14.1 (1997): 3-25. |
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Richard
Cross, "Duns Scotus on Goodness, Justice, and What God Can Do," Journal of
Theological Studies 48.1 (1997): 48-76. |
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Richard
Cross, The Physics of Duns Scotus. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. Hbk.
ISBN: 0198269749. pp.320. {Amazon.com} |
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 Richard Cross, Duns Scotus. Great Mediaeval
Thinkers Series. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999. Pbk. ISBN:
0195125533. pp.250. {Amazon.com} |
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Richard
Cross, "'Where Angels Fear to Tread': Duns Scotus and Radical Orthodoxy,"
Antonianum 76.1 (2001): 7-41. |
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 Richard Cross, The
Metaphysics of the Incarnation: Thomas Aquinas to Duns Scotus. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2002. Hbk. ISBN: 0199244367. pp.358. {Amazon.com} |
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Cecil B.
Currey, "The Natural Theology of John Duns Scotus," Recherches De Theologie
Ancienne Et Medievale 46 (1979): 183-213. |
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Stephen D.
Dumont, "The Necessary Connection of Moral Virtue to Prudence according to John
Duns Scotus -- Revisited," Recherches De Theologie Ancienne Et Medievale
55 (1988): 184-205. |
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Charles
R.S. Harris, Duns Scotus, 2 Vols. Oxford: Hardcover (1959) New York:
Oxford University Press, 1959. Hbk. ISBN: 0196471222. |
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Joseph M.
Incandela, "Duns Scotus and the Experience of Human Freedom," Thomist
56.2 (1992): 229-256. |
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Mary Beth
Ingham, "Duns Scotus, Morality and Happiness," American Catholic
Philosophical Quarterly 74.2 (2000): 173-196. |
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Robert
Prentice, "Primary Efficiency and its Relation to Creation, Infinite Power and
Omnipotence in the Metaphysic of John Duns Scotus," Antonianum 40
(1965): 395-441. |
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C.R.S.
Harris, Duns Scotus, facsimile of 1927 edition. Thoemmes Press, 1994.
Hbk. ISBN: 185506331X. pp.800. {Amazon.com} |
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William E.
Mann, "Duns Scotus, Demonstration, and Doctrine," Faith and Philosophy
9.4 (1992): 436-462. |
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J.K. Ryan
& B.M. Bonansea, eds. John Duns Scotus 1265-1965. Studies in
Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, 3. Washington, 1965. |
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Michael
Sylwanowicz, Contingent Causality and the Foundations of Duns Scotus'
Metaphysics. Leiden: E J Brill, 1996. Hbk. ISBN: 9004105352. pp.296.
{Amazon.com} |
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James
B. Torrance & Roland C. Walls, John Duns Scotus. Continuum
International Publishing Group - Handsel Press, 1992. Pbk. ISBN: 1871828198.
pp.18. {Amazon.com} |
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 A. Vos, E. Dekker, H. Veldhuis, N.W. Den Bok
& A.J. Beck, eds., Duns Scotus on Divine Love: Texts and Commentary
on Goodness and Freedom, God and Humans. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003. Hbk. ISBN:
0754635902. pp.248. {Amazon.com} |
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 Thomas Williams, ed., The
Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002 Pbk. ISBN: 0521635632. pp.424.
{Amazon.com} |
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Gordon A.
Wilson, "Good Fortune and the Eternity of the World: Henry of Ghent and John
Duns Scotus," Recherches de Theol et Phil Medievales 65.1 (1998):
40-51. |
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Allan B.
Wolter, OFM. The Transcendentals and their Function in the Metaphysics of
Duns Scotus. Catholic University of America, Philosophical Series, 96.
Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1961. |
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Allan
B. Wolter, OFM., Duns Scotus, Metaphysician. Purdue University Press,
1995. Hbk. ISBN: 1557530718. pp.234. {Amazon.com} |
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Allan
B. Wolter, OFM. The Philosophical Theology of John Duns Scotus. M. McC.
Adams, ed. Ithaca, NY & London: Cornell University Press, 1993. Hbk. ISBN:
0801423856. pp.352. {Amazon.com} |
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Rega
Wood, Ludger Honnefelder & Mechthild Dreyer, eds., John Duns Scotus:
Metaphysics and Ethics. Studien Und Texte Zur Geistesgeschichte Des
Mittelaltars, Bd 53. Leiden: Brill, 1996. Hbk. ISBN: 9004103570. pp.500.
{Amazon.com} |
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