John Duns Scotus

Who2 Biography: John Duns Scotus, Theologian

Source

Born: 1266
Birthplace: Duns, Scotland
Died: 8 November 1308
Best Known As: Medieval philosopher and founder of Scotism

John Duns Scotus was a medieval Christian theologian and philosopher remembered mostly for his defense of the doctrine of Immaculate Conception (that is, that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of sin). A member of the Franciscan Order, Scotus taught in Oxford, Paris and Cologne (where he died), embraced Aristotelian philosophy and founded the branch of Scholasticism later called Scotism, a critical response to the teachings of Thomas Aquinas. Called Doctor Subtillis ("The Subtle Doctor"), Scotus upheld the notion of the separate nature of a rational and independent soul, modified the ontological argument put forth by Anselm and defended the primacy of divine will over intellect. Scotus was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1993.

Scotus followers were called Scotists and "duncemen" (after his middle name). Their strong opposition to the revival of classical studies during the Renaissance led to use of the word "dunce" to mean an uneducated person or a numbskull.

Search unanswered questions...

Enter a word or phrase...

Biography: John Duns Scotus

Top

The Scottish philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus (c. 1265-1308) contributed to the development of a metaphysical system that was compatible with Christian doctrine, an epistemology that altered the 13th-century understanding of human knowledge, and a theology that stressed both divine and human will.

The century from 1250 to 1350 can be considered the high point of the scholastic movement in philosophy and theology. During that period a number of important developments took place which influenced European thought in subsequent centuries. The first of these developments was the attempt to construct a metaphysical system that would remove or reduce apparent conflicts between natural reason and the truths of revelation, allowing each a specific domain with a certain number of truths in common. This development is often termed the "synthesis of faith and reason" and is considered one of the major achievements of medieval philosophy. A second development was the perfection of an empirical approach to knowledge and the perfection of the critical tools of logic and scientific inquiry, a movement with important long-range results for the history of modern thought. The third development was the creation of a theological system that would protect the Christian conception of the omnipotence and freedom of God while upholding a practical system in which salvation would be granted to any man who earnestly sought it. In each of these developments Duns Scotus made an important contribution.

His Life

John Duns Scotus was born into a landowning family in the southeastern corner of Scotland, an area strongly influenced by the social, political, and religious institutions of England. According to one tradition, his father was Ninian Duns, who held an estate near Maxton in Roxburghshire. After receiving his early education, possibly at Haddington, John Duns entered the Franciscan convent at Dumfries about 1277-1280 and received instruction there from his paternal uncle, Elias Duns.

Shortly before 1290 John Duns was sent to Oxford, probably to continue his study in the liberal arts. It may have been at Oxford that he received the nickname "Scotus" or "the Scot." While at Oxford he was ordained to the priesthood on March 17, 1291, by Oliver Sutton, Bishop of Northampton.

Scotus, as he eventually came to be called, seems to have completed his study in the arts before 1293, for in that year he began his study for the higher degree of theology at Paris under Gonsalvo of Balboa. Returning to Oxford in 1296, Scotus continued his study of theology and commented on the Book of Sentences by Peter Lombard, a standard requirement of any theological faculty in a medieval university and an activity which made the candidate a "bachelor of the Sentences." Having read the Sentences at Oxford (and possibly also at Cambridge), Scotus returned to Paris in 1302 and in that year read the Sentences for the second or third time.

Because of his opposition to King Philip IV's call for a general council against Pope Boniface VIII, Scotus was exiled from France in 1303 and probably returned to Oxford for a year. In 1304, however, Scotus returned to Paris and completed the requirements for the degree of master of theology in 1305. For the next 2 years he held the chair of theology at the Franciscan convent in Paris, debating with other theologians and increasing his reputation. One of his most important works, Quaestiones quodlibetales, contains Scotus's version of many debates in which he engaged during this period.

Scotus was transferred in 1307 to the Franciscan house of study at Cologne, Germany, where he lectured until his death on November 8, 1308. He was buried in the chapel of the convent.

Relation between Philosophy and Theology

Under the impact of the revival of Aristotle in the 13th century, several theologians attempted to argue for the "scientific" nature of theology. This movement was short-lived, and by the end of the 13th century the scientific quality of theology had been rejected on the grounds that theology did not possess the same type of evidence nor was its method demonstrative in the same sense as mathematics or Euclidean geometry.

Scotus contributed to a more exact understanding of the relation between philosophy and theology. He emphasized the practical and affective nature of theology, denying to it the rigorous demonstrative quality of the Aristotelian sciences. Scotus, however, shared with St. Thomas Aquinas the belief that truth was one and that theology and philosophy do not contradict each other but represent two different approaches to the same truth.

The relation of philosophy and theology, for Scotus, was based on the nature of their respective sources: reason and revelation. Scotus's formulation of this problem followed the pattern established by St. Thomas Aquinas, although Scotus restricted the number of theological truths that could be established by natural reason, unaided by revelation.

Metaphysical Beliefs

Scotus understood metaphysics as that aspect of philosophy that studies the nature of being itself rather than any particular object possessing being that exists in external reality. Being, understood in this way, was a concept common to God and man. Moreover, certain disjunctive attributes or antinomies could be applied to being, such as "infinite-finite" or "necessary-contingent." On the basis of his belief that the term "being" applied to God and man in the same sense and that one part of a disjunctive requires the other part, Scotus established a proof for God's existence based on the nature of being. The existence of finite, contingent beings requires the existence of an infinite, necessary being, namely God.

Epistemology and Empiricism

Scotus shared with St. Thomas Aquinas a strong belief in the primacy of sense experience in the process of human knowledge. Scotus, however, gave the intellect of man a more active role in cognition than was customary in the late 13th century. In opposition to the more common Aristotelian epistemology, he argued that the intellect could come into direct contact with the object to be known. Scotus therefore played a very important role in the transformation of medieval epistemology from a conception of the intellect as a passive receptacle that knows only universal concepts to a view of the intellect as an active mind that knows individual things.

Theological Beliefs

The main feature of Scotus's theology is the importance he gives to the primacy of the will in both God and man. In contrast to St. Thomas Aquinas, who tended to emphasize the intellect or reason, Scotus stressed the freedom of the divine will and the freedom of the human will within an order freely chosen by God.

The freedom of God, for Scotus, means first of all that creation was not necessary. God not only chose the type of world He wished to create; He chose to create. Having once chosen, however, it is the nature of God to abide by his decisions. Although He always retains the power to do otherwise, He never arbitrarily reverses His decisions.

The second area where God's freedom is evidenced is in man's salvation. God, for Scotus, predestines those He wishes to save apart from any foreseen merits. Moreover, God retains His freedom to accept or reject the Christian who fulfils the divine commandments.

This absolute power of God is limited by His own free decision to allow man freedom and to award eternal life on the basis of human merit. Man, for Scotus, is also primarily will and is united to God through love more than through reason. Man has the freedom to fulfil God's demands and thus obtain salvation.

Marian Doctor

The last important area of Scotus's thought concerns his teaching on Mary, the mother of Jesus. Duns Scotus is known as the Marian doctor because of the high status he accords to Mary. Scotus taught that Mary was born without the stain of original sin, a doctrine known as the Immaculate Conception and eventually recognized as dogma in the Roman Catholic Church. The support of Scotus's teaching by many within the Franciscan order facilitated the development and final acceptance of that doctrine.

Duns Scotus
Western Philosophers Medieval Philosophy
John Duns Scotus
Full name	John Duns Scotus
School/tradition	Scholasticism, Founder of Scotism
Main interests	Metaphysics, Theology, Logic, Epistemology, Ethics
Notable ideas	Univocity of being, Haecceity as a principle of individuation, Immaculate conception of Virgin Mary
Influenced by Aristotle, St. Augustine, Avicenna, Boethius, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent
Influenced Popes Alexander VI, Sixtus IV, William of Ockham, Martin Luther, René Descartes, Leibniz, Heidegger, Charles Peirce, Olavo de Carvalho

Life

Little is known of Scotus' life. He was probably born ~1270 ^[1], possibly at Duns, in Berwickshire, Scotland, but also possibly in Ireland or even in northern England ^[2]. In 1291 he was ordained as a priest in Northampton, England. A note in Codex 66 of Merton College, Oxford, records that Scotus "flourished at Cambridge, Oxford and Paris ^[3]. He began lecturing on Peter Lombard's Sentences at the prestigious University of Paris in the Autumn of 1302. Later in that academic year, however, he was expelled from the University of Paris for siding with then Pope Boniface VIII in his feud with Philip the Fair of France, over the taxation of church property.

Scotus was back in Paris before the end of 1304, probably returning in May. He continued lecturing there until, for reasons which are still mysterious, he was dispatched to the Franciscan studium at Cologne, probably in October 1307. He died there in 1308; the date of his death is traditionally given as 8 November.

He is buried in the Church of the Franciscans in Cologne. His sarcophagus bears the Latin inscription: Scotia me genuit. Anglia me suscepit. Gallia me docuit. Colonia me tenet. (trans. "Scotland brought me forth. England sustained me. France taught me. Cologne holds me.") He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on March 20, 1993. According to an old tradition, Scotus was buried alive following his lapse into a coma.

Reputation and influence

Scotus is considered one of the most important Franciscan theologians and was the founder of Scotism, a special form of Scholasticism. He came out of the Old Franciscan School, to which Haymo of Faversham (d. 1244), Alexander of Hales (d. 1245), John of Rupella (d. 1245), William of Melitona (d. 1260), St. Bonaventure (d. 1274), Cardinal Matthew of Aquasparta (d. 1289), John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1292), Richard of Middletown (d. about 1300), etc., belonged. He was known as "Doctor Subtilis" because of the subtle distinctions and nuances of his thinking. Later philosophers in the sixteenth century were less complimentary about his work, and accused him of sophistry. This led to his name, "dunce" (which developed from the name "Dunse" given to his followers in the 1500s) to become synonymous for "somebody who is incapable of scholarship", as is expressed for example in the (now defunct) use of the "dunce cap" to punish pupils who behave badly in class.

Metaphysics

Realism

Scotus is generally considered to be a realist (as opposed to a nominalist) in that he treated universals as real. He attacks a position close to that later defended by Ockham, arguing that things have a common nature – for example the humanity common to both Socrates and Plato.

Univocity of Being

He followed Aristotle in asserting that the subject matter of metaphysics is "being qua being" (ens inquantum ens). Being in general (ens in communi), as a univocal notion, was for him the first object of the intellect. Metaphysics includes the study of the transcendentals, so called because they transcend the division of being into finite and infinite and the further division of finite being into the ten Aristotelian categories. Being itself is a transcendental, and so are the "attributes" of being — "one", "true", and "good" — which are coextensive with being, but which each add something to it.

The doctrine of the univocity of being implies the denial of any real distinction between essence and existence. Aquinas had argued that in all finite being (i.e. all except God), the essence of a thing is distinct from its existence. Scotus rejected the distinction. We can conceive of what it is to be something, without conceiving it as existing. Scotus denied this. We should not make any distinction between whether a thing exists (si est) and what it is (quid est), for we never know whether something exists, unless we have some concept of what we know to exist. ^[4]

Individuation

Duns elaborates a distinct view on hylomorphism, with three important strong theses that differentiate him. He held: 1) that there exists matter that has no form whatsoever, or prime matter, as the stuff underlying all change, against Aquinas (cf. his Quaestiones in Metaphysicam 7, q. 5; Lectura 2, d. 12, q. un.), 2) that not all created substances are composites of form and matter (cf. Lectura 2, d. 12, q. un., n. 55), that is, that purely spiritual substances do exist, and 3) that one and the same substance can have more than one substantial form — for instance, humans have at least two substantial forms, the soul and the form of the body (forma corporeitas) (cf. Ordinatio 4, d. 11, q. 3, n. 54). He argued for an original principle of individuation (cf. Ordinatio 2, d. 3, pars 1, qq. 1-6), the "haecceity" as the ultimate unity of a unique individual (haecceitas, an entity's 'thisness'), as opposed to the common nature (natura communis), feature existing in any number of individuals. For Scotus, the axiom stating that only the individual exists is a dominating principle of the understanding of reality. For the apprehension of individuals, an intuitive cognition is required, which gives us the present existence or the non-existence of an individual, as opposed to abstract cognition. Thus the human soul, in its separated state from the body, will be capable of knowing the spiritual intuitively.

Formal distinction

Like other realist philosophers of the period (such as Aquinas and Henry of Ghent) Scotus recognised the need for an intermediate distinction that was not merely conceptual, but not fully real or mind-dependent either. Scotus argued for an formal distinction (distinctio formalis a parte rei), which holds between entities which are inseparable and indistinct in reality, but whose definitions are not identical. For example, the personal properties of the Trinity are formally distinct from the Divine essence. Similarly, the distinction between the 'thisness' or haecceity of a thing is intermediate between a real and a conceptual distinction^[5]. There is also a formal distinction between the divine attributes and the powers of the soul.

Theology

Voluntarism

Scotus was an Augustinian theologian. He is usually associated with voluntarism, the tendency to emphasize God's will and human freedom in all philosophical issues. The main difference between Aquinas' rational theology and that of Scotus' is that Scotus believes certain predicates may be applied univocally — with exactly the same meaning — to God and creatures, whereas Aquinas insisted that this is impossible, and that only analogical predication can be employed, in which a word as applied to God has a meaning different from, although related to, the meaning of that same word as applied to creatures. Duns struggled throughout his works in demonstrating his univocity theory against Aquinas' analogy doctrine.

Existence of God

The existence of God can be proven only a posteriori, through its effects. The Causal Argument he gives for the existence of God is particularly interesting and precise. It says that an infinity of things that are essentially ordered is impossible, as the totality of caused things that are essentially caused is itself caused, and so it is caused by some cause which is not a part of the totality, for then it would be the cause of itself; for the whole totality of dependent things is cause, and not on anything belonging to that totality. The argument is relevant for Scotus' conception of metaphysical inquiry into being by searching the ways into which beings relate to each other.

Immaculate Conception

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. God could have brought it about (1) that she was never in original sin, (2) she was in sin only for an instant, (3) she was in sin for a period of time, being purged at the last instant. Whatever of these was more excellent should probably be attributed to Mary ^[6]. This apparently careful statement provoked a storm of opposition at Paris, and suggested the line 'fired France for Mary without spot' in the famous poem "Duns Scotus's Oxford", by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

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.

Logic

The authenticity of Scotus' logical works has been questioned. Some of the logical and metaphysical works originally attributed to him are now known to be by other authors. There were already concerns about this within two centuries of his death, when the sixteenth-century logician Jacobus Naveros noted inconsistencies between these texts and his commentary on the Sentences, leading him to doubt whether he had written any logical works at all ^[7]. The Questions on the Prior Analytics (In Librum Priorum Analyticorum Aristotelis Quaestiones) were also discovered to be mistakenly attributed ^[8].

Modern editors have identified only four works as authentic: the commentaries on Porphyry's Isagoge, on Aristotle's Categories, On Interpretation (in two different versions), and on Sophistical Refutations, probably written in that order. These are called the parva logicalia. These are dated at around 1295, when Scotus would have been in his late twenties, working in Oxford.

Bibliography

Editions:

Lectura (Early Oxford Lectures)
Opus Parisiense or Reportata parisiensia (Paris Lectures)
Opus Oxoniense (Oxford Lectures)
Tractatus de Primo Principio (Treatise on the First Principle) Latin Version English Translation
Questions on the Metaphysics of Aristotle Latin text
Quaestiones Quodlibetales
De Rerum Principio (Of the Beginning of Things) An inauthentic work once attributed to Scotus.
Cuestiones Cuodlibetales. In Obras del Doctor Sutil, Juan Duns Escoto. Ed. Felix Alluntis. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1963.
Opera Omnia. ("The Wadding edition") Lyon, 1639; reprinted Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1968.
Opera Omnia. ("The Vatican edition") Civitas Vaticana: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1950-.
Opera Philosophica. St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute: , 1997-2006:
Vol. I: Quaestiones super Porphyrius Isagoge et Aristoteles Categoriae
Vol. II: Quaestiones super Peri hermeneias et Sophistici Elenchis (along with)Theoremata
Vol. III-IV: Quaestiones super libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis
Vol. V: Quaestiones super Secundum et Tertium de Anima.

English translations:

John Duns Scotus, A Treatise on God as First Principle. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press 1982. A Latin text and English translation of the De Primo Principio. Second edition, revised, with a commentary by Allan Wolter, (First edition 1966).
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.
John Duns Scotus, A treatise on Potency and Act. St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute 2000.
Questions on the Metaphysics of Aristotle Book IX. Introduction and Commentary. Latin text and English translation by Allan B. Wolter, St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute 2000.
Questions on the Metaphysics of Aristotle by John Duns Scotus. St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 1997-1998.
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.

References

Bos, Egbert (1998). John Duns Scotus (1265-1308) Renewal of Philosophy. Acts of the Third Symposium organized by the Dutch Society for Medieval Philosophy Medium Aevum. Elementa. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ISBN 9789042000810.
Frank, Willaim (1995). Duns Scotus, Metaphysician. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. ISBN 1557530726.
Gracia, Jorge; Timothy Noone (2003). A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Blackwell Pub. ISBN 0631216723.
Grenz, Stanley (2005). The Named God And The Question Of Being: A Trinitarian Theo-ontology. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664222048.
Honderich, Ted (1995). "Duns Scotus". The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198661320.
Kretzmann, Norman; A. Kenny, Jan Pinborg, Eleonore Stump (1982). The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521369339.
Vos, Antonie (2006). The Philosophy of John Duns Scotus. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748624627.
Williams, Thomas (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521635632.

Notes

^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05194a.htm
^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05194a.htm
^ Frank & Wollter p.5
^ Opus Oxoniense I iii 1-2, quoted in Grenz p.55
^ Honderich p. 209
^ Ordinatio III, d.3, q.1
^ Ashworth 1987
^ R.P.E. Longpre

External links

v • d • e Catholic Church

Organizations, Papacy, Teachings and Liturgical Traditions

History	Jesus · Twelve Apostles · Early Christianity · History of the Papacy · Councils · Crusades · Missions · Great Schism of East · Great Schism of West · Reformation · Counter-Reformation · Roman Catholicism by country

Hierarchy	Pope · Cardinals · Patriarchs · Major Archbishops · Primates · Metropolitans · Archbishops · Diocesan Bishops

Theology	Trinity · Original sin · One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church · Worship · Divine Grace · Salvation · Sermon on the Mount · The Ten Commandments · Dogma · Body and Soul

Sacraments	Baptism · Confirmation · Eucharist · Penance · Anointing of the Sick · Holy Orders · Matrimony

Mariology	Mariology · Veneration · History of Mariology · Mariology of the saints · Mariology of the popes · Marian Doctrines · Mother of God · Perpetual Virginity · Immaculate Conception · Assumption

Doctors of the Church	Albertus Magnus · Ambrose · Anselm of Canterbury · Anthony of Padua · Thomas Aquinas · Athanasius of Alexandria · Augustine of Hippo · Basil of Caesarea · Bede · Robert Bellarmine · Bernard of Clairvaux · Bonaventure · Petrus Canisius · Catherine of Siena · Peter Chrysologus · John Chrysostom · Cyril of Alexandria · Cyril of Jerusalem · Peter Damian · Ephrem the Syrian · Francis de Sales · Gregory the Great · Gregory of Nazianzus · Hilary of Poitiers · Isidore of Seville · Jerome · John of Damascus · John of the Cross · Lawrence of Brindisi · Leo the Great · Alphonsus Liguori · Thérèse de Lisieux · Teresa of Ávila

Pope Benedict XVI	Conclave · Theology · Works · Deus Caritas Est · Sacramentum Caritatis · Summorum Pontificum · Spe Salvi

Preceding Popes	Pope John Paul II · Pope Paul VI · Pope John XXIII · Pope Pius XII · Pope Pius XI · Pope Benedict XV · Pope Pius X · Pope Leo XIII · Pope Pius IX

Orders & Societies	Assumptionist · Augustinian Order · Benedictines · Capuchin Order · Carmelites · Carthusians · Congregations of Holy Cross · Dominican Order · Franciscan orders · Jesuits · Oratory of Saint Philip Neri

Vatican II	Definition of the Church · Gaudium et Spes · Lumen Gentium · Nostra Aetate

Particular Churches sorted by Liturgical Traditions	Alexandrian · Coptic · Ethiopic · Antiochian · Maronite · Syriac · Syro-Malankara · Armenian · Armenian · Byzantine · Albanian · Belarusian · Bulgarian · Croatian · Greek · Hungarian · Italo-Greek · Macedonian · Melkite · Romanian · Russian · Ruthenian · Slovak · Ukrainian · East Syrian · Chaldean · Syro-Malabar · Roman · Ambrosian · Sarum · Mozarabic · Anglican Use · Latin · Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter

Pope Portal Catholicism Portal

v • d • e History of the Roman Catholic Church

General	History of the Roman Catholic Church · History of the Papacy · History of the Roman Curia · Ecumenical Councils · Timeline of the Roman Catholic Church · History of Christianity · Role of the Roman Catholic Church in civilization · Art in Roman Catholicism · Roman Catholic religious order · Christian monasticism · Papal States

Church beginnings	Jesus · Twelve Apostles · Saint Peter · Paul the Apostle · Saint Stephen · John the Apostle Council of Jerusalem · Apostolic Fathers · Ignatius of Antioch · Irenaeus · Pope Victor I · Tertullian

Constantine to Pope Gregory I	Constantine I and Christianity · Arianism · Basilica of St. John Lateran · First Council of Nicaea · Pope Sylvester I · First Council of Constantinople · Canon · Jerome · Vulgate · Council of Ephesus · Council of Chalcedon · Benedict of Nursia · Second Council of Constantinople · Pope Gregory I · Gregorian Chant

Early Middle Ages	Third Council of Constantinople · Saint Boniface · Byzantine Iconoclasm · Second Council of Nicaea · Charlemagne · Pope Leo III · Fourth Council of Constantinople · East-West Schism

High Middle Ages	Pope Urban II · Investiture Controversy · Crusades · First Council of the Lateran · Second Council of the Lateran · Third Council of the Lateran · Pope Innocent III · Latin Empire of Constantinople · Saint Francis of Assisi · Fourth Council of the Lateran · Inquisition · First Council of Lyon · Second Council of Lyon · Bernard of Clairvaux · Thomas Aquinas

Late Middle Ages	Pope Boniface VIII · Avignon Papacy · Pope Clement V · Council of Vienne · Knights Templar · Catherine of Siena · Pope Alexander VI

Protestant Reformation & Counter-Reformation	Protestant Reformation · Counter-Reformation · Thomas More · Pope Leo X · Society of Jesus · Francis Xavier · Dissolution of the Monasteries · Council of Trent · Pope Pius V · Tridentine Mass · Robert Bellarmine

Baroque Period to French Revolution	Pope Innocent XI · Pope Benedict XIV · Suppression of the Society of Jesus · Anti-clericalism · Pope Pius VI · Shimabara Rebellion · Edict of Nantes · Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution

19th century	Pope Pius VII · Pope Pius IX · Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary · Our Lady of Lourdes · First Vatican Council · Papal infallibility · Pope Leo XIII · Rerum Novarum

20th century	Pope Pius X · Our Lady of Fátima · Persecutions of the Catholic Church and Pius XII · Pope Pius XII · Dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary · Pope John XXIII · Second Vatican Council · Pope Paul VI · Pope John Paul I · Pope John Paul II

21st century	Pope Benedict XVI · World Youth Day 2008

By country	France · Mexico · Spain · United States

Pope Portal Catholicism Portal

v • d • e History of Roman Catholic theology

Theologians · Teachings · Heresies

General History	History of the Roman Catholic Church · Early Christianity · History of the Papacy · Ecumenical Councils · Timeline of the Roman Catholic Church · History of Christianity · History of Christian theology

Church beginnings	Epistles of Clement · Didache · Ignatius of Antioch · Epistle of Barnabas · Justin Martyr · Irenaeus · Tertullian · Origen · Antipope Novatian · Cyprian

Constantine to Pope Gregory I	Arianism · Pelagianism · Nestorianism · Monophysitism · Monothelitism · Pope Leo I · Ambrose · Augustine of Hippo

Early Middle Ages	Iconoclasm · Transubstantiation Dispute · Predestination Disputes

High Middle Ages	Thomas Aquinas · Thomism · Anselm of Canterbury · Peter Abelard · Decretum Gratiani · Bernard of Clairvaux · Peter Lombard · Hildegard of Bingen · Saint Dominic · Saint Francis of Assisi · Bonaventure · Albertus Magnus

Mysticism & Reforms	Duns Scotus · Dante Alighieri · William of Ockham · Catherine of Siena · Brigit of Sweden · Johannes Tauler · Heinrich Seuse · Nicholas of Kues · Thomas à Kempis

Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation	Thomas More · John Fisher · Thomas Cajetan · Johann Eck · Ignatius of Loyola · Francis Xavier · Teresa of Ávila · John of the Cross · Petrus Canisius · Robert Bellarmine · Francis de Sales

Baroque Period to French Revolution	Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet · Francisco Suárez · François Fénelon · Jansenism · Blaise Pascal · Saint Alphonsus Liguori · Saint Louis de Montfort · Alfonso Muzzarelli · Louis Thomassin · Jean de La Fontaine

19th century	John Henry Newman · Gaetano Sanseverino · Giovanni Maria Cornoldi · Clemens Maria Hofbauer · Johann Michael Sailer · Johann Joseph von Görres · Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler · Giuseppe Pecci · Joseph Hergenröther · Tommaso Maria Zigliara

20th-21st century	Romano Guardini · Sebastiaan Tromp · Raimondo Spiazzi · Gabriel Roschini · Hugo Rahner · Henri de Lubac · Pope Pius XII · Pierre Teilhard de Chardin · Hans Urs von Balthasar · Yves Congar · Karl Rahner · Edward Schillebeeckx · Marie-Dominique Chenu · Louis Bouyer · Étienne Gilson · Hans Küng · Jean Daniélou · Pope John Paul II · Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Portal Catholicism Portal

Medieval philosophers

Augustine of Hippo · Boëthius · Alkindus · Johannes Scotus Eriugena · Rhazes · Al-Jahiz · Alfarabi · Ibn Masarrah · Al Amiri · Ibn Miskawayh · Brethren of Purity · Alhazen · Ibn al-Rawandi · Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī · Avicenna · Ibn Hazm · Roscelin · Anselm of Canterbury · Algazel · Bernard of Chartres · Ayn-al-Quzat Hamadani · Avempace · Gilbert de la Porrée · Hugh of St Victor · Abélard · Gersonides · Hibat Allah Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi · Richard of St. Victor · Ibn Tufail · Averroës · Maimonides · Alexander of Hales · Mohammad Ibn Abd-al-Haq Ibn Sab’in · Alain de Lille · Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi · Abd-el-latif · Ibn Arabi · Robert Grosseteste · Albertus Magnus · Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī · Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī · Zakariya al-Qazwini · Ibn al-Nafis · Roger Bacon · Bonaventure · Thomas Aquinas · Ramon Llull · Godfrey of Fontaines · Henry of Ghent · Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi · Giles of Rome · Rashid al-Din · Fakhr al-Din al-Razi · Ibn Taymiyyah · Duns Scotus · William of Ockham · Jean Buridan · Nicole Oresme · John Hennon · Ibn Khaldun · Gemistus Pletho · Basilius Bessarion · Francisco de Vitoria · Lambertus de Monte

v • d • e Metaphysics

Topics	Time · Experience · Causality · Principle · Will · Quality · Value · Self · Action · Intention · Matter · Meaning · Essence · Subject · Object · Unity · Truth · Mind · Necessity · Pattern · Type · Motion · Freedom · Form · Idea · Modality · Substance · Properties ·

Ontology	Being · Category of being · Change · Cogito ergo sum · Dualism · Embodied philosophy · Entity · Existence · Existentialism · Identity · Physical object · Properties · Reality · Relativism · Scientific realism · Subjectivism · Substance theory · Universal · Unobservables · Teleology

Big Questions	What is the nature of the universe? · What is the meaning of life? · What is being? · What is time? · What is experience? · What is causality? · What are principles? · What is value? · What is the self? · What is action? · What is will? · What is matter? · What is meaning? · What are types?

Metaphysical theories	Monism · Cartesian dualism · Materialism · Idealism · Existentialism · Essentialism · Libertarianism · Determinism · Naturalism · Platonic idealism · Hindu idealism · Phenomenalism · Nihilism · Realism · Anti-realism · Solipsism · Physicalism · MOQ

Metaphysicians	Aristotle · Thomas Aquinas · George Berkeley · Donald Davidson · René Descartes · Georg W. F. Hegel · Martin Heidegger · Immanuel Kant · Saul Kripke · Gottfried Leibniz · John Locke · George Edward Moore · Isaac Newton · Plato · Plotinus · Hilary Putnam · Willard V. O. Quine · Bertrand Russell · Parmenides · Jean-Paul Sartre · Arthur Schopenhauer · John Duns Scotus · Baruch Spinoza · Alfred N. Whitehead · Ludwig Wittgenstein ·

Portal · Category · Task Force · Stubs · Discussion

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Donate to Wikimedia

Learn More

	dunce
	Year 1295 (in Science & Technology)
	Pius IX (Pope / Religious Figure)

	Why are buckskin horses sometimes called duns when duns are completely differant genetic wise and colour wise? Read answer...
	Where do you look up duns numbers? Read answer...
	Can I buy car with my duns number? Read answer...

Help us answer these

	John Scotus Erigena had an advantage over most of the European scholars of his time because?
	What is a GU DUNS Number and what is a LOCAL DUNS Number what is the difference between these two?
	Can you get a personal DUNS number?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

Copyrights:

		Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the John Duns Scotus biography from Who2. Read more
		Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more
		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more
		Philosophy Dictionary. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Copyright © 1994, 1996, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more
		Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Duns Scotus". Read more