Interpreting Duns Scotus
Critical Essays

Provides a reliable point of entrance to the thought of Duns Scotus.

Giorgio Pini (Edited by)

9781108420051, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 January 2022

290 pages
23.5 x 16 x 1.8 cm, 0.55 kg

John Duns Scotus is commonly recognized as one of the most original thinkers of medieval philosophy. His influence on subsequent philosophers and theologians is enormous and extends well beyond the limits of the Middle Ages. His thought, however, might be intimidating for the non-initiated, because of the sheer number of topics he touched on and the difficulty of his style. The eleven essays collected here, especially written for this volume by some of the leading scholars in the field, take the reader through various topics, including Duns Scotus's intellectual environment, his argument for the existence of God, and his conceptions of modality, order, causality, freedom, and human nature. This volume provides a reliable point of entrance to the thought of Duns Scotus while giving a snapshot of some of the best research that is now being done on this difficult but intellectually rewarding thinker.

Introduction
1. John Duns Scotus's life in context Stephen D. Dumont
2. The modal framework of Duns Scotus's argument for the existence of a first cause Richard Cross
3. Duns Scotus on essential order in De primo principio and elsewhere Thomas M. Ward
4. Duns Scotus on how God causes the created will's volitions Gloria Frost
5. Duns Scotus on free will and human agency Martin Pickavé
6. Duns Scotus on the dignities of human nature Marylin McCord Adams
7. Duns Scotus on matter and form Cecilia Trifogli
8. Duns Scotus, intuitionism, and the third sense of 'natural law' Thomas Williams
9. The bound of sense – adequacy and abstraction in the later works of Duns Scotus Wouter Goris
10. Before univocity – Duns Scotus's rejection of analogy Giorgio Pini
11. Analogy after Duns Scotus: the role of the analogia entis in the Scotist metaphysics at Barcelona, 1320–1330 Garrett R. Smith.

Subject Areas: Christian theology [HRCM], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology [HPJ], Western philosophy: Medieval & Renaissance, c 500 to c 1600 [HPCB], Philosophy [HP]