Duns Scotus

John Duns Scotus 'Dunce'
Born	[[Birth Date:=1265|1265]] England
Died	[[Death Date:=1308|1308]] [[Death_City:=Cologne|Cologne]], Germany unknown
Occupation	Philosopher
Contact	{{{contact}}}

The blessed John Duns Scotus, was one of the most important theologians and philosophers of the High Middle Ages (the others being Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham and Bonaventura. He was nicknamed Doctor Subtilis for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought.

Scotus has had considerable influence on Roman Catholic thought. The doctrines for which he is best known are the univocity of being (existence is the most abstract concept we have, applicable to everything that exists), the formal distinction, a way of distinguishing between different aspects of the same thing, and the idea of haecceity, a property supposed to be in each individual thing that makes it an individual. Scotus also developed a complex argument for the existence of God, and argued for the Immaculate conception of Mary.

Life

Little is known of Scotus' life. He was probably born at Duns, in the Borders. In 1291 he was ordained in Northampton, England. A note in Codex 66 of Merton College, Oxford, records that Scotus "flourished at Cambridge, Oxford and Paris. 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 Minorites in Cologne. His sarcophagus bears the Latin inscription: Scotia me genuit. Anglia me suscepit. Gallia me docuit. Colonia me tenet. (trans. "Scotia 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.

Notability

This philosopher has 18 pages in the Blackwell Companion.