The philosophy of duns scotus

PHIL 83245 Spring 2006

• 
  Univocity of the Transcendental Concepts
  
• 
  Proofs for the Existence of God
  
• 
  Universals, Individuation, and the Formal Distinction
  

Epistemology

• 
  The Object of the Intellect
  
• 
  Rejection of Illumination
  
• 
  Intuitive and Abstractive Cognition
  

Moral Theory

• 
  Freedom of the Will and Synchronic Contingency
  
• 
  The Will as the Primary Rational Power
  
• 
  The Two Affections of Will
  
• 
  Natural Law and the Coherence of Scotus’s Ethics
  
• 
  Virtues
  

• 
  Spade, Paul (trans). Five Texts on the Medieval Problem of Universals, Hackett, 1994.
  
• 
  Wolter, Allan (trans). Duns Scotus: Philosophical Writings, Hackett, 1987.
  
• 
  ---------. Duns Scotus on the Will and Morality. Translation edition. Washington, D. C: Catholic University of America Press, 1998.
  

50% = Take-home, final examination to be distributed on last day of class.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: DUNS SCOTUS

Opera omnia

1. 
   Joannis Duns Scoti Doctoris Subtilis Ordinis Minorum Opera omnia. Editio Lucae Waddingi. 12 vols. Lugduni (Lyons): Sumptibus L. Durand, 1639.
   

2. 
   Opera omnia. Editio nova iuxta editionem Waddingi XII tomos continen­tem a patribus Franciscanis de observantia accurante recognita. 26 vols. Paris: Vivès, 1891-95.
   

3. 
   Opera omnia studio et cura Commissionis Scotisticae ad fidem codicum edita praeside Carolo Balic. 14- vols. Civitas Vaticana. Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1950- .
   

Vols. 1-8: Ordinatio I-II

Vols. 16-21: Lectura I-III

4. 
   Ioannis Duns Scoti Opera philosophica. 5 vols. St. Bonaventure, NY; Washington, D.C.; Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University and Catholic U. of America, 1997-2006.
   

Vols. 1-2: Commentaries on Aristotle’s Organon. Vol. 2 also contains a treatise called the Theoremata, whose authenticity has historically been disputed.

Vols. 3-4: Commentary on the Metaphysics

Vol. 5: Commentary on De anima (at press)

5. 
   Ioannis Duns Scoti Tractatus de Primo Principio. Ed. Marianus Muller. Friburgi Brisgoviae- Herder, 1941. [Based on Madrid, Palacial Nacional MS 411 which contains some seven additions, perhaps authentic. Additions are recorded in an appendix.]
   
6. 
   The De Primo Principio of John Duns Scotus. A Revised Text and Translation. Ed. Evan Roche. St Bonaventure, N.Y.: Franciscan Institute, 1949.
   
7. 
   Jean Duns Scot. Traité du premier principe. Trans. Jean-Daniel Cavigioli, et. al. Geneva, 1983.
   
8. 
   Johannes Duns Scotus. Abhandlung uber das erste Prinzip. Ed. Wolfgang Kluxen. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1974. [With translation and commentary.]
   
9. 
   Il Primo Principio degli esseri. Ed. Pietro Scapin. Padova: Livana Editrice, 1973. [With translation and commentary.]
   

10. 
    Obras del Doctor Sutil, Juan Duns Escoto: Cuestiones Cuodlibetales. Ed. Felix Alluntis. Madrid: Biblioteca De Autores Cristianos, 1968. [A revision of the Wadding-Vivès text with Spanish translation. Helpful for its organization and division of the text and parallel citations. Material signaled as additiones in the Vivès text is omitted, however.]
    

11. 
    Harris, C. R. S. Duns Scotus. 2 vols. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1927. [The appendix to vol. 2 contains the following material not included in the Wadding-Vivès edition: Collationes qq. 5 (pp. 361-78) and Q. de cognitione Dei (pp . 379-98). The book itself relies heavily on the spurious De rerum principio of Vital du Four, not to be confused with the authentic De primo principio.]
    
12. 
    Balic, C. Les commentaires de Jean Duns Scot sur les Quarte Livres de Sentences. Louvain- Bureaux de la Revue, 1927. [pp. 264-301 contain an unedited question on the will from Bk.2 dist. 25 of Scotus’s commentary on the Sentences. According to Balic, this version of the question is a reportatio made by William of Alnwick at Paris (para. 1-35; 59-91) and later at Oxford (para. 36-58).]
    
13. 
    ----------. “De Collationibus Ioannis Duns Scoti” Bogoslovni vestnik 9 (1929) 185-219. [Contains a critical study of the Collationes attributed to Scotus and an edition of qq. 18, 19, and 24.]
    
14. 
    ----------. Ioannis Duns Scoti Theologiae Marianae Elementa. Sibenik, Jugoslavia: Ex typographia Kacic, 1933. [Contains questions from Ordinatio and reportata on predestination of Christ and the Immaculate Conception.]
    
15. 
    ----------. Ioannes Duns Scoti Doctor Immaculatae Conceptionis. Romae: Academia Mariana Internationalis, 1954. [Reedition of above.]
    

Complete Works

16. 
    John Duns Scotus: A Treatise on God as First Principle. Ed. Allan Wolter. Chicago: Forum Books Franciscan Herald Press, 1966; 2nd. rev. ed., 1983. [The revised edition adds an extensive commentary. The 1966 edition also contains a translation of Lectura or early version of Scotus’s proofs for the existence of God. Dropped from the 1983 edition, it was printed in Wippel-Wolter, Medieval Philosophy (see translations below).
    
17. 
    Wolter, Allan and Felix Alluntis. God and Creatures: The Quodlibetal Questions. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975. [Translation of all the Quodlibetal Questions the last of which is of questionable authenticity. Contains a very helpful glossary of Scotistic vocabulary. Reprinted in paper by Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D. C., 1987.]
    
18. 
    Wolter, Allan and Girard J. Etzkorn. Questions on the Metaphysics of Aristotle; trans. 2 vols. St. Bonaventure, NY : Franciscan Institute, 1997. [Complete translation of Scotus’s questions on Aristotle’s Metaphysics.]
    
19. 
    Wolter, Allan and Oleg V. Bychkov. John Duns Scotus. The Examined Report of the Paris Lecture: Reportatio I-A. St. Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University, 2004. [Translation of first half of Scotus’s Parisian commentary on the Sentences together with a corrected Latin text. A second volume to follow with the second half of the commentary.]
    

20. 
    Boulnois, Olivier. Jean Duns Scot sur la connaissance de Dieu et l’univocité de l’étant: Ordinatio I - Distinction 3 - 1re partie; Ordinatio I - Distinction 8 - Ire partie; Collatio 24. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1988. [Translation, commentary and study of Scotus’s main texts on univocity.]
    
21. 
    Fairweather, Eugene. A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1956. [pp. 428-39 contain a translation of I Ordinatio d. 2 p. l q. 2 on whether God’s existence is self-evident.]
    
22. 
    Hyman, Arthur and James J. Walsh. Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1973. [pp. 561-604 contain incomplete selections taken from various parts of the corpus. The translations are from non-critical texts.]
    
23. 
    McKeon. Richard. Selections From Medieval Philosophers II: Roger Bacon to William of Ockham. New York: Scribners, 1930. [pp. 313-50 contain a translation of I Ordinatio d.3 p.l q.4 concerning divine illumination based upon the Garcia text. This translation has been superseded by Wolter, Philosophical Writings, pp. 105-40.]
    
24. 
    Micklem, Nathaniel. Reason and Revelation: A Question From Duns Scotus. London: Nelson, 1953. [Another translation and commentary of the above.]
    
25. 
    Sondag, Gérard. Jean Duns Scot. Prologue de l’Ordinatio. Paris: PUF, 1999. [Translation and commentary on Scotus’s massive and important prologue to his Ordinatio.]
    
26. 
    Spade, Paul Vincent. Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals : Porphyry, Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Ockham. Indianapolis : Hackett, 1994. [Translation of both Scotus’s and Ockham’s questions on universals and individuation.]
    
27. 
    Tweedale, Martin and Richard Bosley. Basic Issues in Medieval Philosophy. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 1997. [Contains translations of several texts of Scotus not found elsewhere, including all of Scotus’s important question on foreknowledge from the Ordinatio. Cf. Vos above for corresponding Lectura text.]
    
28. 
    Tweedale, Martin M. Scotus vs. Ockham: A Medieval Dispute over Universals. 2 vols. Lewiston, N.Y. : E. Mellen Press, 1999. [Translation of almost all relevant material from Scotus and Ockham on the formal distinction together with substantial commentary.]
    
29. 
    Vos A. et al. (trans.) Duns Scotus on Divine Love: Texts and Commentary on Goodness and Freedom, God and Humans, Aldershot, Hants, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, 2003.
    
30. 
    Vos, A.. Contingency and Freedom = Lectura I 39. Dordrecht ; Boston : Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994. [Translation of Scotus’s Lectura version of question on divine foreknowledge.]
    
31. 
    Wippel, John F. and Allan Wolter. Medieval Philosophy. Ed. and trans.. New York: The Free Press, 1969. [Pages 402-19 contain a translation of 1 Lectura d.2 p.l qq.l-2, which is the early version of Scotus’s proofs for the existence of God.]
    
32. 
    Wolter, Allan. “Duns Scotus on the Necessity of Revealed Knowledge.” Franciscan Studies 11 (1951) 231-71. [Translation of the prologue to the Ordinatio.]
    
33. 
    ----------. Duns Scotus, Philosophical Writings. Edinburgh: Nelson, 1962. [Translation with facing Latin text of the Vivès edition. The most complete translation of selections from the Ordinatio. Reprinted twice: first in the Library of the Liberal Arts (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1964) without facing Latin and recently by Hackett (Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett, 1987) with the facing Latin of the Nelson original and an updated introduction.]
    
34. 
    ----------. “John Duns Scotus on the Primacy and Personality of Christ.” In Franciscan Theology. Ed. D. McElrath. t. Bonaventure, NY : Franciscan Institute, 1980, pp. 138-82. [Translations on various questions of Christology.]
    
35. 
    ----------. Duns Scotus on the Will and Morality. Washington, D. C.: Catholic University, 1987. [Translation with corrected Latin of selected texts on Scotus’s ethics. Contains an introduction to each topic. Reprinted without the facing Latin.]
    
36. 
    ----------. John Duns Scotus: Four Questions on Mary. St. Bonaventure, NY : Franciscan Institute, 2000. [Translation of christological and mariological questions edited by Balic. Facing Latin of Balic edition.]
    
37. 
    ----------. John Duns Scotus: Questions on the Metaphysics, Book IX: Act and Potency. St. Bonaventure, NY : Franciscan Institute, 2000. [A translation and introduction to of all of Bk. IX of Scotus’s Questions on the Metaphysics, which are important for the problems of self-motion (q. 14) and free will (q. 15).]
    
38. 
    ----------. Duns Scotus’ Political and Economic Philosophy. St. Bonaventure, NY : Franciscan Institute, 2001. [Translation of 4 Ord. d.15 q.2: “Whether a Penitent Thief is Bound to Restitution,” concerning property rights. Facing Latin is corrected text of Vivès.]
    
39. 
    ----------. Duns Scotus’ Early Oxford Lecture on Individuation. St. Bonaventure, NY : Franciscan Institute, 2005. [The questions on the principle of individuation in the Lectura. Facing Latin from the Vatican edition.]
    

40. 
    de Varesio, Carolus Franciscus. Promptuarium Scoticum. 2 vols. Venetiis: Typis et expensis Andreae Poleti, 1690. [Index of the Ordinatio and Quodlibetal Questions only, but pretty good for technical expressions. References are keyed to paragraph numbers of the Wadding edition.]
    
41. 
    Fernandez-Garcia, Marianus. Lexicon-scholasticum philosophico-theologicum. Ad Claras Aquas: Ex typographia Collegii S. Bonaventurae, 1910. [Despite its title, an index and dictionary of Scotus. It is not as extensive as the above for the Ordinatio and Quodlibet, but contains references to other works of Scotus, most notably the QQ in Metaphysicam and the logical writings. Must be used with caution since it often refers to inauthen­tic works, including De rerum principio (Vital du Four), Expositio in Metaphysicam Aristotelis (Antonius Andreas), QQ in libros Priorum et Posteriorum Analyticorum, QQ in libros Physicorum, etc. Also contains the spurious Grammatica speculativa (Thomas of Erfurt) long attributed to Scotus and the basis of Heidegger’s dissertation Die Kategorien- und Bedeutungslehre des Duns Scotus (Tubingen, 1916).]
    

42. 
    Schaefer, Odulf. Bibliographia de vita operibus et doctrina Ioannis Duns Scoti, Saec. XIX-XX. Romae: Orbis Catholicus-Herder, 1955.
    
43. 
    ------. “Resenha abreviada da bibliographia escotista mais recente (1954-1966).” Revistas Portuguesa de Filosofia 23 (1967) 338-63.
    
44. 
    Cress, Donald. “Toward a Bibliography on Duns Scotus on the Existence of God.” Franciscan Studies 35 (1975) 45-65.
    
45. 
    Medioevo latino. Spolleto. 1980-. Very complete annotated annual bibliography on all major medieval figures.
    

46. 
    John Duns Scotus, 1265-1965. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy 3. Edd. John K. Ryan and Bernardine Bonansea. Washington: Catholic University of America, 1965.
    
47. 
    Philosophy of John Duns Scotus in Commemoration of the 700th Anniversary of His Birth. The Monist 49 n.4 (1965).
    

48. 
    De doctrina Ioannis Duns Scoti. 4 vols. 1-4. Romae: Cura Commissionis Scotisticae, 1968.
    
49. 
    Deus et homo ad mentem I. Duns Scoti. Romae: Societas Internationalis Scotisticae, 1972.
    
50. 
    Regnum hominis et regnum Dei. Ed. Camille Berube. 2 vols. Romae: Societas Internationalis Scotistica, 1978.
    
51. 
    Homo et Mundus. Ed. Camille Berube. Romae: Societas Internationalis Scotistica, 1981.
    
52. 
    Via Scoti: Methodologia ad mentem Joannis Duns Scoti. Atti del Congresso Scotistico Internazionale Roma 9-11 marzo 1993. Ed. Leonardo Sileo. Rome: Edizioni Antonianum, 1995.
    
53. 
    Duns Scotus. Ed. Allan Wolter. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 67 no. 1 (1993). [Dedicated number of the journal, formerly known as New Scholasticism.]
    
54. 
    John Duns Scotus: Metaphysics and Ethics. Ed. Ludger Honnefelder, Rega Wood, Mechthild Dreyer. Leiden ; New York : E.J. Brill, 1996.
    
55. 
    John Duns Scotus: Renewal of Philosophy Ed. E.P. Bos. Amsterdam; Atlanta, GA : Rodopi, 1998.
    
56. 
    Duns Scot a Paris, 1302-2002: Actes du colloque de Paris, 2-4 septembre 2002 . Ed. Olivier Boulnois... [et al.]. Turnhout : Brepols, 2004.
    
57. 
    Modern Theology 21.4 (2005). [Dedicated volume on ‘radical orthodoxy’ author Catherine Pickstock and her reading of Duns Scotus.]
    

Major Studies

58. 
    Gilson, Étienne. Jean Duns Scot. Introduction à ses positions fondamentales. Paris: Vrin, 1952. [Still the most comprehensive book on Scotus’s philosophy, which was written by Gilson as comparison with Aquinas’s thought. Gilson finished it just prior to the publication of the first volumes of the critical edition of Scotus’s Ordinatio, which showed that Henry of Ghent was more important than Aquinas for an understanding of Scotus. This led Gilson to all but repudiate his own book in its preface. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 respectively were reprinted from the following articles: “L’object de la métaphysique selon Duns Scot,” Mediaeval Studies 10 (1948) 21-92; “L’existence de Dieu selon Duns Scot,” Mediaeval Studies 11 (1949) 23-61; “Nature and portée des preuves scotistes de l’existence de Dieu,” in Mélanges Joseph Maréchal, 2 vols. (Paris, 1950) 1.378-95; “Simplicité divine et attributs divins selon Duns Scot,” Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge 17 (1949) 9-43. For a list of reviews, see Margaret McGrath, Étienne Gilson: A Bibliography (Toronto, 1982), p. 14]
    
59. 
    Cross, Richard. Duns Scotus. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
    
60. 
    --------. The Physics of Dun Scotus: The Scientific Context of a Theological Vision. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.
    
61. 
    --------. The Metaphysics of the Incarnation: Thomas Aquinas to Duns Scotus. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
    
62. 
    --------. Duns Scotus on God. Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pub., 2005.
    
63. 
    Pini, Giorgio. Categories and Logic in Duns Scotus: An Interpretation of Aristotle’s Categories in the Late Thirteenth Century. Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2002.
    
64. 
    Williams, Thomas (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus. Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2003. [See my review in NDPR.]
    
65. 
    Wolter, Allan. The Transcendentals and Their Function in the Philosophy of Duns Scotus. The St. Bonaventure, N. Y.: Franciscan Institute, 1946. [Despite its age, a study still regarded as one of the best on Scotus’s metaphysics.]
    
66. 
    --------. The Philosophical Theology of John Duns Scotus. Ed. Marilyn Adams. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell, 1990. [Collection of Wolter’s many articles on Scotus with two new contributions.]
    
67. 
    --------. Scotus and Ockham: Selected Essays. St. Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2003. [A further collection of Wolter’s articles, including some new material.]
    

1. 
   Quodlibeta Magistri Henrici Goethals a Gandavo Doctoris Solemnis. 2 vols. Paris, 1518, rpt. Louvain: Bibliotheque, S J., 1961. [Referred to as the Badius edition after its printer.]
   
2. 
   Summae quaestionum ordinariarum. 2 vols. Paris, 1520; rpt. St Bonaventure, N.Y.: Franciscan Institute, 1953. [An enormous work that will run to some 20 volumes in critical edition. Planned in two parts, one on God and another on creatures, Henry apparently only finished the first part.]
   
3. 
   Henrici de Gandavo Opera omnia. Gen. Raymond Macken. Leuven: University Press, 1979-.
   

Macken has also edited a set of scriptural lectures attributed to Henry: Lectura ordinaria super S. Scripturam (Leuven, 1980).]

Translations

4. 
   McGrade, Arthur Steven et al. The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts. Volume Two: Ethics and Political Philosophy. Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2001. [Contains two quodlibetal questions on moral and political theory.]
   
5. 
   Pansau, Robert. The Cambridge Translations of Medieval Philosophical Texts. Volume Three: Mind and Knowledge. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2002. [Contains the two famous questions from Henry’s Summa on divine illumination.]
   
6. 
   Teske, Roland J. Henry of Ghent. Quodlibetal Questions on Free Will. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1993. [Translation of a number of Henry’s very important disputed questions on the will.]
   
7. 
   --------. Henry of Ghent. Quodlibetal Questions on Moral Problems. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2005.
   
8. 
   Teske, Roland J. and Jos Decorte. Henry of Ghent’s “Summa”: The Questions on God’s Existence and Essence (Articles 21-24). Leuven: Peeters, 2005. [Translation with transcription of the Latin text, introduction, and notes.]
   

A very thorough bibliography of Henry arranged chronologically can be found in:

Porro, Pasquale. Enrico di Gand. La via delle proposizioni universali. Bari, 1993, pp. 174-98.

9. 
   Gomez-Caffarena, Jose. Ser participado y ser subsistente en la metafisica de Enrique de Gante. Rome: Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, 1958. [Critical of Paulus’s interpretation of Henry’s “ontological” proof for the existence of God. Appendix contains a second redaction of Summa a. 21 q. 2.]
   
10. 
    Marrone, Steven P. Truth and Scientific Knowledge in the Thought of Henry of Ghent. Cambridge, MA, 1985. [While devoted principally to Henry’s epistemology, contains material on his metaphysics.]
    
11. 
    Paulus, Jean. Henri De Gand: Essai sur les tendances de sa metaphysique. Paris: Vrin, 1938. [Remains the standard work on Henry’s metaphysics.]
    
12. 
    Pegis, Anton. “Toward a New Way to God: Henry of Ghent.” Mediaeval Studies 30 (1968) 226-47; 31 (1969) 93-116; 33 (1971) 158-79. [A series of articles on Henry’s proofs for the existence of God which serve as an excellent introduction to Henry’s metaphysics and epistemology.]
    

13. 
    Guldentops, Guy (ed). Henry of Ghent and the Transformation of Scholastic Thought : Studies in Memory of Jos Decorte . Leuven : Leuven University Press, 2003.
    
14. 
    Vanhamel, W. (ed). Henry of Ghent: Proceedings of the International Colloquium on the Occasion of the 700th Anniversary of his Death (1293). Leuven : Leuven University Press, 1996.