Duns scotus proof of god

John duns scotus philosophy summary
John duns scotus buried alive
Why is duns scotus not a saint

•

Note: What follows here is the Introduction to the Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus. The section on Scotus's works is considerably out of date, given the rapid progress of the critical editions since the time the Companion was published, as well as Giorgio Pini's discovery of the long-lost Expositio on Aristotle's Metaphysics. I include the Introduction on my website anyway for the sake of completeness, and because the section on Scotus's life might still be useful.

Introduction: The Life and Works of John Duns the Scot

We know very little with certainty about the details of Scotus's life and the chronology of his writings, and the evidence and arguments used to establish what we do know are sometimes forbiddingly complex. I make no attempt here to lay out all the speculations or even to adjudicate all the controversies. What follows is therefore a partial and inevitably controversial account of Scotus's life and works. It would, I believe, command wide acceptance among students of Scotus; I indicate some points of dispute in the text and offer extensive references f

•

Teampull na Trionaid (Trinity Church) on North Uist,
Where Duns Scotus is Said to have Studied

John Duns Scotus lived from 1265/6 to 8 November 1308. He was a was a theologian, philosopher, and logician, and some say that it was while he was at Oxford that the systematic examination of what differentiates theology from philosophy and science began in earnest. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline.

John Duns Scotus is a composite name. The "Scotus" is a nickname identifying his as a Scot during his travels in England and the Continent. "Duns" was his family name, and also probably the name of the town, Duns in Berwickshire, in which he was born and brought up.

Scotus began his formal studies at Oxford in October 1288 and continued to study there until June 1301. Part way through this period, on 17 March 1291, he was ordained to the priesthood in the Franciscan Order at Saint Andrew's Priory in Northampton, England. Estimates of his date of birth usually work

•

Concise biography

John Duns Scotus was probably born in the winter of 1266 in the South of Scotland. Around 1279 he was accepted in a Franciscan friary in South Scotland. After eight years of preliminary studies in philosophy, or rather in the artes, at Oxford, he started to study theology there in 1288. Having attained the age of 25, he was ordained a priest in Northampton on March 17th 1291.

In the academic year 1297-98 John Duns prepared his first theological course which would change his life. During the next year he gave this course, on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, the most important textbook of systematic theology at the time. During these years (1297-99) Duns wrote Lectura I-II, his lecture notes on the two first books of the Sentences. Scotus’ course based on these notes not only impressed very much his audience, but also the Franciscan leadership, and established his name as an exceptionally penetrating and original thinker.

In the summer of 1301 Scotus had fulfilled all the requirements for being a master (magister). However, he was sent to Paris by the