Duns Scotus, Bl Johannes

Duns Scotus, Bl Johannes (c.1265–1308), philosopher. He was probably born near Duns in Berwickshire, Scotland. He became a Franciscan c.1280, studied arts and theology at Oxford, and lectured there. It is possible that he also lectured in Cambridge. He completed his doctoral requirements in Paris and became a regent master in 1305. In 1307 he moved to Cologne. His chief work is a commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard.

Writing after the condemnation of several Aristotelian positions by the Abp. of Paris in 1277, Scotus tries to mediate between Aristotelianism and the Augustinianism associated with Henry of Ghent. He asserts the radical contingency (non-necessity) both of created entities and of God's action. He believes that for human will to be free, it must be able to will what it does not in fact choose to will. The intellect offers guidance to the will, but the will can go against the suggestion of reason. Human actions are given moral value only if God commands them. The exception is the act of loving God: that God should be loved is implicit in the word ‘God’. Scotus' proof of the existence of God attempts to show that one necessary cause is required to explain the existence of contingent entities. Creatures do not exist necessarily, but have the possibility of being caused; if a creature is capable of being caused, there must be some agent to cause it. He rejects St Thomas Aquinas's position that individuation is by matter and holds instead that each created thing is given its own form of individuality added to its matter and form. He allows a certain intuitive knowledge of individual things, though he rejects Henry of Ghent's contention that certitude follows only from Divine illumination, and, like Aquinas, holds that certitude derives from necessary principles that are known naturally by the intellect. In theology he stresses the primacy of Christ as the supreme manifestation of God's love, and holds that the Incarnation would have taken place irrespective of the Fall. For him, this view entails the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the BVM, which he was the first well-known theologian to defend. Feast day, 8 Nov.