Duns Scotus, John
Duns Scotus, John (c.1265–1308). Little is known for certain of Duns Scotus' life. He is said to have been a Franciscan, born at Duns in Berwickshire, and to have studied at Oxford and Paris. His burial was at Cologne. He wrote extensively on grammar, logic, philosophy, and theology. He was concerned primarily with the nature and attributes of God, but distinguished between faith (theology) and reason (philosophy). If his concerns and parameters were still essentially medieval, his methodology was modern. Duns Scotus was greatly admired for the rigour of his thinking, yet, when medieval scholastic philosophy fell into disfavour in the 16th cent. as idle speculation, his name was borrowed to coin the word ‘dunce’.
J. A. Cannon
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Duns Scotus, John
