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John Duns Scotus: An Integrated Vision Mary Elizabeth Ingham, C.S.J. John Duns Scotus belongs to the second generation of philosophertheologians who worked to integrate Aristotelian insights with Christian revelation (sacra doctrina). Writing after the Condemnations of 1277 (Paris) and 1284 (Oxford), Scotus pursued a relentless analysis of the legacy of Greek thought available to Latin thinkers at the close of the 13th century, thanks to the translations of such scholars as Robert Grosseteste and William of Moerbeke. This analysis required the appropriate understanding and separation of Aristotelian thought from that of the Arab commentaries, such as those of Avicenna and Averroes, whose interpretations of the Stagirite fueled the developing autonomy of the Masters in the Faculty of Arts and threatened the primacy of theology at the University of Paris. Before his untimely death in the autumn of 1308, Scotus succeeded in effectively rethinking the relationship between philosophy and theology in light of a deeper understanding of Aristotle as well as of a concern to safeguard key elements of Christian revelation: the possibility for free choice in the will, the contingency of creation, and the value of theology as a scientific discipline. This rethinking involved a serious and critical rejection of the necessitarian world-view which had emerged from the Arab philosophers and a clear defense of the centrality of freedom, both divine and human, as the cornerstone of the Christian under-standing of reality. 1 Had Scotus lived beyond his 1 Several of the propositions condemned in Paris on March 7, 1277 by Etienne Tempier, Bishop of Paris, dealt with a necessary foundation for all aspects of the world. The eternity of the world, astral determinism, the autonomy of the will for choice, and the necessity with which God acts were all contained in various propositions identified as heterodox in the list of 219 errors. For more on this and its influence on Scotus, see Roland Hissette, Enquête sur les 219 articles condamnés à Paris 7 mars 1277, (Louvain: Publications Universitaires, 1977); Fernand van Steenberghen, "La philosophie á la veille de l'entrée en scène de Jean Duns Scot," De Doctrina Ioannis Duns Scoti, (Rome: Ercolano, 1968) v. I, pp. 65-74; Paul Vignaux, "Valeur morale et valeur de salut," Homo et mundus: Congressus Soctistici Internationalis, (Rome: Societas Internationalis Scotistica, 1984) pp. 53-67. I discuss a direct influence upon Scotus' ethical discussion 186 / Mary Elizabeth Ingham, C.S.J. 42nd year, he surely would have produced the sort of synthesis for which Thomas Aquinas is famous. As it is, we have only various versions of his Commentary on the Sentences, 2 commentaries on various works of Aristotle 3 , the Quodlibetal Questions 4 and his famous treatise on the existence of God, Tractatus de Primo Principio. 5 In addition, Allan B. Wolter, O.F.M. has undertaken to publish translations of texts he has established over his years of study and teaching. In Duns Scotus on the Will and Morality 6 he presents texts related to Scotus's moral theory. In Duns Scotus' Early Oxford Lecture on Individuation 7 we find the Lectura teaching on haecceity, or the principle of individuation. Finally in Duns Scotus' Political and Economic Philosophy, Fr. Wolter presents texts from Ordinatio IV, distinction 15. 8 In this present study I cannot hope to match the wealth and depth of scholarship of numerous studies and several International Scotist Congresses. What I attempt to bring out is the distinctive character of Scotist thought, both in its philosophical and theological dimensions. in "The Condemnation of 1277: Another Light on Scotist Ethics," Freiburger Zeitschrift für Theologie und Philosophie, 37 (1990) pp. 91-103. 2 The as yet unfinished critical or Vatican edition of Scotus's works was begun under the direction of the late Charles Balic, O.F.M., in 1950. This replaces the older Wadding-Vivès edition (1517/1891). Volumes 1-7 contain the Ordinatio or final revision of Scotus's teaching by the author himself and dates from the years 1303-1305. The critical edition of this Ordinatio has advanced only as far as Book II, d. 1-3 (1973). Questions about the manuscripts caused the editors to turn, in 1960, from the Ordinatio to the earlier Oxford Lectura version of the Sentences which Scotus authored prior to 1300. The first two books of this earlier teaching, up to distinction 44 of Book II, appears in volumes 16-19 of the Vatican edition. 3 Most important here is the Quaestiones Subtilissimae super...

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