Scotus versus Aquinas on Instrumental Causality

2019 ◽  
pp. 147-185
Author(s):  
Jean-Luc Solère
Keyword(s):  
John Duns Scotus ◽  
Natural Agents ◽  
Natural Entities ◽  
Duns Scotus ◽  
Ex Nihilo ◽  
Great Economy ◽  
Secondary Causes ◽  
Do So

The medieval notion of instrumental cause is not limited to what we call today “instruments” or “tools.” It extends way beyond the realm of technology and includes natural entities, for instance, the accidents by which a substance acts on another substance, sensible species in the air acting on a visual faculty, sacraments, bodily organs, and sometimes creatures with respect to God’s action. In all these cases, instrumental causes, like secondary causes in general, are subordinated to a principal cause and contribute to its action and effects. However, the manner in which they do so makes them different from regular secondary causes, and the specifics are not easy to pinpoint. At the occasion of discussions about creation ex nihilo and sacraments, John Duns Scotus challenges Thomas Aquinas’s theory of instrumental causality. Whereas Aquinas does not strongly distinguish between artifacts and natural agents, and postulates a complex superposition of layers of causation, Scotus offers a novel view that clearly separates artificial instrumentality and natural instrumentality, and in both cases explains causation with great economy. Scotus’s in-depth discussion has far-reaching implications. It completely transforms the understanding of instrumental causality in general.

Gerard Manley Hopkins and the Spell of John Duns Scotus

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Llewelyn
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
John Duns Scotus ◽  
Gerard Manley Hopkins ◽  
Duns Scotus ◽  
Formal Distinction

The Early Mediaeval Scottish philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus shook traditional doctrines of logical universality and logical particularity by arguing for a metaphysics of ‘formal distinction’. Why did the Nineteenth Century poet and self-styled philosopher Gerard Manley Hopkins find this revolutionary teaching so appealing? John Llewelyn answers this question by casting light on various neologisms introduced by Hopkins and reveals how Hopkins endorses Scotus’s claim that being and existence are grounded in doing and willing. Drawing on modern respon ses to Scotus made by Heidegger, Peirce, Arendt, Leibniz, Hume, Reid, Derrida and Deleuze, Llewelyn’s own response shows by way of bonus why it would be a pity to suppose that the rewards of reading Scotus and Hopkins are available only to those who share their theological presuppositions

John Duns Scotus

2011 ◽  
pp. 611-619
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Izbicki ◽  
Russell L. Friedman ◽  
R. W. Dyson ◽  
Vilém Herold ◽  
Ota Pavlíček ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
John Duns Scotus ◽  
Duns Scotus

scholarly journals Giovanni Vendramin i iluminacije u inkunabulama samostana Sv. Frane u Šibeniku

Ars Adriatica ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Bojan Goja
Keyword(s):  
John Duns Scotus ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Duns Scotus

The monastery of the Conventual Franciscans at Šibenik houses a valuable collection of incunables among which the illuminated examples deserve particular attention. The incunable of John Duns Scotus’ Scriptum in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi (Johannes de Colonia et Johannes Manthen, Venice, 1477) is decorated with high-quality figural and phytomorphic illuminations displaying marked similarities with the works of Giovanni Vendramin, a Renaissance miniaturist from Padua. The edition of Caesar’s Commentariorvm de bello Gallico (Milan, Antonius Zarotus, 1477) features decorative frames with white vine stalks (bianchi girari). This type of the decorative frame was frequently used by Giovanni Vendramin and the examples from Šibenik are closely related to some of his works, especially those made for the Bishop of Padua Jacopo Zeno.

Duns Scotus and William of Ockham

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-67
Author(s):  
Richard Cross
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
William Of Ockham ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Beatific Vision ◽  
Duns Scotus ◽  
Dialectical Process ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Do So

Duns Scotus and William of Ockham engage with Aquinas’ thought in fundamentally negative ways. They never make distinctively Thomist positions their own, and when they use Aquinas’ thought, they do so merely as a way of sharpening their own theologies through the dialectical process of rejecting an opponent’s view. This chapter first considers the role of Aquinas’ thought in Scotus’ teaching on religious language and univocity, divine simplicity and omnipresence, the Trinity, cognitive theory, the question of the first object of cognition, angelic individuation, the beatific vision, the plurality of substantial forms, free will, and normative ethics. A second section discusses Aquinas’ place in Ockham’s teaching on common natures, intuitive cognition, divine ideas, and the nature of grace.

Original Sin according to John Duns Scotus

2021 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Ernesto Dezza
Keyword(s):  
Original Sin ◽  
John Duns Scotus ◽  
Duns Scotus
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