John Duns Scotus
| John Duns Scotus | |
| Scottish philosopher | |
| Middle Age | |
 | |
| Birth | 1266 (Duns) |
|---|---|
| Deaths | 1308 ( Cologne ) |
| School / tradition | Scholastic , Franciscans |
| Main interests | Metaphysics , epistemology , logic , theology , angelology , ethics |
| Notable ideas | Univocal being, the principle of individuation ( eccit ), Immaculate Conception of Mary |
| Major works | Ordinatio; Opus Oxoniensis (Work Oxonian) De primo principio (first principle); Reportatio Parisiensis (Paris Conference) |
| Influenced by | Aristotle , Augustine , Boethius , Avicenna , Anselm , Averroes , Henry of Ghent , Thomas Aquinas , Peter of John Olivi , Gonzalo of Spain |
| Influenced | The Franciscans , Pierre Auriol , William of Ockham , Pico della Mirandola , Leibniz , Peirce , Gilson , Heidegger , Deleuze |
change  | |
John Duns Scotus (c. 1266 in Duns - 1308 in Cologne), also known as John Duns Scotus in English, Johannes Duns Scotus in German, dubbed the "Subtle Doctor" is a theologian and philosopher, Scottish founder of the school scholastic Scotus said. It was the pride of the order Franciscan , and profoundly influenced William of Ockham , the same way that Thomas Aquinas the Dominican was admired by his order. The school and the school Scotus Thomist will be in constant conflict, as the rivalry of the two mendicant orders.
Scotus's philosophy is of extraordinary complexity . The difference between God and creatures is not to be a difference as in Thomas Aquinas and Meister Eckhart , it is that God is infinite and the finite creature, on the same plane ontological. On the other hand, Duns Scotus develops a metaphysics of singularity based on the concept of individuation.
The Ethics of John Duns Scotus emphasizes the commitment and personal charity , in the tradition of Augustine and Bonaventure. In theology , Dr. Franciscan is best known for his angelology and for his theory of the Immaculate Conception of Mary , which was criticized by the Dominicans. It gives him about it another nickname, the "Marian Doctor" , which was also attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux.
Summary |
Biography
Theologian Franciscan (1266-1308). Born in Duns in Scotland in 1266 (or late 1265).
Franciscan teachers at the universities of Oxford and Paris. He took the courageous defense of Pope Boniface VIII in his conflict with the King of France, Philip the Fair , and had to undergo this temporary exile. Defender of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception , he was subjected to hostility from some teachers Dominicans.
In 1302, Duns Scotus participates in the disputed issue on the praise of God. It is his master Gonzalo of Spain is in a position of arguing, and the goal is none other than Eckhart. This controversy exists between the voluntarism of Gonzalo Hernandez of Spain, the leader of the Franciscans , with the intellectualism of the famous Dominican Meister Eckhart . The latter relates the discussion in a sermon: "I told the school that the intellect was nobler than the will, although they belonged to one and the other in this light. A teacher said so in another school it was the will which was nobler than the intellect .
He died in Cologne November 8, 1308. His life is also little known and has given rise to many legends.
He was beatified 20 March 1993 by Pope John Paul II in Rome (more precisely, it is the solemn announcement of a "confirmation of cult: the Roman Pontiff solemnly allows him to worship Blessed with the title of which was given for centuries on a more or less well founded) .
The problem of individuation
Duns Scotus invented the concept of individuation or " eccit "he criticizes the philosophies that give too much importance to the mode of being and who can explain the existence of singular individuals. His main target, according to Paolo Virno is the hylomorphism : that is to say the theory that defines all be a compound of matter and form, material ensuring the individuation of its indeterminacy original form and ensuring the updating of the material. This theory is a radicalization of the ontology Aristotelian , and is found for example in Thomas Aquinas . Scot opposes and refuses to admit that matter, indeterminate, can individuate beings. Nor can this role be of the form, which is still general. The cause of individuality would be the eccit or individuation : what makes Socrates Socrates is the individual, is its "Socratit" itself. There is no other cause than to seek individuation individuation itself: no other cause can explain the existence of singular individuals. To demonstrate his thesis, Scotus uses the paradigm angelology : how can there be angels unique and differentiated, whether the angel is pure form (that is to say without individuating field, and determined way General only)? There is a contradiction: the composition of matter and form is insufficient to explain the individuality of the angels. We must therefore apply a principle prior to the composition of form and matter, and this principle is ontological individuation.
Paolo Virno traces a continuity between philosophical and Duns Scotus Gilbert Simondon : their common position would be, as the Italian philosopher, a rejection of the universal and the individual both on behalf of individuation as a process . Indeed, the universal means the total elimination of the singularity, the absolute lack of differentiation, and the individual entity means a fixed, static, instead of individuation or self-becoming, which means the real singularity. This interpretation is similar to that of Gilles Deleuze , and Duns Scotus to the apparent left philosophical concept of individuation (or "transindividuation", "collective individuation" in the terminology of Simondon ) is opposed by the notion liberal self limited and defined as a source of private property and the law.
The concept of eccit will be taken up and criticized by Leibniz , who was anti-trend Scotus . In fact, according to Yvon Belaval , Leibniz interprets epistemological principle of individuation, while the version of Scot was ontological.
Philosophy and Method
Reason and revelation
Duns Scotus, as much of the philosophers of his time, clearly separating philosophy and theology , but sometimes used to illuminate one another. Nonetheless it is philosophy that sets out to take the most space in his work, even in matters of revelation. We can say that the thought of Duns Scotus is concerned to draw all the consequences of rational dogma of freedom of the creation of God. But, rejecting all arguments to explain the supposed divine plans, he said arbitrary laws imposed by God : "No quorum non est ratio quaerenda ratio. "(We should not seek the reason for which there is no reason). His method was able to seem purely criticism of reason and be a form of skepticism.
Knowledge in itself and in relation to us
Duns Scotus defines science as the intuition of the complete object of this science, ie knowledge of its essence and consequences that flow from this principle. But it is knowledge that is not possible for us, and then distinguishes the science itself and science for us. There will be two distinct scientific methods:
- "The essence of metaphysics is to base its divisions and definitions on gasoline, then demonstrations by the consideration of the causes absolutely essential commodities. But it is the nature of metaphysics itself. "
This prior knowledge is not possible, because:
- Sciences Division
It divides science into two according to their purpose: firstly the sciences that relate to beings ( mathematics , metaphysics , physics , which are the theoretical sciences of Aristotle ); other hand, the sciences which are concerned with forms of thinking and the laws of language ( logic , rhetoric , grammar ). In logic, he distinguishes formal logic (which is a science, ie a theory of necessary demonstrations) and practical logic (which is an art of discussion on what is likely).
Knowledge
Aristotle distinguished between the sensation, which does not exist without the body organs (it is common to all animals) and intellect that is independent (at least in the scholastic interpretation of the philosopher) and belongs to the man. This distinction is reflected in the scholastic. The study of these schools pose problems for the following knowledge :
- What is the role of intellect in knowledge?
- what knowledge the soul she herself?
- What knowledge do we have of God ?
- what relationship is there between our intellect and God as a principle?
Sensation
Duns Scotus admits that there are five senses external (seats and subjects of sensation) and a common sense internally. He rejects the appreciative sense of some theories that this sense is a lower faculty to the understanding, and who would feel without judging what is useful and what is harmful. It also seems at times confused in one sense common sense, memory (because the time is not perceived by the senses) and imagination (the imagination because sometimes feel full).
The five senses are distinguished by their body ; each direction discloses otherwise similar. As for common sense, root cause and special meanings, and which has its base in the heart and its termination in the brain , it is to clean the sensitive and susceptible common, such as the size and figure. We are well aware of the significant differences of different orders. Duns Scotus uses the image of the center of the circle: The center receives information from each direction that are on the periphery.
For Duns Scotus, the sensation is not entirely passive and has some activity (De anima, 7). Indeed, whether an organ is first modified so that there is sensation, there may be changes without sensation when the activity of the soul is suspended or turned to another side. Therefore the soul act with the cause of the modification of an organ for sensation to occur.
In the scholastic, these changes are organs printing of sensitive species, including Duns Scotus distinguishes three types (De Rerum Principio, 14):
- appearance attached to the object;
- case between the object and the organ;
- the species formed in the body.
This theory must first be distinguished from the theory of emanations of Democritus and Epicurus , indeed, the emanation is produced by the movements of atoms , and on this point Aristotle is silent. However, the scholastic admits that the sensation is produced by a change in the medium between the object and the organ of knowledge is thus not direct. Duns Scotus seems to admit the possibility of knowledge without intermediate medium in the case of touch (and that, contrary to Aristotle ).
Still, the feeling that we directly know the qualities of things as they are, but this knowledge needs of the understanding.
Intellect
- "The intellect has its own operations which distinguish it from the sensitive power: these operations are universal design, analysis and synthesis, reasoning. "(In ium. Feels. 3, 6).
The intellect makes us therefore conceivable species and genera, principles and links between ideas. The proper object of intellect is being in general, ie that all our thoughts are reducible to the categories of being , because everything we think (genus, species, individual, relationship, quality) are beings or changes to be. But it does not do anything about without the aid of the senses, and that without the possession of intellect and reflection on its operations, we have not only science but the sensations by which we can not elevate us to the question of truth and reality of a thing felt. Reduced sensation, a state animal , we feel but do not consider:
- "To know is to perceive the truth of a thing that is not the role of meaning, but only on the right. "(Ibid.)
Thus the intellect recognizes it the truth, but also it was through him that we gain certainty about particular things. The intellect then exerts control over the direction to avoid the error:
- by comparing the data of sense, and correcting;
- judging from the principles (causality, conflict, etc.). what is possible or impossible.
The intellect thus finds meaning in what is certain, and, accordingly, as Duns Scotus, it can be directly aware individuals. "Great men were wrong" on this point (eg Thomas Aquinas ), asserting that the intellect is to the universal knowledge now relieved of the susceptible species, and following Aristotle according to which the individual n is known by the senses. According to Thomas, to determine what individualizes a person, we must characterize the terms that are gender (such individual is a man, he is a theologian, he is this and that, etc..) Until we are forced to distinguish between two individuals by their sensitive species. But for Duns Scotus, this distinction is precisely sensitive species judgments of intellect is the intellect that considers the truth of sense-data, so sensitive species do not make us know the individuals.
The universals
The general intellect conceives things, but how do we get these skills ? Knowledge of universals implies a generalization and knowledge of laws : thus do we know to share the idea of animal and the qualities it relates. Duns Scotus rejects the idea that we can know universals by a higher principle or some kind of supernatural revelation, but he also rejects the idea that universality can come from the sense (because they capture only the presence of an object ).
We must then distinguish two roles of the intellect, a role which he produced by the universal, and a role for which he knows. In other words, we must distinguish an active intellect and a mind as possible. The possible intellect is thought to act or power, and the active intellect is what causes the mind. The intellect is therefore a habit principiorum, a statement of principles that will explain the theory of intelligible species.
The intelligible species
This division of the agent and possible intellect arises because the idea of the existence of intelligible species. The intelligible species is defined as the product of the intellect by transforming the data of sense or memory. While this case is sensitive in the soul and the body, the intelligible species is in the soul, and it is "a new form that is intelligence. "The universal is thus created and thought, what comes to mind when, after receiving the images is a form that it gives itself and which logically precedes thought, and which formed There remains when thought is no longer in action. But what remains is not an idea (because you would know that has it), it is a reality greater than the thought and representation , insofar, instead of thinking, it is permanent.
The theology
Evidence of the existence of God
Duns Scotus thinks that God can be sought by reason , even if there is a revelation, for believing what is not understood. There is therefore a science of God, and the knowledge that we have has several degrees:
- the highest is the knowledge of God in his essence, but it turns out that God is perfect theology;
- Then comes the theology of angels and blessed is the gift of God;
- Then comes the knowledge that we have in our mind, and Duns Scotus divided into two:
- human theology based on revelation;
- the philosophy is going to the authority of the Church and holy books.
Human theology needs the other sciences, but it nevertheless remains their superior nature of its purpose. And science are they subordones to faith. The philosophy is theology, and must accord with the Scriptures , although she is independent. That can then natural reason to know God ? Since God alone knows sub ratione deitatis, we need demonstrations.
We know there is a God, ie d. an infinite and necessary, but this knowledge is not knowledge of the essence. We know that God is, we do not know what it is. Knowledge of the essence of God we would know a priori its existence in the absence of this knowledge, we must argue a posteriori, ie d. that we form the idea of God than the testimony of the senses, and it is up to the effect to the cause that we can provide evidence of its existence.
This argument begins with the question of whether there be any infinite utrum aliquid sit in entibus cur existential infinitum. We have indeed the idea of an infinite being, but it is a concept formed using d other concepts. God will then be seen as cause efficient: since nothing can produce nothing, and that something can not produce itself, all that is good is produced by something else, and that other thing, because the we can not go back to the infinite , must be itself and not be produced. So each person is there in a series and caused by something other than itself, but outside this range, there is an efficient cause of a different nature. The series of contingent beings implies a necessary being.
This cause is also the supreme end, in effect:
- which acts by itself, acts to an end;
- So before the end of the action;
- as there can be no end before the Supreme First Cause
- the root cause and the supreme end are one and the same thing.
Duns Scotus also provides evidence for the idea of nature prominent.
Attributes of God
Duns Scotus concludes that God is necessary and that he possesses intelligence and will and it is infinite.
Indeed, a being who is by itself can not be produced or destroyed, it is a necessary being. This can only be unique, because what could be differentiated by two people needed except by some accident that would contradict their nature ? It can therefore be distinguished two natures.
Posterity
Duns Scotus is admired and thought was institutionalized in the Middle Ages , leaving many disciples of the same school (Scotus), opposite to the main currents of his time, including Thomism and Nominalism (the latter also know significant progress under the aegis of a heterodox disciple of Duns Scotus, philosopher and logician Franciscan William of Ockham , who favors dialogue with his teacher to develop his own thought in his works).
Scotus's thought is then ridiculed the Renaissance by the leading intellectuals of the time, for example Erasmus , with the exception of Pico della Mirandola . Thus, the nickname of "subtle doctor" is attributed to Duns Scotus in both directions. It originally meant a rigorous thinker and fine at the Renaissance it means the excess idle subtleties and obscure. Rabelais treats Scotism without respect, especially at the end of Chapter XII of Gargantua, where "Master John of Scotland "serves as guarantor to the view that" the bliss of semi-gods and heroes is that they torchent a goose's ass " .
Forgotten by the modern (again there is a notable exception: Leibniz , who went to school in his youth Scotism intellectual ), philosophy Scotus resurfaced unexpectedly in the very different contemporary philosophers.
Peirce calls it a basis for a scientific metaphysics, from the understanding of being as such logic or general concept, making the Scot a precursor of pragmatism .
Heidegger devotes his doctoral thesis, whereas Scotus as one of the thinkers who are finalizing the Middle Ages the Ontotheology , that is to say, the reduction of Being to God as supreme and General .
Deleuze as a thinker bed Scot anti-theological doctrine of the unambiguity of being (being is common to God and creatures) would be a weapon against the analog design and transcendent God (God is Being so preeminent , incommensurate with the whole set). Duns Scotus anticipate the philosophy immanentist of Spinoza , replacing the pair of theology (sacra doctrina) and philosophy (intended as ancilla theologiae, the handmaid of theology), based on the analogia entis an ontology single leaflet being and thinking on the same plane of immanence.
Works
- Before 1295:
- Parva logicalia:
- Quaestiones super Porphyrii Isagogem
- Quaestiones in librum Praedicamentorum
- Quaestiones in librum I and II Perihermeneias
- Octo Quaestiones in duos libros Perihermeneias
- Quaestiones in libros Elenchorum
- Parva logicalia:
- Lectura
- Quaestiones super libros De anima
- Quaestiones super libros Aristotelis Metaphysicorum (Questions on the Metaphysics, before and around 1300)
- Expositio super libros Aristotelis Metaphysicorum
- Ordinatio (circa 1300 to 1304)
- Collationes Oxoniensis and parisiensis (about 1303 - 1305)
- Reportatio parisiensis (1304 - 1305?)
- Quaestiones Quodlibetales (1306 - 1307)
- De primo principio
- Theorematic
French translations
- Dealt with the first principle (Tractatus de primo principio), translated from Latin, under the direction of Ruedi Imbach, Jean-Daniel Cavigioli, Jean-Marie Meilland, Francis Xavier Putallaz, Diary of the Journal of Theology and Philosophy, No. 10, Lausanne, 1983, 110 p. (Record BNF No. FRBNF34808392j ).
- Lectura in extracts Sententiarum (Commentary of the Book of Sentences of Peter Lombard) (circa 1293?)
- Theology as a practical science (Prologue Lectura), introduction, translation from Latin and notes by Grard Sondag, J. editions Vrin, coll. "Library of philosophical texts", Paris, 1996, 232 p. ( ISBN 978-2-71161289-5 ).
- The Cause of Will track the object of Enjoyment, trans. Francis Loiret, Paris, Belles Lettres, 2009, XCV - 121 p. Lectura extracts, Book II, distinction 25.
- Meaning and truth. Questions on Peri hermeneias Aristotle, trans. G. Sondag, Publisher: Vrin, Collection: "Translatio", January 19, 2009.
- Excerpts from the Ordinatio (scheduling) or Opus Oxoniensis (Work Oxonian) (1300):
- Prologue of Ordinatio, PUF, coll. "Epimetheus", 1999.
- The image, Vrin, 1993. Ordinatio I dist. 3, par 3, qu. 1-4.
- Knowledge of God and unanimity of the being, trans. O. Boulnois, PUF, coll. Epimetheus, 1988. Ordinatio I, dist. 3, pars 1.
- The principle of individuation (In principio individuationis) (1300), Vrin, 2005, trans. G. Sondag. Ordinatio II, par 3, d 1, qu. 1-7.
- Medieval philosophers of XIII and XIV century, Paris, 10/18, p. 167-206
- Power and its shadow, Paris, Aubier, 1994 267-285.
- Plurality of forms and unity of being, trans. A. de Muralt, in Studia philosophica, XXXIV (1974), p. 64-92.
Bibliography
Biographical Works
The most likely legendary burial premature Duns Scotus was refuted by the Franciscans in the seventeenth century, including:
- Luke Wadding, notice Authors Vita Ioannes Duns Scotus, Opera omnia, t. 1, Lyon, 1639, pp. 15-16. Can also be read in the Annals of the Minorum Wadding (rd. Quaracchi, 1931, vol 6, pp. 124-131).
The first known statement of this theme (circa 1400) was published in:
- KJ Heilig, "Zum Tode of Johannes Scotus," Historisches Jahrbuch, t. 49, 1929, pp. 641-645. For a discussion of this article, see Abate, Giuseppe, "La del Fri fell Giovanni Duns Scoto (...)" Francescana Miscellanea, Rome, 45 (1945), pp. 29-79, which refers to Collectanea franciscana t. 1, 1931, p. 121.
Philosophy of Duns Scotus
(In alphabetical order)
- Olivier Boulnois , Duns Scotus. The rigor of charity, Publisher: Cerf, Collection: Introduction, January 20, 1998.
- Lawrence Cesalli, propositional realism: semantics and ontology of propositions in John Duns Scotus, Walter Burley, Richard Brinkley and John Wyclif, J. editions Vrin, coll. "Sic et Non", Paris, 2007, 476 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7116-1856-9 ). - Revised text of a PhD in philosophy defended in 2003 at the University of Geneva.
- Etienne Gilson , Jean Duns Scotus, Introduction to his fundamental positions, Vrin, "Vrin-Reprise", Paris, 700 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7116-0288-9 ).
- Martin Heidegger , The Treaty of categories and meaning in Duns Scotus, Gallimard, 1970.
- Mary Beth Ingham, Introduction to the thought of John Duns Scotus (translated from French Scotus for Dunces. An Introduction to the Subtle Doctor, Y. Sudan), Franciscan Editions, January 2009. 342 p., 13.5 x 18 cm. ( ISBN 978-2-85020-235-3 ).
- Francis Loiret, Will and Infinite in Duns Scotus, Kime, Paris, 2003 (ISBN / 2-84174-297-0).
- Grard Sondag, Duns Scotus: Metaphysics of individuality, Librairie Philosophique Vrin, Collection: Library philosophies, April 4, 2005.
- Paul Vignaux, Philosophy in the Middle Ages preceded by a new introduction, followed Duns Scotus Read today Editions Castella, Albeuve, 1986, 276 p. ( ISBN 978-2-88087-025-6 )
- John Duns Scotus or Revolution subtle, interviews and presentation by Christine GOEM, co-publishing: Fac editions and France Culture, Paris, 1982, 102 p. ( a href = "Sp% C3% A9cial: Ouvrages_de_r% C3% A9f% C3% A9rence/9782903422103" class = "mw-internal-magiclink isbn"> ISBN 978-2 - 903422-10-3).
Reception by posterity
- Marie-Luce Demonet Article "The philosophers obscure: Scotists lines and shadows at the time of Rabelais', p. 26-47 in Asclepius and Dionysus, Essays in Honour of Jean Card, Editions Droz, Geneva, 2008.
References
- Reason why it is not on the agenda of philosophy at the Lyceum , unlike his fellow scholastics Anselm of Canterbury , Averroes , Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham.
- Cf the article by Olivier Boulnois , "Analogy and unambiguity as Duns Scotus. The double destruction ", Philosophical Studies, 1989.
- Cf Schmutz J., The Legacy of subtle Scotism mapping of the classical age, Philosophical Studies 2002 / 1, No. 57, p. 73.
- Cf And Anne Florence Malhomme Gabrile Wersinger (ed.), Mousika and arete. Music and ethics from antiquity to the modern age, Vrin, 2007, p.157 ff. The controversy has been grouped under the title of Spain Gonzalo Question of containing the "Reasons Eckhart" Meister Eckhart in Paris. A critique of the medieval Ontotheology, Behe, PUF, 1984.
- Eckhart , sermons and Treaties, ed. GF-Flammarion, 1995, trans. Alain de Libera , sermon 9: Quasi stella matutina ..., p.278.
- http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20020527_saints-jp-ii_it.html # 1993
- a and b See Article Virno Paolo, "The angels and the general intellect. individuation in Duns Scotus and Gilbert Simondon , "Multitudes n 18, Fall 2004.
- See Thomas Aquinas , Summa Theologica , Ia, q.3, a.2. In the same Question, Thomas logically excluded God of hylomorphism , limiting the very same field of ontology of material composition / form of creatures only. See also ibid., Ia, q.14, a.11.
- a and b See Belaval Yvon , Leibniz: an introduction to his philosophy, ch.1: "Training", Vrin, 2005, p.44.
- Jacob Schmutz says "theology normal" within the meaning of TS Kuhn. See Schmutz J., The Legacy of subtle Scotism mapping of the classical age, philosophical studies 2002 / 1, No. 57, p. 53 and p. 68.
- See Erasmus , Praise of Folly , LIII.
- Giovanni Pico della Mirandola devotes a section to Duns Scotus in his 900 conclusiones, like most great philosophers like Plotinus and Thomas Aquinas.
- See Franois Rabelais , Gargantua , ch. XII, ed. by Gerard Defaux, Second revised edition; Published with the assistance of the Centre National du Livre, Livre de Poche, Classical Library, 2003, p.181.
- Cf Claudine Tiercelin in the conference proceedings Duns Scotus in Paris, Turnhout, Brepols, 2005.
- See Martin Heidegger , The Treaty of categories and meaning in Duns Scotus, Gallimard, 1970.
- Cf Pierre Montebello , Deleuze: the passion of thought, ch.II: "The paradox of unambiguity, Vrin, 2008.
See also
Internal Links
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