A volume in the Purdue University Press series in the history of philosophy, this book is intended for introductory course and seminar work on Scotus. It begins with a very detailed chapter on the life and works of Scotus. Then there follow three central chapters: on the nature of metaphysics, the proof of the existence of God, and the univocal concept of being. The final chapter concerns individuation, universals, and the will. Each chapter comprises Latin texts, English facing translations, and (...) an expository essay with notes referring to other relevant texts. The bibliography, dominated by English language secondary literature, includes many editions and translations of individual works of Scotus. Detailed and up to date information is given concerning the questions of authenticity and the current progress of the critical editions. (shrink)

This book is a critical edition based on the Assisi and Merton College manuscripts of Scotus's question on restitution of ill-gotten goods. The question, entitled "Is one bound to restitution who may have unjustly taken or retained something belonging to another, so that he could not be truly penitent without making such restitution?" is theological in nature and pertains to Scotus's treatment of the sacrament of penance, but it provides him the occasion to set forth his philosophical theories of the (...) origin of private property, political authority, and the ethical rules governing a wide variety of business transactions, especially loans. It is in the latter sections of the question that Scotus treats of usury. The text is preceded by a detailed and very interesting historical introduction by Wolter which describes the struggle between King Philip the Fair of France and Pope Boniface VIII and how this political context affected the life and career of Scotus himself. Scotus reflected on the origin of the state at a time when some claimed that all political authority came through the pope, while others defended a king's right to resist a pope when necessary for the common good. But according to the Subtle Doctor, political authority is derived from the consent of the community. Rulers or legislators have the right and duty to regulate economic transactions between individuals for the sake of the common good. (shrink)

Depuis maintenant plusieurs années, le lecteur francophone encourt une dette de gratitude envers Gérard Sondag pour des traductions et des présentations originales de textes de Duns Scot. Le présent ouvrage nous fournit une introduction précieuse à la nature de la théologie selon Scot. Le texte traduit est le Prologue de la Lectura en quatre questions qui traitent de la nécessité pour l’homme d’une doctrine révélée sur Dieu, du sujet de la théologie, du statut scientifique de la théologie, et du caractère (...) «pratique» de la théologie. La traduction est accompagnée d’une quantité généreuse de notes et elle est précédée d’un «Commentaire continu» par Gérard Sondag où transparaît un contrôle impressionnant de toute l’œuvre du Subtil. Une note d’édition introduit le lecteur dans les problèmes de traduction que rencontre le vulgarisateur de Scot aujourd’hui et qui sont dus au caractère hyperformel de sa pensée. On peut signaler la note éclairante sur la polysémie du mot necessarium chez Scot. (shrink)

This volume completes the critical edition of the theological and philosophical works of the Venerable Inceptor. The introduction and critical apparatus are in Latin. The editors reverse the judgment of the late Philotheus Boehner and E. M. Buytaert by considering the Tractatus Minor and Elementarium Logicae to be of dubious authenticity on the basis of doctrinal and stylistic criteria. The Tractatus de Praedicamentis is also judged dubious for doctrinal reasons. This particular Tractatus and a late fourteenth/early fifteenth-century manuscript which contains (...) it have been studied in the literature by G. Etzkorn, J. Weisheipl, and L. M. de Rijk. The Tractatus de Relatione deviates doctrinally from Ockham. The authenticity of the Centiloquium was apparently doubted already in the fifteenth century. Finally, the Tractatus de Principiis Theologiae, though long considered authentic, is judged to be the work of a compiler summarizing Ockham's doctrines: it always uses the third person, dicit. (shrink)

The Ockham Quodlibetal Questions are the first translation in this new series edited by Norman Kretzmann, Eleanore Stump, and John Wippel. It includes a brief introduction by Freddoso which summarizes the growing scholarly consensus that despite the novel character of Ockham's thought and the uses to which it was later put, it is fundamentally Aristotelian and medieval-Christian in inspiration. Freddoso is also convinced of Ockham's usefulness for contemporary philosophical questions which thus turn out to be not merely contemporary but perennial. (...) The collection fills a heretofore unmet need for fully representative selections from Ockham in English translation. Footnotes are kept to a minimum, but the index at the end of volume 2 runs twenty-seven pages. As the name implies, each quodlibet can include questions on any philosophical or theological topic whatever; for the benefit of those wishing to study Ockham's thinking systematically and according to standard philosophical convention, Freddoso provides an outline of topics with references to the scattered questions where they are considered. The paucity of explanatory footnotes is supplemented by bibliographic reference to editions of works cited by Ockham and to secondary literature. (shrink)

Though numbered as volume 3, this superb offering to the philosophical world is the first installment in the critical edition of Duns Scotus’s philosophical works, separated some years ago from the theological works still being critically edited in Rome. There are no major surprises with respect to the authenticity of the work : as has long been known, only books 1 through 9 of the Wadding Quaestiones subtilissimae are authentic. The present editors believe however that the presumed author of the (...) other Metaphysics texts once attributed to Scotus, the Scotist Antonius Andreas, is probably a good guide to the thought of the master. The introduction makes a convincing case for the position that the Quaestiones must not simply be viewed as “an early work”; much evidence indicates Scotus was constantly adding to it, and the editors are fully confident that they have correctly identified many authentic additions which they present as such in the text. The text is clearly and beautifully presented and divided, with Scotus’s various interlocutors identified to the extent possible. No more will the reader of Scotus’s Quaestiones have to wonder if he has even succeeded in distinguishing the Subtle Doctor from the objectors! That being said, the Quaestiones remains an extremely difficult work, even for Scotus: the writing is allusive and sparse and the Latin sometimes barbarous. The critical apparatus provides extensive quotations from Scotus’s sources; the brief interpretative notes by the editors are rare. The indexes are very detailed. (shrink)

This book studies seven medieval philosophers' theories of relation. It shows how each thinker's theory of relations reflects and is consistent with his overall metaphysics. The introduction locates the sources of medieval interest in relations in Aristotle and in Augustine's Trinitarian theology. Henninger summarizes the Aristotelian subject-predicate analysis of relation and its difficulties, and contrasts it with nineteenth-century developments. At the beginning of the period covered, a relation was seen as an accident inhering in a term on account of a (...) foundation in the term. For example, given two white things, there are two relations of similarity founded in the whiteness of each. A relation has the unique property of esse ad, "being towards" another. (shrink)