Duns Scotus, Metaphysician (Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures) (Purdue University Press Series in the History of Philosophy) [Paperback]

Willaim Frank (Author), Allan B Wolter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1557530726 | ISBN-13: 978-1557530721 | Publication Date: December 1, 1995

Long recognized as one of the greatest medieval philosophical theologians, John Duns Scotus made his most innovative theoretical contributions in the area of metaphysics. A careful and detailed study of his argument for the existence of God and the theory of knowledge that makes this possible provides the most direct access to his basic ideas. Unlike the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas or Anselm's famous Proslogion argument, Scotus's proof is of another order of complexity and amounts to a little "summa" of his metaphysics. Among those theologians to accept Aristotle's scientific theory, Scotus is perhaps the first to realize fully its negative consequences if the philosophical doctrines of divine illumination and the analogical concept of being interact. His treatment of the God-question is distinguished for its deliberatively holistic approach to what was conventionally a series of unrelated topics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Purdue University Press (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557530726
• ISBN-13: 978-1557530721
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,592,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mind that Rivals Aquinas, July 22, 2001

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Brian Tullius (Auburn, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Duns Scotus, Metaphysician (Purdue University Press Series in the History of Philosophy) (Hardcover)

This is not a book for the philosopher timid of heart. Blessed John Duns Scotus is one of the greatest minds that the Franciscan school of thought has produced. He has inspired so much of the work of the Franciscan philosophers and theologians; although it must be said that the Franciscans are very free thinkers. The book contains both selections from the metaphysical texts of Scotus and a commentary by William Frank and Allan Wolter, who have brilliantly unwoven the tightly knit thought of this logical mastermind. Scotus can prove a great challenge for the sheer depth of his work and also because of the modern mind's distance from the time, place, and style within which Scotus wrote. These two commentators provide the avid philosopher ample tools for the successful comprehension of the Scotistic vision of metaphysics, including his highly contraversial theory of univocity (Thomists, please read this with an open mind).