John Duns Scotus (1265/66 – 1308) was a philosopher and theologian who lived during the Middle Ages. He was very important and influential, and his work has had a lasting impact on the field of philosophy and theology. His brilliant thinking had a big impact on discussions of a wide range of topics, including the semantics of religious language, the problem of universals, divine illumination, and the nature of human freedom.
Some experts believe he lived in the 13th century, while others believe he lived in the 14th century. However, most scholars agree that he wrote some of his most famous works in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. He probably began studying philosophy around the 1280s at Oxford and continued studying theology for a while as well. In the academic year 1298-1299, someone commented on the first two books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Scotus left Oxford for Paris, probably in 1302. He became a Doctor of Theology in 1305.
In Scotus’s early works, he wrote commentaries on the Old Logic: questions about Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories. These questions about the soul date back to around the 1290s, and may be an early work by the authors. Scotus’s other philosophical commentary, the “Quaestiones super libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis,” was probably started early in his career; but Books VI through IX were all revised or added later on in his career.
In addition to these, Scotus wrote 6 short disputations called Collationes dating from 1300-1305, a late work in natural theology called “De primo principio”, and “Quaestiones Quodlibetales” from the days of Scotus’s regency as master. The theoremata are the proofs of the mathematical theorems. Some people have doubts about the authenticity of this work, but the most recent critical edition (of which we are aware) accepts it as a genuine work by Scotus.
