International Medieval Society, Paris
Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2005 Abstracts

John Duns Scotus traveled to and from Paris several times. He was greatly influenced by its intellectual environment, and its University.

Between his religious profession and his ordination, from 1281 to 1291, Duns Scotus was obliged to pursue his first philosophical and theological studies.

Where, and under whose influences? Who were his teachers, those likely to leave an imprint and help shape his thought?

There is no documentary evidence concerning that period. Hence, let us hypothesize that he studied at least two or three years in the convent of his Province, as it was customary, namely at Haddington in Scotland, and later at Oxford, in England. Nevertheless, Duns Scotus shows a rather Parisian and French training in philosophy and theology. He is a metaphysician and a theologian in the tradition of Paris and its great magistri, e.g. Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure. Moreover, Duns Scotus’s first writings in logic and metaphysics reflect the intellectual atmosphere of Paris. Perhaps Duns Scotus went to Paris at the beginning of his career and remained there between 1283 and 1290. If we accept this hypothesis, several problems associated with the origin and formulation of Scotus’s ideas would find a solution, because we could assume that Duns Scotus knew Richard of Mediaville, Peter Olivi, Gonsalvus Hispanus, along with other masters of the time, all of whom taught in Paris.

John Duns Scotus was ordained to the priesthood in Northampton, England, on March 17th, 1291, and then he went to Paris (1292-1293) for his higher theological studies. There Duns Scotus read Peter Lombard’s Sentences, took part in disputations, and delivered sermons. About 1297, he returned to England to complete at Oxford and perhaps at Cambridge his studies for the doctorate. He was back in Paris in 1301, as master of theology. Expelled from France in 1303, he was allowed to return to Paris in 1304, where he remained until 1307.

Duns Scotus developed his theological synthesis in Paris, at least for the most part: it is Augustinian in its general outlines, Franciscan in its details, aware of Aristotle’s philosophy and Aquinas’s teachings, in a sort of balanced via media between Augustinianism and Aristotelianism. Duns Scotus shows a tendency to unify and set in order, avoiding separatist compromises: Scotum consulat qui amat unitatem doctrinae.