Structural Factors

Shared Core Claims

Scotism holds that metaphysics needs a univocal concept of being, that common natures and individuating haecceities are real in distinct ways, that formal distinction explains complex unity, and that divine and human freedom require a robust account of contingency.

Shared Methods

The school uses scholastic quaestio, Sentences commentary, fine-grained distinctions, modal argument, semantic analysis, formal distinction, metaphysical proof, theological disputation, Franciscan commentary, and debate with Thomist, Augustinian, and nominalist rivals.

Shared Lineage

Scotism develops from Augustine, Aristotle, Avicenna, Anselm, Franciscan theology, Bonaventure, Henry of Ghent, and John Duns Scotus, then through early Scotists such as Antonius Andreas, Francis of Meyronnes, William of Alnwick, John of Ripa, and later Franciscan schools.

Shared Problems

Central problems include the meaning of being, individuation, universals, formalities, divine simplicity, freedom, contingency, cognition, will and intellect, proof of God's existence, Immaculate Conception, natural theology, and the relation between metaphysics and revealed theology.

Shared Vocabulary

Key terms include univocity, haecceity, thisness, common nature, formal distinction, objective concept, intuitive cognition, abstractive cognition, will, contingency, synchronic contingency, formalitas, quidditas, natura communis, individuation, ens, and Doctor Subtilis.

Shared Historical Context

Scotism arose in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries within Franciscan scholastic culture, Oxford and Paris university debate, Sentences commentary, and disputes over Aristotle, Avicenna, Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, and theological doctrine.

Defining Axes

Doctrine

Doctrinally, Scotism is defined by univocity of being, formal distinction, real common natures, haecceity as principle of individuation, divine and human freedom, priority of will, contingency, and a Franciscan theological defense of the Immaculate Conception.

Method

Its method is analytic and scholastic: isolate formalities, test modal possibilities, distinguish senses of terms, answer objections, compare authorities, and use precise metaphysical distinctions to secure theological and philosophical claims.

Lineage

The lineage runs from Augustinian and Franciscan theology, Aristotle and Avicenna, Anselm, Bonaventure, Henry of Ghent, and Duns Scotus to fourteenth-century Scotists, later Franciscan commentators, early modern scholasticism, and contemporary Scotus scholarship.

Subject Focus

Scotism focuses on metaphysics, ontology, individuation, universals, philosophy of language, epistemology, modality, philosophical theology, ethics of will, natural theology, Mariology, and medieval scholastic method.

Geography / Culture

Scotism developed in Latin Christian university and Franciscan settings, especially Oxford, Paris, Cologne, and later Franciscan study houses across Europe, with strong reception in Scotland, England, France, Italy, Spain, and Ireland.

Historical Reaction

Scotism responds to Thomist analogy, Henry of Ghent's illumination and essence theories, Aristotelian and Avicennan metaphysics, debates over universals, condemnations and modal theology, Franciscan theological priorities, and later nominalist criticism.

Internal Structure

Foundational Texts

Foundational texts include Scotus's Ordinatio, Lectura, Reportatio, Quaestiones quodlibetales, Questions on the Metaphysics, early Scotist commentaries, Antonius Andreas's metaphysical writings, and later Franciscan Scotist manuals.

Core Vocabulary

Core vocabulary includes being, concept, univocity, analogy, formal distinction, real distinction, common nature, individual difference, haecceity, formality, quiddity, will, intellect, contingency, possibility, cognition, demonstration, and theological science.

Metaphysics

Scotist metaphysics analyzes being as a univocal transcendental concept, common natures as formally real, individuation through haecceity, formal distinction within unified things, and modal structure as central to causality, freedom, and divine knowledge.

Epistemology

Scotist epistemology distinguishes intuitive and abstractive cognition, analyzes concepts and signification, defends natural knowledge of being and God, and treats cognition as ordered by both sensory encounter and intellectual abstraction.

Ethics

Scotist ethics emphasizes will, freedom, love, moral contingency, divine command, ordered affection, justice, charity, and the capacity of rational agents to determine themselves under reasons and divine law.

Method

The school proceeds through commentary on authoritative texts, precise distinctions, formal and modal analysis, objection-and-reply disputation, comparison with rival positions, and systematic development of Scotus's unresolved or condensed arguments.

Internal Debates

Internal debates concern how to interpret formal distinction, whether Scotus is realist or moderate realist, the exact status of common natures and haecceities, voluntarism, divine command, univocity, and the continuity between Scotus and later Scotists.

Successors

Successors include later Franciscan scholasticism, Scotist theology, early modern scholastic metaphysics, debates with Ockhamism and Thomism, Catholic Immaculate Conception theology, renewed analytic interest in haecceity, modality, and medieval metaphysics.

External Classification Context

History of Philosophy

Scotism is one of the central late medieval scholastic traditions and a major alternative to Thomism and nominalism in metaphysics, epistemology, theology, modality, and the theory of individuation.

Philosophy of Philosophy

Scotism treats philosophy as rigorous conceptual and metaphysical clarification in service of theology, using distinctions not as ornament but as tools for preserving intelligibility, freedom, and doctrinal precision.

Intellectual History

The tradition links Franciscan education, Sentences commentary, university disputation, Latin scholastic metaphysics, late medieval theological controversy, early modern Catholic schools, and modern medievalist and analytic reconstruction.

University Classification

Classify Scotism under medieval philosophy, scholasticism, Franciscan philosophy, metaphysics, ontology, philosophy of religion, philosophical theology, epistemology, modality, and history of Christian thought.

Classical Sources

Classical sources include Augustine, Aristotle, Avicenna, Anselm, Bonaventure, Henry of Ghent, Scotus's major works, early Scotist commentaries, Franciscan scholastic manuals, and Thomist and nominalist critiques.

Sociology of Knowledge

Scotism spread through Franciscan schools, university lectures, Sentences commentaries, manuscript copying, order curricula, printed Opera omnia, scholastic disputation, Catholic theological debate, and modern critical editions and scholarship.

Linked Philosophers

John Duns Scotus

1266 CE – 1308 CE

Duns, Berwickshire, now Scottish Borders

Scottish Franciscan scholastic philosopher of Scotism, univocity of being, haecceity, formal distinction, divine infinity, will, natural law, logic, and the Ordinatio.