Duns Scotus Quotes on Knowledge
John Duns Scotus was a 13th and early 14th-century Scottish Franciscan friar, philosopher, and theologian, regarded as one of the most important medieval scholastic philosophers alongside Aquinas and William of Ockham. This page collects quotes attributed to Duns Scotus on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Duns Scotus:
“It does not behoove the philosopher to deny what is self-evident.”
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Attributed to Duns Scotus:
“Where there is no order, there is no being.”
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“sic: si omnes homines natura scire desiderant, ergo maxime scientiam maxime desiderabunt. Ita arguit Philosophus I huius cap. 2. Et ibidem subdit: "quae sit maxime scientia, illa scilicet quae est circa maxime scibilia". Maxime autem dicuntur scibilia dupliciter: uel quia primo omnium sciuntur sine quibus non possunt alia sciri; uel quia sunt certissima cognoscibilia. Utroque autem modo considerat ista scientia maxime scibilia. Haec igitur est maxime scientia, et per consequens maxime desiderabilis.”
If all men by nature desire to know, then they desire most of all the greatest knowledge of science . So the Philosopher argues in chap. 2 of his first book of the work [ Metaphisics ]. And he immediately indicates what the greatest science is, namely the science which is about those things that are most knowable. But there are two senses in which things are said to be maximally knowable: either b -
“Quaestiones subtilissimae de metaphysicam Aristotelis , as translated in: William A. Frank, Allan Bernard Wolter (1995) Duns Scotus, metaphysician . p. 18-19”
sic: si omnes homines natura scire desiderant, ergo maxime scientiam maxime desiderabunt. Ita arguit Philosophus I huius cap. 2. Et ibidem subdit: "quae sit maxime scientia, illa scilicet quae est circa maxime scibilia". Maxime autem dicuntur scibilia dupliciter: uel quia primo omnium sciuntur sine quibus non possunt alia sciri; uel quia sunt certissima cognoscibilia. Utroque autem modo considerat -
“Quaestiones subtilissimae de metaphysicam Aristotelis , as translated in: William A. Frank, Allan Bernard Wolter (1995) Duns Scotus, metaphysician . p. 20-21”
loquimur de materia "circa quam" est scientia, quae dicitur a quibusdam subiectum scientiae, uel magis proprie obiectum, sicut et illud circa quod est uirtus dicitur obiectum uirtutis proprie, non subiectum. De isto autem obiecto huius scientiae ostensum est prius quod haec scientia est circa transcendentia; ostensum est autem quod est circa altissimas causas. Quod autem istorum debeat poni propri