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Single Idea 22122

[filed under theme 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / a. Nature of Being ]

Full Idea

Duns Scotus said the primary object of the created intellect was being, rejecting Aquinas's Aristotelian view that it was limited to the quiddity of the sense particular, and Henry of Ghent's Augustinian view that it was God.

Gist of Idea

Being (not sensation or God) is the primary object of the intellect

Source

report of John Duns Scotus (works [1301]) by Stephen D. Dumont - Duns Scotus p.205

Book Ref

'Shorter Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Craig,Edward [Routledge 2005], p.205


A Reaction

I suppose the 'primary object of the intellect' is the rationalist/empiricism disagreement. So (roughly) Aquinas was an empiricist, Duns Scotus was a rationalist, and Augustine was a transcendentalist? Augustine sounds like Spinoza.

Related Idea

Idea 22108 First grasp what it is, then its essential features; judgement is their compounding and division [Aquinas]


The 24 ideas from John Duns Scotus

Substance is only grasped under the general heading of 'being' [Duns Scotus]
Are things distinct if they are both separate, or if only one of them can be separate? [Duns Scotus, by Pasnau]
Substance is an intrinsic thing, so parts of substances can't also be intrinsic things [Duns Scotus]
'Unity' is a particularly difficult word, because things can have hidden unity [Duns Scotus]
The haecceity is the featureless thing which gives ultimate individuality to a substance [Duns Scotus, by Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
If only the singular exists, science is impossible, as that relies on true generalities [Duns Scotus, by Panaccio]
If things were singular they would only differ numerically, but horse and tulip differ more than that [Duns Scotus, by Panaccio]
What prevents a stone from being divided into parts which are still the stone? [Duns Scotus]
It is absurd that there is no difference between a genuinely unified thing, and a mere aggregate [Duns Scotus]
We distinguish one thing from another by contradiction, because this is, and that is not [Duns Scotus]
Two things are different if something is true of one and not of the other [Duns Scotus]
Accidents must have formal being, if they are principles of real action, and of mental action and thought [Duns Scotus]
Matter and form give true unity; subject and accident is just unity 'per accidens' [Duns Scotus]
Avicenna and Duns Scotus say essences have independent and prior existence [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
Duns Scotus was a realist about universals [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
The concept of being has only one meaning, whether talking of universals or of God [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
Being (not sensation or God) is the primary object of the intellect [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
Scotus said a substantial principle of individuation [haecceitas] was needed for an essence [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
Certainty comes from the self-evident, from induction, and from self-awareness [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
Scotus defended direct 'intuitive cognition', against the abstractive view [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
Augustine's 'illumination' theory of knowledge leads to nothing but scepticism [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
The will retains its power for opposites, even when it is acting [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
The concept of God is the unique first efficient cause, final cause, and most eminent being [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
We can't infer the infinity of God from creation ex nihilo [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]