Divisibility, Communicability, and Predicability in Duns Scotus’s Theories of the Common Nature

As is well-known, Duns Scotus adopts a moderately realist stance on the being of the common natures of categorial entities-substances and accidents. He believes that such natures have extramental being, such that, though real, each nature-e.g. humanity, redness, and so on-in itself lacks numerical unity. Scotus holds, too, that the divine nature is not like this: it is numerically singular, really the same in each exemplification of it. Scotus thus accepts a version of a more extreme realism in the case of the divine nature. Here, I intend to show how Scotus distinguishes these two cases and, more generally, how he understands them. In addition, my investigation also has ramifications for Scotus's account of individuation.

Divisibility rule · Pure mathematics · Mathematics · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics · Theology and Philosophy of Evil

• Recent Work on the Philosophy of Duns Scotus

  Open Access•Richard Cro, Richard Cross•Philosophy Compass•2010

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