John Duns Scotus (c. 1265-1308) was a Scottish Franciscan philosopher who is widely known for his contribution to the debate on the problem of universals. This problem is essentially concerned with the question of whether universal concepts, such as “redness,” “justice,” and “beauty,” have a real existence or whether they are merely mental constructs.
Scotus rejected the position of the Aristotelian realists, who held that universals are real entities that exist independently of the particular things that instantiate them. He also rejected the position of the nominalists, who held that universals do not have any real existence outside of the mind and are merely linguistic conveniences. Instead, Scotus proposed a position that came to be known as moderate realism.
According to Scotus, universals have a real existence, but they exist only in the mind. In other words, they are mental entities that are abstracted from the particular things that instantiate them. Scotus believed that the human mind has the capacity to abstract universal concepts from particular things, and that these concepts have a real existence in the mind, but not in the external world.
Scotus’s view on universals was based on his broader philosophical position that reality is composed of two distinct types of entities: univocal and equivocal beings. Univocal beings are those that can be classified under a single concept or category, such as “human beings” or “rational animals.” Equivocal beings, on the other hand, are those that cannot be classified under a single concept or category, such as God or angels.
Scotus believed that universals are univocal beings, which means that they can be classified under a single concept or category. However, he also believed that they are not individual entities that exist independently of the particular things that instantiate them. Instead, they are mental entities that are abstracted from the particular things that instantiate them, and their existence depends on the human mind’s capacity to abstract and form concepts.
Scotus’s moderate realism was an important development in the debate on universals, and it had a significant influence on later philosophical thought. It provided a middle ground between the extremes of Aristotelian realism and nominalism, and it allowed for the existence of universals without positing their independent existence outside of the mind.
Furthermore, Scotus’s view on universals had important implications for his understanding of metaphysics and theology. For example, he believed that God is an equivocal being, and that human concepts cannot fully grasp the nature of God. This led him to develop his famous “formal distinction” between God’s attributes, which allowed him to affirm that God has a real existence while also acknowledging the limitations of human knowledge.
In conclusion, Scotus’s view on universals was a significant contribution to the debate on the problem of universals. His moderate realism allowed for the existence of universals without positing their independent existence outside of the mind, and it had important implications for his broader philosophical and theological thought.