Interpreting Duns Scotus

John Duns Scotus is commonly recognized as one of the most original thinkers of medieval philosophy-indeed, of Western philosophy tout court . His influence on subsequent philosophers and theologians is enormous and extends well beyond the limits of theMiddle Ages. His thought, however, might be intimidating for the noninitiated, because of the sheer number of topics he touched on and the difficulty of his philosophical style. The eleven essays collected here, especially written for this volume by someof the leading scholars in the field, takes the reader through a variety of topics, including Duns Scotus's life and intellectual environment, his argument for the existence of God and his conceptions of modality, order, causality, matter and form, freedom, and human nature and its dignities. His views on the way human beings become aware of practical principles, on the extent and limits of their knowledge in this life, and on the concept of being and the notion of analogy are also analyzed. This volumesprovides a reliable entryway to the thought of Duns Scotus while giving a snapshort of some of the best research that is now being done on this difficult but intellectually rewarding thinker--