HERE - Franciscan Institute Publications

SCOTUS AND
OCKHAM
SELECTED ESSAYS

SCOTUS AND
OCKHAM
SELECTED ESSAYS
Allan B. Wolter, O.F.M.
St. Bonaventure, NY
Franciscan Institute Publications
2003

Copyright © 2003
The Franciscan Institute
St. Bonaventure University
St. Bonaventure, New York
All rights reserved.
No part of the book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number:
ISBN: 1-57659-188-3
Printed in the United States of America
BookMasters Inc.
Mansfield, OH

CONTENTS
Preface vii
Part One
John Duns Scotus and the Scotistic School
1. Reflections on the Life and Works of Scotus 1
2. The Early Works of Scotus 35
3. Duns Scotus at Oxford 53
4. A Scotistic Approach to the Ultimate
Why-Question 63
5. God’s Knowledge: A Study in Scotistic
Methodology 85
6. William of Alnwick on Scotus and Divine
Concurrence 101
7. Scotus on the Origin of Possibility 129
8. Scotus’s Lectures on the Immaculate
Conception 143
9. Scotus’s Ethics 173
10. Scotus’s Eschatology: Some Reflections 185
11. Scotism 219
12. An Oxford Dialogue on Language
and Metaphysics 229
Part Two
William of Ockham
13. Ockham and the Textbooks 283
14. Ockham’s Conception of Matter 307
Select Bibliography 337
Addenda to Bibliography 350

vii
Preface
Fr. Allan Bernard Wolter, O.F.M., has had a long and illustrious teaching
career. Whether he was teaching at The Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure
University, Our Lady of Angels Seminary in Cleveland, or The Catholic University
of America in Washington, D.C., he was a true philosopher who followed
Aristotle’s tenet that human beings are born to wonder. As one of his
students, I remember to this day how he opened my mind to wonder and
ponder when many of his fellow seminary professors were engaged in the ecclesiastical
game of playing it safe by using dry and dusty handbooks. To Father
Allan philosophy was a vibrant way of life and an exciting way to God, as he
enkindled fires of understanding and joy in the minds of his students.
Anyone who knows Father Allan or knows of him realizes that his name is
almost synonymous with that great Franciscan philosopher and theologian
from Duns, Scotland, John Duns Scotus. Over the last months I have been
checking books and encyclopedia articles on Scotus and have been overwhelmed
by the multitudinous references to the works of A. B. Wolter. I would happily
border on exaggeration and state that contemporary studies on Scotus would
be unimaginable without the outstanding work by Father Allan. His doctoral
dissertation, which is still in demand after more than a half century, was titled:
The Transcendentals and Their Function in the Metaphysics of Duns Scotus. Over
the rich decades of his academic career Father Allan has published many and
brilliant articles on Scotus, and it is with great joy that we at The Franciscan
Institute make the best of these articles available to a larger audience under
one set of covers. We are happy that Father Allan has seen fit to include in this
book some of the excellent articles he also wrote on another Franciscan philosopher,
William of Ockham.
The year of 2003 is a significant year for Father Allan, who was born in
Peoria, Illinois, where parents and grandparents taught him how to wonder.
On November 24 he will celebrate his ninetieth birthday. During 2003 he will
celebrate his seventieth year as a Franciscan friar of the St. Louis-Chicago
Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart. This year marks the first full year of
his “retirement” from being the Fr. Joseph Doino, O.F.M. Visiting Professor
of Franciscan Studies at The Franciscan Institute. You would be one hundred
percent correct if you would venture a guess that during his “retirement” he
continues to work on his beloved Scotus.
We thank Father Allan for his life of scholarship and for the superb essays
contained in this volume and hope that they will spark into life our abilities to
wonder about creation and creation’s God, who is overflowing love and goodness.
Fr. Robert J. Karris, O.F.M.
Chair of Research
The Franciscan Institute
St. Bonaventure University