scotism

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The metaphysical system of John Duns Scotus (born probably at Duns in Berwickshire, Scotland, though the place is doubtful: died at Cologne in 1308), the most accurate thinker of the middle ages. His method is the logical analysis of the elements of existence. His fundamental doctrine is that distinctions which the mind inevitably draws are to be considered as real, although they do not exist in the things apart from their relations to mind. Such distinctions were called formal, the abstractions thence resulting formalities, and those who insisted upon them formalists or formalizers (Middle Latin formalizantes). He taught the important principle of hæcceity—that individual existence is no quality, is capable of no description or general conception, but is a peculiar element of being. He held that the natures of genera and species, as animal and horse, are real, and are not in themselves either general or particular, though they cannot exist except as particular nor be thought except as general. The teaching of Scotism in the English universities was prohibited by the royal injunctions of 1535.