Abstract

Already in the Middle Ages the honorary title Doctor communis was conferred on Aquinas, but in fact he was never "the common teacher". About twenty-five years after his death (1274), the Franciscan theologian John Duns Scotus voiced an uncommonly severe criticism: he cannot imagine a theologian and a philosopher maintaining that which Aquinas teaches. The conflict between these thinkers of stature is the subject of this essay. (1) We first describe the epistemological problem, that of the "adequate object of the intellect", from which Scotus develops his criticism, and than analyze (2) his theological and (3) philosophical objections to Aquinas's position. But something is to be said against the analysis of the Doctor subtilis: (4) his criticism proves to be onesided and departs from suppositions, not shared by his opponent