Abstract

This study investigates a conflict in Duns Scotus ’ doctrine of the origin of intelligible being or intelligibility found in his various treatments of the divine ideas. Scotus holds both that the divine intellect produces the essences of creatable things, and that the essences of creatable things are contained in the divine essence and represented by it to the divine intellect. Although this conflict has escaped the notice of most of Scotus ’ medieval and modern interpreters, two early followers of Scotus, William of Alnwick and Petrus Thomae, recognized it in the course of their detailed examinations of the notion of intelligible being. William simply noted the contradiction and defended an elaborate version of. Peter also defended a complex version of, but additionally attempted to relieve the conflict between Scotus ’ views by arguing that Scotus had intended to be taken only metaphorically.