La teoría de la materia en Juan Duns Escoto

Abstract

There is no universal and indisputable physics theory in the Middle Ages that is accepted by all the masters. The heated controversies that consequently arise are not simple academic exercises regulated by the ecclesiastic authority. They express a plethora of multiple opinions advocated by philosophers convinced of the truth of their explanations. The university teaching method centered on the disputations, consolidated as a systematic and regular form not only of learning but also of research of the times, accounts for this diversity that allows the inclusion of several argumentative versions regarding a subject and the careful examination though the application of the dialectic method. As an expressive approach to the dynamic search of the constitution of science, we will focus on John Duns Scotus’ physic theory of matter. The focus of our analysis will be the exposition found within the development of the hexameral literature in Duns Scotus’ Lectura(L. II d. 12-15). The selected section constitutes an outline of a cosmology developed on the basis of the poem of creation (Gn 1, 1-2, 4). It provides us with a general theory about the consti- tution of the material being, which we will deal with specifically, and a cosmologic exposition about light and a summary of the general organization of the supra and sublunar cosmos.