Conference Presentations by Garrett Smith
In the Scholarship of the twentieth century, Scotism and Platonism were often linked and contrast... more In the Scholarship of the twentieth century, Scotism and Platonism were often linked and contrasted unfavorably with Aristotelianism, especially that displayed by Thomas Aquinas. Thus, Gilson famously compared Duns Scotus' doctrine of essence to the Platonism "anterior" to the Aristotelianism of Thomas Aquinas. Motivated by more recent research, however, not least that indicating that Thomism itself is suffused with Platonism, the present conference seeks to reevaluate the relationship between the varieties of Platonism and Scotism by considering a doctrine central to both traditions, the Ideas. The problem is, however, that the Platonic doctrine of Ideas was explicitly rejected, only to be continued in another form. With John Duns Scotus, the Platonic Ideas and their successors, namely objects endowed with esse essentiae, were rejected and transformed into quiddities endowed with intelligible being (esse intelligibile). The concept of esse intelligibile itself proved controversial, however, even among Scotus' own followers. Furthermore, there were contemporary critiques from Dominicans and others inside and outside the Franciscan order as well, for example, those directed at the formalizantes in the 15 th and 16 th centuries, which still objected to their Platonism, despite wider access to Platonic texts during the Renaissance. These debates formed a running controversy that lasted to the end of the Middle Ages and was noted even by those outside of the scholastic schools, famously playing a role in Descartes' proof for the existence of God. The present conference brings together leading scholars of both Scotism and Platonism and will explore and evaluate the connections between the two traditions.
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Conference Presentations by Garrett Smith