Rivista Antonianum
Informazione sulla pubblicazione

SUMMARY: The author, having already written on this theme three articles, which could com­monly be entitled «concrete cognitive modes» according to Scotus, is motivated to resume the same theme by certain affirmations, according to him incorrect and rather erroneous, of a particular stu­dy, which appears in the «Acta» of the last International Scotistic Congress. Recognising a certain ambiguity in the texts of Scotus, the author endeavours to formulate a co­herent interpretation, starting from the principle of partial causality, which is the basic principle of Scotus' teaching on the subject.The author distinguishes systematically three types of knowledge: abstract knowledge, abstractive knowledge and intuition, determining their proper characteristics.The author delineates Scotus' thought on abstract knowledge in the text of «The origin of the in-telligibles» (De origine intelligibilium), which is the normal type of concrete or abstractive knowledge. He then proceeds towards distinct knowledge, which is obtained through formalisa-tion and abstraction. In the end he takes into consideration intuition as a cognitive mode pro nunc», with its proper characteristics.Concrete intellection or abstractive knowledge of the concrete object constitutes the actus scienti-ficus, the fundamental element of every scientific knowledge, whereas intuition, the simulta­neous act of actual concrete intellection, establishes the existential fact or radical contingency of beings, founded on free activity.