Summary. — In this essay, which took the form of a prolusion to the new academic year at the Pontifical Athenaeum Antonianum on Nov. 8,1985, an attempt has been made to present some of the most impor­tant features of Duns Scotus' philosophy within the framework of the Franciscan tradition and in relation to the cultural trends of present-day thinking. The themes discussed include Scotus' Christo-centric humanism as a development of Bonaventure's doctrine of Christ as the center of all sciences; the primacy of love over knowledge; the concept of freedom as a simple perfection of the will; the principle of individuation and the theory of common nature; the proper object of the human intellect and the knowledge of God in this life, along with what has been termed the most perfect and complete proof of God's existence ever worked out by a man.