John Duns Scotus · Theology
Scotus’s positive principle of individuation - <em>haecceitas</em>, ‘thisness’ - the ultimate reality that makes this individual <em>this</em> unrepeatable thing, over and above the common nature (natura communis) it shares with everything else of its kind.
You learned that Scotus rejected matter and quantity as the principle of individuation and posited haecceitas (thisness), a positive formal reality that contracts the common nature (natura communis) down to this single individual. Explain the common nature, the haecceity, and why individuality needed a positive cause…
Leads to Aristotle.
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