1493. Copleston's Interpretation of Scotus

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According to Copleston's interpretation of Scotus, "being belongs primarily and principally to God, and . . . creatures are to God as mensurata ad mensuram, vel excessa ad excedens [= the measured are to the measure, or the surpassed are to the surpassing]." But Scotus also insists that "analogy itself presupposes a univocal concept, since we could not compare creatures with God as mensurata ad mensuram, vel excessa ad excedens, unless there was a concept common to both. . . . Even those masters who deny univocity with their lips really presuppose it, If there were no univocal _we should have only a negative knowledge of God, which is not the case" (Copleston 2: 505).

If this interpretation of Scotus is correct, he evidently anticipates Hartshorne's position that "whatever the qualifications, some abstract feature or ratio is implied, and this common feature must not be denied if anything is to be left of the analogy."

22 October 1996