John Duns Scotus (Joannes Duns Scotus, c. 1265/66–1308), known as the Doctor Subtilis, was a Scottish Franciscan theologian and philosopher whose work shaped late-medieval scholasticism. After joining the Order of Friars Minor and studying at Oxford and Paris, he lectured on Peter Lombard's Sentences at both universities; his successive lecture courses survive as the Lectura (Oxford), the Ordinatio (the revised "Oxford work" he was preparing for publication at his death), and the Reportationes (Paris). He died at Cologne in 1308 at around forty-three years old, leaving the Ordinatio unfinished. His sharply argued positions on the univocity of being, formal distinction, individuation by haecceitas, the will's primacy, and the Immaculate Conception founded the Scotist school — which alongside Thomism became one of the two great currents of late-medieval Catholic theology. He was beatified in 1993.
