Étienne Gilson, Duns Scotus, and Actual Existence: Weighing the Charge of ‘Essentialism’

• Authors: Andrew C. Helms
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Étienne Gilson juxtaposes what he calls Aquinas’s “existentialism” to what he calls Scotus’s “essentialism.” For Gilson, “existentialism” is philosophical truth, the only view compatible with an authentically Christian metaphysic, while “essentialism” is a Hellenic mistake that seduces Christian philosophers by appealing to the idolatrous desire to reduce reality to what is intelligible. In this paper, the author attempts to describe the difference between “essentialism” and “existentialism” as understood by Gilson. Then, he assesses the case for attributing “essentialism” to Scotus, based on an assessment of Scotus texts and secondary scholarship.

Keywords

EN

existentialism; essentialism; actus essendi; Duns Scotus; essences

• Publisher: International Étienne Gilson Society
• Journal: Studia Gilsoniana
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 331-364

Dates

published

2017-09-30

Contributors

author

Andrew C. Helms

• University of Notre Dame, USA

References

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Identifiers

ISSN

2300-0066