Duns Scotus, John (c. 1265-c. 1308)

Scottish monk, a leading figure in the theological and philosophical system of medieval scholasticism, which attempted to show that Christian doctrine was compatible with the ideas of the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato. The church rejected his ideas, and the word dunce is derived from Dunses, a term of ridicule applied to his followers.

In the medieval controversy over universals he advocated nominalism, maintaining that classes of things have no independent reality. He belonged to the Franciscan order, and was known as Doctor Subtilis (the Subtle Teacher).

On many points he turned against the orthodoxy of Thomas Aquinas; for example, he rejected the idea of a necessary world, favouring a concept of God as absolute freedom capable of spontaneous activity.