Introduction John Duns Scotus. The light of his thought soon lit
up inspiration in many adepts of the Liberal Arts and the
gravity of his doctrine had caught, for some time at least, a
number of young thinkers, who later became most influential phi-
losophers of 14th century, like Francis Mayron, Ockham and Peter
Auriol, to name a few. For most of them, however, the contact
with the doctrine of the Subtle Doctor was only an inspiring
episode early in their careers and it would be difficult to call
them advocates of scotism, much less "true" scotists. And still,
despite the fact that so many of Scotus’ best pupils later
turned their backs on his teaching, despite Scotus’ early death
that had left his work unfinished, the doctrine of John Duns not
only survived but started flourishing and gradually became one
of the most vital and powerful philosophical schools of later
middle ages, whose influence was still felt at the universities
even in the 18th century. How was it possible that the ideas so
subtle and so sk