Immortality and nature of the human soul: comments on the possibility of metaphysical and epistemological foundation in Duns Scotus’s ordinatio

Abstract

This study proposes to briefly and synthetically analyze the mainly elements of metaphysical and epistemological character about the question of the possibility of the rational knowledge of the immortality of the soul in Scotus’s Ordinatio. For this, the work is structured in three parts, respecting and adopting a methodological script similar to that constructed by Scotus in the analysis of the question. In a firstly moment, the work recover a set of arguments that advocate in favor of the possibility about which one inquires, constructed by the author, in dialogue, chiefly, with Aristotle. It exposes initially a priori arguments, and, then, a posteriori arguments. The first ones are outlined in light of the concept of eternal happiness, which the men permanently aspire and wish. The second ones are about the necessity of after dead justice and retribution of the virtuous and vicious committed by men. In the second and thirty parts, our approach is limited to present the process of refutation undertaken by Scotus to these two argumentative segments. Therefore, is demonstrated how the author rejects the possibility of the men know by the natural reason the immortality of the soul, establishing a primacy of faith, since just by it is allowed to have knowledge of this eternal reality.