La materia primera de Enrique de Gante vista por Duns Escoto

Abstract

This essay proves that Duns Scotus did not undestand rightly Henry of Ghent’s doctrine on prime matter. In fact, of the three beings Doctor Solidus gives to prime matter (the being as creature, the essential being and the being in act received from form), Duns Scotus discovers only the two last ones, that is the essential being and the formal being in act. Besides, he makes Henry of Ghent saying that prime matter can exist alone, without form, due to the fact that it receives directly from God the subsistent being per se, a being that is not analogous to the being in act of form. In that case, prime matter would exist or would be in act without owning the being in act, which is contradictory.