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Fəlsəfə və sosial-siyasi elmlər – 2013, № 1
 
 
 
 
134
in gaining access to the original sources
1
. To demonstrate her position, 
Father Alfieri highlights what he calls “Scotist convergences” in Stein’s 
works. Highly significant in this sense is chapter VIII of Endliches und 
ewiges Sein, the culmination of a series of reflections scattered over various 
works starting with her doctoral dissertation  on  empathy. Three explicit 
references to Duns Scotus in Endliches und ewiges Sein
2
 constitute  the 
starting point for the reconstruction, by means of a reverse process, of the 
Scotist influences
3
. This process shows how Stein arrived – by pursuing 
phenomenological analyses – at an ever closer comparison with the 
speculative thought of Doctor Subtilis. Obviously, the Scotist themes are not 
taken at face value: for this reason Father Alfieri speaks of “Scotist 
convergences”, implying that Stein knew how «to interpret the 
phenomenological method in a highly original way by applying it to the 
themes of medieval metaphysics. Drawing ideas, knowledge and theoretical 
results from both traditions, she was able to conduct, while working within 
the phenomenological tradition, an analysis of the question of individuation 
that was characterised by absolute originality»
4
. This originality constitutes 
a point of reference for anthropological investigations in the philosophical 
panorama of the 20
th
 century. 
Stein's interest in Duns Scotus (although some of the works she 
referred to are considered spurious by modern scholars) had developed 
during her time in the Göttingen Circle, the community of Husserl's pupils. 
In this context Heidegger had written in 1916 “Die Kategorie und 
Bedeutungslehre des Duns Scotus”. Edith Stein herself, when translating 
Koyré's “Essai su l’idée  de Dieu et les preuves de son existence chez 
Descartes” from the original French together with Hedwig Conrad-Martius 
                                                 
1
 See F. A
LFIERI
, La presenza di Duns Scoto nel pensiero di Edith Stein, p. 13. 
2
 See ibid., pp. 34-36. 
3
 In reality, to describe what directly concerns Duns Scotus it would be more accurate to 
use the adjective ‘Scotian’. ‘Scotist’ is more appropriate in reference to the school that 
follows the philosophical and theological teachings of Doctor Subtilis. However, in studies 
of Duns Scotus this distinction is not always applied. In this paper too we will use the 
adjective ‘Scotist’, in order to maintain consistency with the terminology used in Alfieri's 
work. 
4
 F. A
LFIERI
, La presenza di Duns Scoto nel pensiero di Edith Stein, pp. 13-14. 

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135
in 1921, had discovered some Quaestiones in a text that had long been 
attributed to Duns Scotus, entitled “Quaestiones disputatae de rerum 
principio”. This work marks the beginning of Stein's interest in Duns Scotus 
and medieval philosophy, as may also be surmised from some letters written 
to her friend Conrad-Martius
1
. Historical and critical analysis of the codices 
shows – as Father Alfieri analytically demonstrates
2
 – that the undisputed 
author of those Quaestiones is not Duns Scotus but the Franciscan Vitalis de 
Furno. The latter is thus the actual and unwitting source of the pseudo-
Scotist doctrines considered by Stein and Husserl’s other disciples. This 
fundamental detail was unknown to Stein, because at that time a systematic 
critical study of the writings of Duns Scotus had not yet been conducted. 
The misinterpretation emerges in a note in chapter VII of Endliches und 
ewiges Sein
3
, where Stein affirms, invoking the authority of P. Ephrem 
Longpré, that the “Quaestiones disputatae de rerum principio” cited by her 
– are to be considered as belonging to the authentic writings of Doctor 
Subtilis. In reality – as emerges even from a direct consultation of the 
material used by Stein – P. Longpré had been referring to the Tractatus “De 
primo rerum omnium principio”, a completely different text which, however 
(and this is almost certainly the cause of the confusion) had been published 
in the same volume. 
                                                 
1
 See ibid., pp. 27-33. 
2
 See ibid., pp. 40-77. 
3
 E. Stein, Endliches und ewiges Sein, p. 346, note 74 [English translation, p. 602, note 
74]. 

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Fəlsəfə və sosial-siyasi elmlər – 2013, № 1
 
 
 
 
136
After a philological analysis of the writings of Duns Scotus
1
, a 
necessary preliminary for identifying Stein's ‘convergences’ towards Scotist 
themes, Father Alfieri's book presents an analytical and thoroughgoing 
review of Edith Stein’s writings on the theme of individuation. The starting 
point for this process is her dissertation on Empathy, in which Stein asks 
what is meant by ‘individuality’ when one asserts that «this I is “itself” and 
no other»
2
. The reflection on Empathy leads to one of its first results: «In an 
entirely spontaneous way, her work on empathy brought her closer to Scotus 
in another respect: Stein considered individuality/singularity, i.e. what 
distinguishes personality as such, as not entirely knowable»
3
. Regarding the 
singularity of the person it is possible to achieve only an “intuitive 
accessibility” via a special type of perception that is “spiritual perception by 
feeling (das Fühlen)”
4
. The person can only be ‘felt’ spiritually in its 
singularity and its “inalienable aloneness”
5
, in its ‘distinctive imprint’, but 
discursive knowledge is impossible. However, it is precisely on this 
uniqueness that solidarity and openness to the life of the community is 
founded. 
                                                 
1
 This analysis takes as a point of reference some texts of the Ordinatio, as well as the 
Lectura and the Questiones super libros Metaphysicorum (particularly q. XIII). As Father 
Alfieri observes, the most evident difficulties encountered in the study of Scotus arise from 
the extensive terminological stratification, a symptom of the Franciscan author's shifting 
use of key terms. Because of these shifts and in order to limit interpretative deviations, his 
disciples appear to have adopted the term ‘haecceitas’, which in the texts of Doctor Subtilis 
appears only twice (see F. A
LFIERI
, La presenza di Duns Scoto nel pensiero di Edith Stein, 
pp. 90 passim, 121-122). It emerges from his writings that for Doctor Subtilis the principle 
of individuation must be a “positive entity”, intrinsic to the metaphysical structure of the 
being, which is not added to its specific nature nor can it be deduced from its accidental 
properties, such as quantity, matter or the compound of matter and form. Rather, its 
foundation lies in what Scotus himself calls the “ultima realitas entis”, i.e. “the final reality 
of the form that makes the form itself perfect” (ibid., pp. 113-115). Echoing Aristotelian 
positions,  quaestio XIII of the Quaestiones quodlibetales uses the expression “forma 
individualis” (ibid., p. 117), showing «how Scotus gradually modified his conception of 
individuation, starting – it is true – from the concept of “forma individualis”, but evolving 
towards the absolutely new concept of “ultima realitas entis”» (ibid., p. 220). 
2
 See ibid., p. 132. 
3
 Ibid., pp. 220-221. 
4
 Ibid., p. 221. 
5
 Ibid., p. 139. 

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