Durand of Saint Pourçain and the actual infinite. A reflection on divine omnipotence (Super Sent., I, 43, 2)

Abstract

In his Commentary on the first Book of Sentences (d. 43, q. 2, red. B), Durand of Saint Pourçain (1270-­1334) poses the question regarding the divine possibility of producing infinite actual things, contributing to the debate about the divine power of creating what is considered to be contradictory (actual infinity). Taking into account the philosophical and theological sources of Durand's Commentary on the issue, the article focuses on his accurate solution to the problem of God's production of actual infinites by analysing some arguments such as that of the production of the individuals of a species, like the souls, as well as the argument of the divisibility of the continuum and the original assumption of the commensurability of infinite quantities. The article shows that for Durand God cannot create an actual infinite, but only a potential one.