The theological stems of modern economic ideas: John Duns Scotus

Abstract

Voluntarism is a medieval theological doctrine that argues that God’s will takes precedence over God’s intellect and explores the consequences on the relation between Creation and the Creator. We show that Duns Scotus’s theological voluntarism had an important impact on his economic teachings. Moreover, we suggest that it opened an ontological path that fostered the theorisation of modern economic ideas. Voluntarism undermined the Aristotelian-Thomistic virtue ethics framework and the medieval mistrust of self-interest and commerce typical of voluntarism contrary, i.e., intellectualism. For voluntarist Duns Scotus, human being can promote unintentionally the common good, whereas intellectualism holds intentionality as its pillar.