Analiza i Egzystencja
Concepts of Bareness (Nuditas) in Medieval Philosophy
DOI: 10.18276/aie.2026.75-02
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| ISSN: | 1734-9923 |
| eISSN: | 2300-7621 |
| Authors: |
Edit Anna
Lukacs
Austrian Academy of Sciences |
| Keywords: | Empricisim Metaphysics of the Will Nudity Oxford Calculators |
| Issue / book publication date: | 2026 |
| Page range: | 18 (25-42) |
| OAI-PMH: | Metadata |
 
 
 
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Abstract
The Aristotelian idiom, according to which the intellect is a “blank” or “bare slate” before it has experienced the sensory world was also used in empiricist arguments
during the Middle Ages. In this short inquiry, I examine the use of the adjective bare (or naked) in both epistemology and metaphysics, focusing on fourteenth-century
Oxford and the theologies of John Duns Scotus (in opposition to Henry of Ghent), as well as on the Oxford Calculators Thomas Bradwardine and Robert Halifax.
While the metaphysical notion of bareness developed along the lines defined by Scotus, it constituted a counterpart to the empiricist strand of the same notion and
represents an intriguing episode in the history of metaphysics.
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