Relations

Today's post isn't terribly exciting; I'm in the middle of a two week intensive course on Augustine, so probably will not have much time to read any scholastic works. I was in the middle of translating Scotus's Collatio 24, which is on univocity. It won't solve any of the disputes on the subject as it is so short, but it does contain most of the typical features of his thought on this issue. Unfortunately, there is no modern critical edition of the collationes, and the one on univocity is not in wadding; it was edited by both Balic and Harris in the 1920's, but the text is almost unintelligible. Harris makes a lot of transcription errors, Balic omits a lot. So that will have to wait. In the meantime, here's Scotus on the requirements for a real relation. Take it with the caveat that this probably represents his revised oxford teaching, not necessarily his final views on the matter, etc. It is vaguely relevant to his views on the formal distinction.

Ord. I d. 31 q. un n. 6:

videtur dicendum quod ad relationem realem tria sufficiunt. primo, quod fundamentum sit reale et terminus realis; et secundo, quod extremorum sit distinctio realis; et tertio, quod ex natura extremorum sequatur ipsa talis relatio absque opere alterius potentiae, comparantis unum extremum alteri.

"It seems that it should be said that three things suffice for a real relation. First, that the foundation and the term of the relation is real. Second, that there is a real distinction of extremes. Third, that such a relation follows from the nature of the extremes without any operation of another power, comparing one extreme to another."