14th–15th centuries

Duns Scotus and the Nominalists: The Primacy of the Will, God's Absolute and Ordained Power

Duns Scotus, unlike Thomism, placed the will above reason – both in God and in man: things are as they are not because reason requires it but because God freely chose so, though God cannot contradict himself. González stresses that this is not arbitrariness: in the simple God intellect and will are identical, but from our standpoint the primacy of love over knowledge must be affirmed; hence the incarnation is the center of God's plan independently of sin. A characteristic feature of the late medieval "nominalists" became the distinction between God's absolute and ordained power: God could act otherwise, and it is futile to prove by logical necessity what is true only by his choice.