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The degree of realism that Duns Scotus understood his formal distinction to have implied is a matter of dispute going back to the fourteenth century. Both modern and medieval commentators alike have seen Scotus's later, Parisian treament of the formal distinction as less realist in the sense that it would deny any extra-mentally separate formalities or realities. This less realist reading depends in large part on a question known to scholars only in the highly corrupt edition of Luke Wadding, where it is printed as the first of the otherwise spurious Quaestiones miscellaneae de formalitatibus. The present study examines this question in detail. Cited by Scotus's contemporaries as the Quaestio logica Scoti, we establish that it was a special disputation held by Scotus at Paris in response to criticisms of his use of the formal distinction in God, identify its known manuscripts, and provide an analysis based upon a corrected text, showing in particular the total unreliability of the Wadding edition. Our analysis shows that the Logica Scoti does not absolutely prohibit an assertion of formalities as correlates of the formal distinction, even in the divine Person, so long as their non-identity is properly qualified. That is, the positing of formalities does not of itself entail an unqualified or absolute distinction.

The position and influence of Godfrey of Fontaines on the topic of intension and remission of forms have long proved difficult to ascertain. Medieval sources are nearly unanimous in identifying Godfrey as a prominent source for unusual but very influential account of intension and remission known as 'succession of forms'. Modern scholars have repeatedly concluded that Godfrey's writings contain no express endorsement of this theory. Indeed, some have even concluded that Godfrey mentions the theory at all, he rejects it. This disparity between medieval and modern readings of Godfrey is usually traced to a misunderstanding of, or extrapolation from, his admittedly difficult texts on the topic by his contemporaries, especially Duns Scotus. A full examination of medieval testimony on Godfrey's views, particularly among the early fourteenth-century discussions on intension and remission at Paris, shows not only that Godfrey held a traditional version of succession theory but where he held it. Keywords: Duns Scotus; Godfrey of Fontaines; intension; medieval sources; Paris; remission; succession theory of forms