Abstract

The Tractatus de primo principio is a seminal work of Johannes Duns Scotus' new approach to metaphysics which eventually became predominant up to the 18th century. Its focus is on ontological analysis at its highest, transcendental or a priori level. In this regard it uses primary relations or disjunctions, the so-called >ordines essentiales transcendental turn ordines ordo dependentiae<) in detail. A textual reconstruction endorses the understanding of the compact text and illustrates the causal theory's line of argument that is at the core of the Tractatus.