The Reformed Scholasticism of James Dundas

This chapter discusses the characteristics of scholastic thought and argues that Reformed orthodox thinkers of the seventeenth century wrote within the framework of scholastic philosophy and theology. In illustration of this genre in its Scottish manifestation, the concept of Reformed orthodox scholasticism is expounded here by means of a discussion of concepts such as those of moral action, the Fall, free will, and suicide, present in a recently discovered Scottish monograph, a manuscript entitled Idea philosophiae moralis (1679) by James Dundas, the first Lord Arniston. While Dundas attends closely to philosophers, such as Hobbes and Descartes, not generally regarded as scholastic thinkers, the scholasticism of Dundas’ philosophy is on display throughout the manuscript.