HOLKOT, ROBERTO. - Dominican philosopher and theologian, born probably at Northampton on an unknown date, d. 1349.
He taught as doctor theologiae at Cambridge, and won great renown among his contemporaries especially for his commentaries on Sacred Scripture. In his doctrinal position he is strongly influenced by Ockhamism, although he intends to adhere to Thomism.
The nominalistic influence is particularly evident in the very pronounced separation that he establishes between faith and science and in his emphasis on the irrationality or even anti-rationality of the truths of faith. For H. there exists alongside the logica naturalis, which found its expression in the logic of Aristotle, a logica fidei, in which the principle of contradiction does not hold. On the other hand, however, H. requires an intellectual motivation of the credibilitas externa. In the field of psychology and of morals, H. is an upholder of an extreme determinism, akin to that of Bradwardine (v.). His bibliography still presents many obscure points: one or another of the works attributed to him is perhaps only a compilation by some pupil; other works, certainly his, were for a long time attributed to other writers.
He is perhaps the author of the famous Philobiblon sive de amore librorum, known as a work of Richard Bury. Of the works certainly belonging to H., besides the commentaries on Sacred Scripture, some of which were subsequently printed in many editions (e.g., Praelectiones in librum Sapientiae: about 20 editions, Explanationes Proverbiorum Salomonis, In Cantica Canticorum), special mention should be made of: Super quatuor libros Sententiarum quaestiones (Lyons 1497, 1505, 1518) and three Quodlibeta, extracts of which were published under the title Determinationes quaestionum together with the commentary on the Sentences (the first Determinatio, however, is not by H.).
Bibliography4 works
Anneliese Maier