HOLKOT, ROBERTO. – Dominican philosopher and theologian, probably born in Northampton at an unknown date, died in 1349.
He taught as doctor theologiae at Cambridge, and acquired great renown among his contemporaries especially for his commentaries on Holy Scripture. In his doctrinal position he is strongly influenced by Occamism, although he intends to adhere to Thomism.
The nominalist influence is particularly evident in the very sharp separation he establishes between faith and science, and in his emphasis on the irrationality, or even anti-rationality, of the truths of faith. For H., alongside the logica naturalis, which found its expression in the logic of Aristotle, there exists a logica fidei, in which the principle of contradiction does not apply. On the other hand, H. requires an intellectual justification of credibilitas externa. In the field of psychology and morality, H. is an advocate of an extreme determinism, Bradwardine (v.). His bibliography still presents many obscure points: one or another of the works attributed to him may in fact be merely a compilation by some student; other works, certainly his own, 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 by Richard Bury. Among the works certainly belonging to H., besides the commentaries on Holy 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), the following deserve particular mention: Super quatuor libros Sententiarum quaestiones (Lyons 1497, 1505, 1518) and three Quodlibeta, excerpts from which were published under the title Determinationes quaestionum together with the commentary on the Sentences (the first Determinatio, however, is not by H.).