HOLKOT, ROBERT. - Dominican philosopher and theologian, born probably at Northampton at an unknown date, died in 1349.
He taught as doctor theologiae at Cambridge, and won great renown among his contemporaries especially for his commentaries on Holy Scripture. In his doctrinal position he was strongly influenced by Ockhamism, though he intended to adhere to Thomism.
The nominalist influence is particularly evident in the very pronounced 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 naturalis logica, which found its expression in the logic of Aristotle, there exists a logica fidei, in which the principle of contradiction does not hold. On the other hand, however, H. requires an intellectual grounding for external credibility. In the field of psychology and morality, H. is credited with an extreme determinism, Bradwardine (v.). His bibliography still presents many obscure points: one or another of the works attributed to his early period are compilations by some pupil; other works, certainly his own, were for a long time attributed to other writers.
He is perhaps the author of the famous Philobiblion sive de amore librorum, known as the work of Richard Bury. Among the works certainly belonging to H., besides the commentaries on Holy Scripture, some of which were later printed in many editions (e.g., Praelectiones in librum Sapientiae: about 20 editions, Explanationes Proverbiorum Salomonis, In Cantica Canticorum), the following should be especially mentioned: Super quatuor libros Sententiarum quaestiones (Lyons 1497, 1505, 1518) and three Quodlibeta, of which extracts were published under the title Determinationes quaestionum together with the commentary on the Sentences (though the first Determination is not by H.).