Andrew T. LaZella 
The Singular Voice of Being 
John Duns Scotus and Ultimate Difference

List of Abbreviation / ix
Introduction: Solomon’s Difficulty / 1
Prologue, 1 • To Cut Being at Its Joints, 1 • The Inadequacy
of Thought and Language, 4 • Vain Repetition and the Division
of Being, 8 • On What Follows, 10 • On Why It Matters, 13
Part I. Being and Ultimate Difference
1. Being Is Said in Many Ways / 17
Univocity, Equivocity, Analogy, 17 • Univocity of Being, 23 •
Aquinas and Henry on Analogy, 29 • Why Univocity?, 33 •
Thales’s Mistake, 38
2. The Real Concept of Being / 41
Real Concepts, 41 • Transcendental Quid and Quale, 47 •
The Double Primacy of Being, 50 • How Does Scotus Solve
the Problems of Univocity?, 53 • Putting the World Back
Together Too Soon, 57
3. Ultimate Difference / 61
Ultimate Differences, 62 • Extracategorial Difference, 67 •
Th e Real Basis of Ultimately Differential Concepts, 69 •
Th e Ground of Primary Diversity, 70 •
Termination of Quidditative Orders, 86
Part II. Regions of Ultimate Difference
4. The First Cut—The Intrinsic Modes of Being / 93
Intrinsic Modes and the Modal Distinction, 93 • The Intrinsic Modes
of Being, 95 • Transcendental Magnitude, 98 • Infinite and Finite
Magnitudes, 100 • Nonadditive Intensity, 109
5. Ultimate Specific Differences / 120
The Formal Distinction, 120 • Ultimate versus Nonultimate Specific
Differences, 124 • Scotus’s Innovation, 131 • Real Community Prior to
the One and Many, 139 • A Dust Cloud of Differences?, 145
6. Haecceitas, or Naked Singularity / 150
What Must Individuation Explain?, 151 • Matter as the Principle
of Individuation, 153 • What Else Is (Not) the Principle of
Individuation?, 157 • Haecceitas as Ultimate Individual Difference,
165 • The Threefold Comparison to Ultimate Specific Differences,
168 • Bare Particularity versus Naked Singularity, 177
Conclusion: I Wouldn’t Know Him from Adam / 181
The Intelligibility of Singulars, 182 • Singular Volitions, 187 •
Postscript, 191
Acknowledgments / 193
Notes / 195
Bibliography / 249
Index / 263