ABSTRACT
This chapter explores new research in late medieval metaphysics with a reappraisal of the English School approach to theorising international relations. It offers a telescoped summary of the various aspects of Duns Scotus' philosophy. The chapter argues that certain medieval philosophical developments to which Scotus gave expression, and which others took further, can be seen as theoretically linked with a new way of counting units in the world. Although the theoretical principles themselves are neutral, the political and social sway which they have gained are open to critical assessment. The theoretical structures outlined in the chapter are in many ways self-perpetuating. Many of their precepts have entered into the architectonic underpinnings of the contemporary world: discourse, economic theory and practice and legal structures. For the dominant 'realist' traditions of international relations theory, which have tended to emanate from the USA, this model is viewed as an ahistorically natural and normative one.
