ABSTRACT
Aristotle's metaphysics as the science of beings in general was not transparently identical with metaphysics as the science of the eminent being. It seemed impossible to bring finite and infinite being—or being in general and the eminent being—together into a common frame and to think them together under a univocal concept. However, Scotus devised an original solution to this problem, a solution which proved revolutionary for the whole conception of metaphysics and its relation to the science of theology. There is no definable essential difference in being between God and the creature but rather a difference in the degree of intensity of being. However, following Scotus, William of Ockham will shift to an extensional approach to metaphysics that eventually erases this properly metaphysical dimension and makes scientific knowledge appear to be the opposite of metaphysics. Thenceforth science deals only with externally existing things and not with reflectively produced intensions.
