How did John Duns Scotus believe people gain certain knowledge through the senses?

John Duns Scotus maintained that the human senses provide direct knowledge of the physical world, including the earth, the heavens, and the sea. While he accepted certain elements of Aristotelian abstractionism, he did not rely on it exclusively to explain human knowledge.1

A central component of his epistemology is the distinction between two types of cognition:

• Intuitive cognition: This is an immediate, indubitable awareness of a thing’s existence. It allows a person to know that a present object exists and that it is the cause of their current knowledge.1
• Abstractive cognition: This form of knowledge is abstracted from, or logically independent of, the actual existence or nonexistence of the object.1

Additionally, Duns Scotus categorized knowledge gained through experience as inductive, grounded in the principle that natural effects consistently follow from non-free causes. He also noted that individuals possess certain knowledge of their own internal states, such as the immediate awareness of their own thoughts and sensory experiences, regardless of whether those sensations correspond to external reality.1