Theōsis and Individual Identity in Eriugena: Beyond Human Nature

In this study, *the problem of individual* identity encapsulates the series of inquiries stemming from the basic question: what distinguishes one human being from another? I propose to reconsider how the Carolingian thinker John Scotus Eriugena (d. ca. 877) answers this question by framing his thought under a *collective-evolutive* model of individual identity, based on the recognizance of *theōsis* as the cornerstone of Eriugena’s anthropology. Within this *collective-evolutive* paradigm individual identity is not something given immutably, singularly bestowed at birth. Instead, human beings do not invariably possess individual identity but must long for it (evolutive), and they eventually attain it through the primary reality of human nature (collective). *Theōsis* challenges the Aristotelian understanding of individual identity, transcending dichotomies and hierarchies involving substance and accidents, primary and secondary substances, individual and universal.