Free Will and the Rebel Angels in Medieval Philosophy

This book studies medieval theories of free will, including explanations of how angels - that is, ideal agents - can choose evil.

List of contents

Part I. Free Will: 1. Free will with and without Aristotle; 2. The psychological turn and the rise of intellectualism; 3. Voluntarism and the condemnation of intellectualism; 4. Intermediary theories and strict intellectualism; 5. Refinements and radicalizations; Part II. Whence Evil?: 6. Does evil have a cause?; 7. The will as the cause of evil; Part III. Angelic Sin: 8. Intellectualist accounts of the angelic fall; 9. Voluntarist and intermediary accounts of the angelic fall; 10. Necessary (and free?) obstinacy.

About the author

Tobias Hoffmann is Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He has edited and co-edited several anthologies, including A Companion to Angels in Medieval Philosophy (2012) and Aquinas and the Nicomachean Ethics (with Jörn Müller and Matthias Perkams, Cambridge, 2013).

Summary

This is the first book in English investigating the medieval debate about free will, one of the central themes in medieval philosophy. It sheds new light particularly on how medieval thinkers dealt with the most difficult test case for free will: the possibility of angels – i.e., ideal agents – choosing evil.

Product details

• Authors: Tobias Hoffmann, Tobias (The Catholic University of Ameri Hoffmann, Hoffmann Tobias
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2022
• EAN: 9781316608838
• ISBN: 978-1-316-60883-8
• No. of pages: 306
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Middle Ages; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: antiquity to present day; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; History, HISTORY / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / General, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, RELIGION / Ethics, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, CE period up to c 1500, Ethics & moral philosophy, Archaeology, c 1000 CE to c 1500, Ethics and moral philosophy, Religious ethics, Religious and theocratic ideologies, History and Archaeology, C 500 CE To C 1000 CE, Religious & theocratic ideologies