Aquinas's Disputed Questions on Evil
A Critical Guide

This collection of specially commissioned new essays explores the philosophical issues and subjects of Aquinas's major work.

M. V. Dougherty (Edited by)

9781107621466, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 March 2018

263 pages
23 x 15.4 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

'The collection of essays found in this book examines Aquinas's 'Disputed Questions on Evil' from a variety of angles and will be of great interest to those who wish to learn more about the theologian of the Catholic Church. … Recent years have seen an increased interest in Aquinas's 'Disputed Questions on Evil'. This book helps us appreciate all that is distinctive about this great theological work.' Pravin Thevathasan, Catholic Medical Quarterly

Thomas Aquinas's Disputed Questions on Evil is a careful and detailed analysis of the general topic of evil, including discussions on evil as privation, human free choice, the cause of moral evil, moral failure, and the so-called seven deadly sins. This collection of ten, specially commissioned new essays, the first book-length English-language study of Disputed Questions on Evil, examines the most interesting and philosophically relevant aspects of Aquinas's work, highlighting what is distinctive about it and situating it in relation not only to Aquinas's other works but also to contemporary philosophical debates in metaphysics, ethics, and philosophy of action. The essays also explore the history of the work's interpretation. The volume will be of interest to researchers in a broad range of philosophical disciplines including medieval philosophy and history of philosophy, as well as to theologians.

Introduction M. V. Dougherty
1. Metaphysical themes in De malo, 1 John F. Wippel
2. Weakness and willful wrongdoing in Aquinas's De malo Bonnie Kent and Ashley Dressel
3. Free choice Peter Furlong and Tobias Hoffmann
4. Venial sin and the ultimate end Steven J. Jensen
5. The promise and pitfalls of glory: Aquinas on the forgotten vice of vainglory Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung
6. The goodness and evil of objects and ends Thomas M. Osborne, Jr
7. Evil and moral failure in De malo Carl N. Still and Darren E. Dahl
8. Attention, intentionality, and mind-reading in Aquinas's De malo, q. 16, a. 8 Therese Scarpelli Cory
9. Evil as privation: the Neoplatonic background to Aquinas's De malo, 1 Fran O'Rourke
10. Moral luck and the capital vices in De malo: gluttony and lust M. V. Dougherty
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Theology [HRLB], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology [HPJ], Western philosophy: Medieval & Renaissance, c 500 to c 1600 [HPCB], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Philosophy [HP], Medieval history [HBLC1], History [HB], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]