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.

Tobias Hoffmann (Author)

9781107155381, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 December 2020

308 pages
16 x 23.5 x 2 cm, 0.58 kg

'In many instances, what is most salutary about the scholastic theologians of the middle ages is not their individual answers to questions, but their ability to isolate questions, and their sense for the kinds of rational and authoritative considerations that must be faced straightforwardly in pursuit of the intellectus fidei – the intellection of the faith. For anyone interested in such pursuits, our medieval forebears are eminently worthy of our imitation. Theologians are indebted to Hoffmann for making these minds, their arguments, and above all their intellectual spirit, more readily accessible.' Justus Hunter, International Journal of Systematic Theology

In this book Tobias Hoffmann studies the medieval free will debate during its liveliest period, from the 1220s to the 1320s, and clarifies its background in Aristotle, Augustine, and earlier medieval thinkers. Among the wide range of authors he examines are not only well-known thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham, but also a number of authors who were just as important in their time and deserve to be rediscovered today. To shed further light on their theories of free will, Hoffmann also explores their competing philosophical explanations of the fall of the angels, that is, the hypothesis of an evil choice made by rational beings under optimal psychological conditions. As he shows, this test case imposed limits on tracing free choices to cognition. His book provides a comprehensive account of a debate that was central to medieval philosophy and continues to occupy philosophers today.

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.

Subject Areas: Religious & theocratic ideologies [JPFR], Religious ethics [HRAM1], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Medieval history [HBLC1]