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

320 pages
16 x 23.5 x 2 cm, 0.58 kg

'… highly original … rich and detailed …' Dominik Perler, Journal of the History of Philosophy

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]