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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2018

Freedom without Choice: Medieval Theories of the Essence of Freedom

Résumé

Medieval authors generally agreed that we have the freedom to choose among alternative possibilities. But most medieval authors also thought that there are situations in which one cannot do otherwise, not even will otherwise. They also thought when willing necessarily, the will remains free. The questions, then, are what grounds the necessity or contingency of the will's acts, andsince freedom is not defined by the ability to choose-what belongs to the essential character of freedom, the ratio libertatis. I will begin by providing the background in Augustine and in two theologians who helped transmit some core Augustinian ideas. Then I will examine a few significant accounts between William of Auxerre and William of Ockham. 1 Augustine and two (quasi-)Augustinians No one shaped discussions of free will in the Latin West more than Augustine (354-430). Two of his teachings were key for later medieval theories of free will apart from choice. The first concerns degrees of free will (libertas voluntatis, liberum arbitrium; Augustine's terminology varies): Adam, the first man, had the freedom of will to be able not to sin; but the blessed in heaven have the much greater freedom of being unable to sin. Analogously, Adam was able not to die (so long as he did not sin); but the blessed have the much greater immortality of being unable to die (De correptione et gratia 12.33; Enchiridion 28.105; De civitate Dei 22.30). Since God and the blessed, who cannot sin, have free will, Augustine does not define it by the ability to either sin or not (Contra Iulianum opus imperfectum 6.10; cf. 5.38). And yet it is by free will that one either sins or not (e.g., De correptione et gratia 1.2 and 11.32). Thus, Augustine connects two ideas with free will: freedom from the servitude of sin (cf. John 8:31-6) and control of one's acts. Augustine's second influential teaching is that free will is compatible with necessity, provided that what is necessary is not against one's will, such as the necessity of death (De civitate Dei 1 While this article concerns medieval theories of free will apart from choice, elsewhere I discuss primarily free choice; see Free Will and the Rebel Angels in Medieval Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming), chs. 1-5.

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Philosophie
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hal-03851197 , version 1 (14-11-2022)

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Tobias Hoffmann. Freedom without Choice: Medieval Theories of the Essence of Freedom. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Ethics, 1, Cambridge University Press, pp.194-216, 2018, ⟨10.1017/9781316711859.010⟩. ⟨hal-03851197⟩
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