Description
| Product ID: | 9781316608838 |
| Product Form: | Paperback / softback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Title: | Free Will and the Rebel Angels in Medieval Philosophy |
| Authors: | Author: Tobias Hoffmann |
| Page Count: | 306 |
| Subjects: | History, History, Archaeology, Ethics and moral philosophy, Religious ethics, Religious and theocratic ideologies, Archaeology, Ethics & moral philosophy, Religious ethics, Religious & theocratic ideologies, c 500 CE to c 1000 CE, c 1000 CE to c 1500 |
| Description: | 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. 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. |
| Imprint Name: | Cambridge University Press |
| Publisher Name: | Cambridge University Press |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2022-08-11 |
