Weakness of the Will in Medieval Thought: From Augustine to Buridan

Dulles, Virginia, U.S.A.: Brill Academic Pub. New. 1994. Hardcover. 9004099948 .*** FREE UPGRADE to Courier/Priority Shipping Upon Request *** - *** IN STOCK AND IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR SHIPMENT - FLAWLESS COPY -- AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY -- AVOID WEEKS OF DELAY ELSEWHERE. -- 207 pages; clean and crisp, tight and bright pages, with no writing or markings to the text. -- TABLE OF CONTENTS: Acknowledgments 1 Introduction * 1.1 The Aim of the Study * 1.2 Some Historical Remarks in Modern Discussion * 1.3 Aristotle on akrasia * 1.4 Some Heuristic Models * 2 Reluctant Actions in the Augustinian Tradition * 2.1 Augustine * 2.1.1 Free Will: Introductory Remarks * 2.1.2 Man's Inner Conflict * 2.1.3 Consent, Reluctant Actions and Choice * 2.1.4 Preferential Volitions and Latent Wishes 37 2.1.5 Evil, Concupiscence and Continence 41 2.2 Anselm of Canterbury * 2.2.1 The Human Freedom: Some Basic Ideas * 2.2.2 "Everyone Who Wills, Wills Willingly" * 2.2.3 Modes of Willing; Relation to Augustine * 2.3 Peter Abelard * 2.3.1 Consent Without Will * 2.3.2 Consent as passio * 2.3.3 Willing the Consequences * 2.3.4 Later Writers on Involuntary Consent * 2.4 Peter of Poitiers * 2.4.1 The Augustinian Tradition in Lombard's Sentences * 2.4.2 Synteresis and Voluntarism * 2.4.3 Second-order Will and vellem * 2.4.4 Asking something "With a Condition" (Poitiers and Langton) * 2.4.5 Willing the Consequences * 2.5 Some Early Thirteenth Century Summae * 2.5.1 William of Auxerre on velleitas * 2.5.2 The Summa Halensis on Conditional Will * 2.5.3 Philip Chancellor on Incomplete Will * 2.6 Conclusion * 3 Akrasia in Scholasticism * 3.1 Grosseteste, the Greek Commentator and Averroes * 3.2 Albert the Great * 3.2.1 Introductory Notes * 3.2.2 Choice and Free Decision * 3.2.3 The Ignorance of the Wicked Man * 3.2.4 Akrasia and the Certainty of Moral Knowledge * 3.2.5 Acting against Knowledge * 3.3 Thomas Aquinas * 3.3.1 Akrasia in the Commentary on Ethics * 3.3.2 Akrasia in De malo and Summa theologiae * 3.3.3 A Two-Step Explanation of akrasia * 3.3.4 Willing the Consequences and velleitas * 3.4 Walter Burley * 3.4.1 Akrasia as Ignorance of the Conclusion of a Practical Syllogism * 3.4.2 Akrasia and Choice * 3.5 Gerald Odonis * 3.5.1 The Franciscan Context * 3.5.2 Akrasia as a Voluntary Vice (EN III) * 3.5.3 Akrasia in EN VII * 3.5.4 Open Problems; Relation to Earlier Commentators * 3.6 John Buridan * 3.6.1 Introductory Remarks * 3.6.2 Buridan's Action Theory in Book III q1-5 * 3.6.3 Akrasia in Book VII * 3.6.4 Akrasia and Choice * 3.6.5 Akrasia and Uncertainty; Relation to Albert * 3.7 Conclusion * Sources and Literature * Index of Names * Index of Subjects. -- DESCRIPTION: This book sets out to examine the medieval understanding of Aristotle's famous discussion of "weakness of the will" (akrasia, incontinentia) in the seventh book of his Nicomachean Ethics. The medieval views are outlined primarily on the basis of the commentaries on Aristotle's Ethics by Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Walter Burley, Gerald Odonis and John Buridan. An investigation of the earlier Augustinian discussion concerning reluctant actions (invitus facere) rounds out the study. The recent studies of weakness of the will have neglected the medieval philosophers. The present volume fills this gap in historical research and shows that especially the conceptual refinement of the fourteenth-century discussion makes contributions that are comparable to those of twentieth-century philosophers. -- with a bonus offer-- .