1 of 1- DanielCC
- Administrator
Offline - Registered: 6/26/2015
- Posts: 765
Scotus and Libertarianism
Yesterday I read this highly interesting article on Duns Scotus account of Free Will. The notion of synchronic alternatives the Subtle Doctor employs means his account is very similar to that required by certain Libertarian accounts (in other words Libertarian free will is not some evil modern novelty forged in Hell by Alvin Plantinga).
The Libertarian Foundations of Scotus's Moral Philosophy
- Miguel
- Member
Offline
- Registered: 12/02/2017
- Posts: 379
Re: Scotus and Libertarianism
Isn't Aquinas also a libertarian, though? I understand Scotus places more emphasis on libertarian free will, but I think Aquinas would also be counted as one. No?
- DanielCC
- Administrator
Offline
- Registered: 6/26/2015
- Posts: 765
Re: Scotus and Libertarianism
Thomas might have been a Libertarian in intent but the position that follows mostly obviously from his work is Compatiblism. You’ll notice that when challenged about free will Thomists have a tendency to redefine it ‘as the capacity to pursue the good unimpeded ‘ it such like (Feser is guilty of this in the question section of one of his video lectures).
Am writing about this at the moment.
- •
Thread Starter- Camoden
- Member
Offline
- Registered: 6/28/2016
- Posts: 73
Re: Scotus and Libertarianism
Yeah Aquinas is sort of tricky on the issue. A lot of this ties into whether Aquinas believed in physical premotion. I tend to think Saint Thomas can be understood as a libertarian who didn’t have a strong view of the PAP (at least not one that was fleshed out). Scotus’s voluntarism and the wills super abundance (since the will is so overflowing) makes the will not pointed towards a particular object, the PAP streaming forth from this. Moreover, a great deal of the debates among the Scholastics had to do with the ability to carry out the good (this was big for Duns Scotus too, because the will was the faculty by which we love God). Saint Anselm is unquestionably a libertarian and yet didn’t even care care much for the PAP. In fact Anselm argues we would be more free if we couldn’t do otherwise in certain circumstances. God and the good angels possess more freedom than us because they aren’t slaves to impotence and sin. I think one could argue Saint Augustine was mechanistically a Libertarian, but that his view of grace made him a compatiblist.
I will ask Daniel, what was Scotus’s exact view on concurrence? I read a book on this in August but have already forgotten what he said on this issue.
Somewhat anecdotally and semi unrelated, I do think any extended discussion on this will end up relating to grace as well. Catholic accounts tend to have a different understanding than eastern or Protestant accounts (obviously depends on the Protestant). I am sympathetic to congruism personally, but this requires Middle Knowledge to be true. I also am a Protestant, so I place a different value on depravity. I am basically an Arminian with Lutheran Sacramentology, who is sympathetic to Middle Knowledge and have yet to see any reasons why it is incompatible with Divine Simplicity (except that it maybe commits you to individual essences if one wants to avoid Ontological grounding issues).
Last edited by Camoden (12/16/2017 1:41 pm)