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)
