Robert Grosseteste, Peter John Olivi and John Duns Scotus on Freedom of the Will
Main Article Content
Abstract
Duns Scotus’s claim that the will, both human and divine, has a capacity for opposites at a single instant has been seen as a turning point in the history of modality. But historians have discovered anticipations of Scotus’s position in Robert Grosseteste and Peter John Olivi. I argue that none of these three authors focuses on modality or has a new modal theory, but that the discussions do show the development of a new view about freedom of the will and what is required for it. The discussions also raise the question of whether immutability (the impossibility of changing) is sufficient for God’s simplicity, or whether it must also be impossible for God to be in any way otherwise, as Grosseteste, but not Scotus, holds.
Downloads
Publication Facts
Reviewer profiles N/A
Author statements
Indexed in
-
—
To learn about these publication facts, click 
PF is maintained by the Public Knowledge Project
Article Details
Proposed Policy for Journals that Offer Open Access
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Since issue 33 and for the future issues, it is the policy of the publisher that authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
References
Primary Sources
Anselm of Canterbury, De concordia, edited by F. Schmitt, S. Anselmi opera omnia II (Edinburgh: Nelson, 1946).
John Duns Scotus, Lectura I, 39, Latin text, Translation and Commentary in Antonie Vos Jaczn, et al., John Duns Scotus. Contingency and Freedom. Lectura I, 39. Introduction, Translation and Commentary, New Synthese Historical Library 42 (Dordrecht, Boston and London: Kluwer, 1994).
John Duns Scotus, Ordinatio, Apograph of I, d. 39, qq. 1-5, edited by C. Balic, Ioannis Duns Scoti opera omnia VI (Vatican City: Vatican Multilingual Press, 1963), 401-444.
John Duns Scotus, Reportatio I-A , dd. 22-48, edited by A. Wolter and O.Bychkov, John Duns Scotus, The Examined Report of the Paris Lecture. Reportatio I-A, II (St Bonaventure: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2008)
Peter John Olivi, Quaestiones in secundum librum sententiarum II, edited by B. Jansen (Quaracchi: Collegium S. Bonaventurae, 1924).
Robert Grosseteste, De libero arbitrio, edited and translated by N. Lewis, The Two Recensions of On Free Decision, Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi 29 (Oxford: The British Academy, 2017).
Secondary Sources
Dumont, Stephen, “The Origin of Scotus’s Theory of Synchronic Contingency”, The Modern Schoolman 72 (1995): 149-167.
Honnefelder, Ludger, Rega Wood and Mechthild Dreyer (eds.), John Duns Scotus. Metaphysics and Ethics, Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 53 (Leiden, New York and Cologne: Brill, 1996).
Lewis, Neil, “Power and Contingency in Robert Grosseteste and Duns Scotus”, in John Duns Scotus. Metaphysics and Ethics, edited by L. Honnefelder, R. Wood and M. Dreyer, Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 53 (Leiden, New York and Cologne: Brill, 1996), 205-225.
Marenbon, John, “Medieval Modalities. Is There Still a Story to tell?”, Studi sull’Aristotelismo medievale (secoli VI-XVI) 3 (2023): 121-161.
Normore, Calvin, “Scotus, Modality, Instants of Nature and the Contingency of the Present”, in John Duns Scotus. Metaphysics and Ethics, edited by L. Honnefelder, R. Wood and M. Dreyer, Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des
Mittelalters 53 (Leiden, New York and Cologne: Brill, 1996), 161-174.
Pasnau, Robert, Theories of Cognition in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Pasnau, Robert, “Olivi on Human Freedom”, in Pierre de Jean Olivi (1248-1298). Pensée scolastique, dissidence spirituelle et société, edited by A. Boureau and S. Piron, Études de philosophie médiévale 79 (Paris: Vrin, 1999), 15-25.
Pasnau, Robert, “Medieval Modal Spaces”, Aristotelian Society Supplementary 94 (2020): 225-254.