Pedro da Fonseca and Luis de Molina, on Animal Freedom. A Way to Understand Contingency
Main Article Content
Abstract
The question of whether or not there is a vestige of freedom in irrational animals has been present throughout all the stages of the history of philosophy. Yet, in the sixteenth century, the Jesuits deepened their studies on this subject in a rather particular way. In this paper we will show how, by pointing to the possibility of finding a trace of freedom in irrational animals, the Jesuits sought to identify the very basis of the concept of freedom, to make it clear that, while signs of freedom can be found in some developed levels of irrational life, freedom is, in a most singular way, the fundamental characteristic of human beings. In this paper we analyze the Jesuit doctrines on animal freedom that can be found in texts, either published or handwritten, from the teachings of two Jesuits who worked in Portugal during the second half of the 16th century: Pedro da Fonseca and Luis de Molina.
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
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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
Aristotle. The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, edited by J. Barnes, 2 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologiae, Opera Omnia, edited by Leonis XIII P.M. (Rome: Ex Typographia Polyglotta S. C. de Propaganda Fide, 1891).
Duns Scotus, John. Questions on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, in Selected Writings on Ethics, edited and translated by Th. Williams (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
Duns Scotus, John. Questions on the Metaphysics of Aristotle, translated by G. J. Etzkorn and A. B. Wolter (St Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications, 1997).
Fonseca, Petrus. Commentariorum In Metaphysicorum Aristotelis Stagiritae libros. Tomus primus (Rome: Apud Franciscum Zanettum et Bartholomeum Tosium, 1677).
Fonseca, Petrus. Commentariorum In Metaphysicorum Aristotelis Stagiritae libros. Tomus tertius (Cologne: Lazari Zetzneri Bibliopolae, 1615).
Molina, Ludovico. Liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis, divina praescientia, providentia, praedestinatione et reprobatione concordia, edited by I. Rabeneck (Oniae-Matriti: Collegium Maximum S. I.-Soc. Edit. ‘Sapientia’, 1953).
SECONDARY SOURCES
Henry, Devin. “Aristotle on Animals”, in Animals: A History, edited by P. Adamson and G. F. Edwards (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 9-26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199375967.003.0002
Michałowska, Monika and Fedriga, Ricardo (ed.). Willing and Understanding. The Complexity of Late Medieval Debates on the Will (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2023).
Oelze, Anselm. Animal Rationality. Later Medieval Theories (1250-1350) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004363779
Oelze, Anselm. Animal Minds in Medieval Latin Philosophy. A Sourcebook from Augustine to Wodeham (Cham: Springer, 2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67012-2
Pasnau, Robert. Construire la volonté. Débats sur le libre arbitre à la fin du Moyen Âge (Paris: Vrin, 2025).
Toivanen, Juhana. “Making the Boundaries. Animals in Medieval Latin Philosophy”, in Animals: A History, edited by P. Adamson and G. F. Edwards (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 121-150.