Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology Philosophy M.A. Program Course Title:

PH 4950, Medieval theories of action

Semester/Year:

Fall 2015

Professor:

Christopher Caruana OP – [email protected]

Course Description: The first major task of this course will be to offer an analysis and interpretation of self-motion in both Classical and Medieval philosophy. Secondly, the impact of the patristic account of the psychology of action on medieval theories of action and freedom needs to be carefully examined. In particular, how does the reception of voluntas affect the medieval reception of Aristotle’s theory of human agency and freedom? This will enable us to understand more fully the medieval theory of liberum arbitrium and to determine whether it adds anything significant to our understanding of human freedom and to practical reason-based theories of action. Student Learning Goals:

a) Students will acquire a deeper understanding of the rich philosophical medieval debate on human agency and freedom. b) Three main goals characterize this course: delving into the challenging but crucial notion of self-motion as developed in Greek philosophy; outlining a critical survey of the main theories of action in medieval philosophy; highlighting the major impact brought by the introduction of voluntas into the ‘classical’ account of the human act. c) Students will be guided in reading philosophical passages and will be asked to prepare schematic notes on every lecture. At the end of the course they will be assessed on an essay related to the topics discussed during the course unit. d) This course provides some of the most pertinent reasons why contemporary philosophers should engage with medieval thought, particularly with the synthesis provided by Thomas Aquinas.

Student Learning Outcomes: a) Great importance is attached at DSPT to the History of Philosophy and to the thought of St Thomas Aquinas. Students choosing this course will have global understanding of the development of the theory of human action in medieval philosophy. Specifically, they will engage with the historical account of the psychology of action in a critical way and develop skills that examine the coherence of the various solutions discussed. b) Students will need to engage with the writings of the main philosophers in this debate. They will write an essay to 1

demonstrate their ability to answering a question in a disciplined way as well as their understanding of the main theories involved. Methodology:

Lectures followed by discussion. Time will be allowed for presentations by students related to their assignment which will be a long research paper.

Requirements:

Students will be expected to attend lectures regularly in line with the policies stated in the Student Handbook at DSPT.

Credit weight:

4000

Textbooks:

Students are encouraged to read up in order to support content delivered in lectures following the suggested readings assigned below. One of the following books may be chosen as a good handbook to this course: Byers, C. Perception, Sensibility, and Moral Motivation in Augustine: A Stoic-Platonic Synthesis. Cambridge University Press. 2013. ISBN 978-1107-01794-8. $ 63.11 Osborn, T. M. Human Action in Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham. The Catholic University of America Press. 2014. ISBN-13: 978-0813221786. $59.95 McInerny, R. Aquinas on Human Action: A Theory of Practice. The Catholic University of America Press. 1992. ISBN-13: 978-0813207612. $ 24.74

Course schedule:

Week 1: Introducing Aristotle on self-motion Suggested reading: Aristotle, Physics. Book II. 1 and Book VIII. 4-6 Furley, D. ‘Self-movers’ in Lloyd, A.C. & Owen, G.E.L., Aristotle on Mind and the Senses. Proceedings of the Seventh Symposium Aristotelicum. Cambridge. 1978. Pp. 165-179

Week 2: Aristotle and the Stoic Tradition Suggested reading: Gill, M. L. ‘Aristotle on Self-Motion’ in Gill, M. L. & Lennox, J.G. Self-Motion from Aristotle to Newton. Princeton University Press. New Jersey. 1994. Pp. 15-35 Inwood, B. ‘The Stoics on the Grammar of Action’. The Southern Journal of Philosophy. Vol. XXIII. 1985. Pp. 75-86

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Week 3: Overview of the Classical Tradition Suggested reading: Dihle, A. The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity. University of California Press. Berkeley. 1982 Week 4: The emergence of the will Suggested reading: Irwin, T. ‘Who Discovered the Will?’ In Philosophical Perspectives 6: Ethics, Atascadero. 1992. Pp. 453-473 Knuutila, S. ‘The Emergence of the Logic of Will in Medieval Thought’ In The Augustinian Tradition. Edited by G. Matthews. University of California Berkeley. 1999. Pp.206-221 Week 5: Augustine on will and freedom Suggested reading: Harrison, S. ‘Do We Have a Will? Augustine’s Way into the Will’ In In The Augustinian Tradition. Edited by G. Matthews. University of California Berkeley. 1999. Pp.195-205 Byers, S. C. Perception, Sensibility, and Moral Motivation in Augustine. A Stoic-Platonic Synthesis. Cambridge University Press. 2013

Week 6: Action theory and freedom in Anselm Suggested reading: Anselm of Canterbury: Truth, Freedom and Evil. Three Philosophical Dialogues. Edited and Translated by J. Hopkins and H. Richardson. Harper Publishers New York. 1965 Rogers, K. Anselm on Freedom. Oxford University Press. 2008

Week 7: Anselm (2) Suggested reading: Anselm of Canterbury: Truth, Freedom and Evil. Three Philosophical Dialogues. Edited and Translated by J. Hopkins and H. Richardson. Harper Publishers New York. 1965 Williams, T. & Visser S. ‘Anselm’s Account of Freedom’. Canadian Journal of Philosophy. Vol. 31/2. June 2001. Pp. 221-244

Week 8: Albertus Magnus on self-motion Suggested reading: Twetten, D. & Baldner. ‘Introduction to Albert’s Philosophical Work’. In A Companion to Albert the Great: Theology, Philosophy and the Sciences. Brill Leiden-Boston. 2013. pp. 165-172 Ashley, B. ‘Albert the Great on the Cogitative Power.’ In A Companion to Albert the Great: Theology, Philosophy and the Sciences. Brill Leiden-Boston. 2013. pp. 299-324 Baldner, S. ‘St. Albert the Great on the Union of the Human Soul and Body’ in The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. Vol. LXX/1. 1996. pp. 103-135

Week 9:

Albertus Magnus theory of action 3

Suggested reading: Hoffmann, T. ‘Voluntariness, Choice and Will in the Ethics Commentaries of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas’. Documenti e Studi Sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale. N. 17. 2006. pp. 71-92 McCluskey, C. ‘Worthy Constraints in Albertus Magnus’s Theory of Action’. Journal of the History of Philosophy. Vol. 39/4. 2001. Pp. 491-533

Week 10: Aquinas theory of action (1) Suggested reading: Gallagher, D. ‘Thomas Aquinas on Will as Rational Appetite.’ Journal of the History of the History of Philosophy 29. 1991. Pp. 5590584 Stump, E. ‘Wisdom: Will, Belief and Moral Goodness’. In Aquinas’s Moral Theory: Essays in Honor of Norman Kretzmann. Edited by S. MacDonald & E. Stump. Cornell University Press.1999. pp. 28-62 Week 11: Aquinas theory of action (2) Suggested reading: MacDonald, S. ‘Practical Reasoning and Reasoning-Explanations’. In In Aquinas’s Moral Theory: Essays in Honor of Norman Kretzmann. Edited by S. MacDonald & E. Stump. Cornell University Press.1999. pp.133-160 Westberg, D. Right Practical Reason: Aristotle, Action and Prudence in Aquinas. Oxford University Press. 2002

Week 12: Scotus on human action and the will Suggested reading: Cross, R. Humanity: ‘Freedom, Ethics and Sin’. Chapter 7 in Duns Scotus – Great Medieval Thinkers Series. Oxford University Press. 1999. Pp. 83-100 Wolter, A.B. ‘Native Freedom of the Will’. Chapter 7 in The Philosophical Theology of Duns Scotus. Cornell University Press. 1990.

Week 13: Scotus (2) Suggested reading: Scotus, J.D. Duns Scotus on the Will and Morality. Translated and Edited by Wolter, A. & Frank. W. Catholic University of America Press. 1997

Week 14: The problem of incontinentia Kent, B. ‘Transitory Vice: Thomas Aquinas on Incontinence’. Journal of the History of Philosophy 27/2. 1989. Pp. 199-223 Saarinen, R. Weakness of the Will in Medieval Thought. Brill: Leiden-Cologne-Boston. 1994

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Bibliography: Primary Sources: Albert the Great. Opera Omnia. Augustus Borgnet, ed., Paris: Vives, 1890-9. Albert the Great. Opera Omnia. Bernhard Geyer et al, eds. Bonn: Institum Alberti Magni, 1951-. Anselm of Canterbury. Three Philosophical Dialogues. Thomas Williams, trans. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 2002. Anselm of Canterbury. Truth, Freedom, and Evil. Jasper Hopkins and Herbert Richardson, trans. New York: Harper and Row, 1965. Aquinas, Thomas. Summa theologiae. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, trans. Allen, TX: Christian Classics, 1981 (reprint). Aquinas, Thomas. Treatise on Happiness. John A. Oesterle, trans. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1964. Augustine. On Free Choice of the Will. Thomas Williams, trans. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1993. Bernard of Clairvaux. On Grace and Free Choice. Daniel O’Donovan, trans. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, Inc., 1988. Lombard, Peter. Sententiae in IV libris distinctae. Ignatius Brady, ed. Grottoferrata: Editiones Colegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas, 1971-81. Lombard, Peter. The Sentences (4 Vols.) Translated by Giulio Silano. Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies, Toronto, 2010. Scotus, John Duns. Duns Scotus on the Will and Morality. Allan B. Wolter, O.F.M., trans. William A Frank, ed. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1997. Secondary Literature: Alexander, Archibald. Theories of the Will in the History of Philosophy. New York: Scribner, 1898. Bourke, Vernon J. Will in Western Thought. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1964. Byers, Sarah C. Perception, Sensibility, and Moral Motivation in Augustine. A StoicPlatonic Synthesis. Cambridge University Press 2013. 5

Chappell, T.D.J. Aristotle and Augustine on Freedom: Two Theories of Freedom Voluntary Action, and Akrasia. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. Colish, Marcia. Peter Lombard. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994. Dauphinais, Michael et al. Ed. Aquinas the Augustinian. The Catholic University of America. Washington D.C. 2007. Davies, Brian, ed. Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae: Critical Essays. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. Lottin, Odon. Psychologie et Morale aux XIIe et XIIIe Siecles (4 Vols.) Abbaye du Mont Cesar, Louvain. Ducolot. 1948. Matthews, Gareth B., ed. The Augustinian Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Matthews, Gareth B. Augustine. Blackwell Publishing, 2005. McCluskey, Colleen. “Intellective Appetite and the Freedom of Human Action.” The Thomist 66 (2002): 421-56. McCluskey, Colleen. “Worthy Constraints in Albertus Magnus’s Theory of Action.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 39 (2001):491-533. MacDonald, Scott, and Stump, Eleonore, eds. Aquinas’s Moral Theory: Essays in Honor of Norman Kretzmann. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pope, Stephen J., ed. The Ethics of Aquinas. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2002. Resnick, Irven., ed. A Companion to Albert the Great. Brill:Leiden and Boston, 2013. Rogers, Katherin. “Anselm on Grace and Free Will.” The Saint Anselm Journal 2 (2005): 66-72. Stump, Eleonore. Aquinas. London: Routledge, 2003. Westberg, Daniel. Right Practical Reason: Aristotle, Action, and Prudence in Aquinas. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. Williams, Thomas and Visser, Sandra. “Anselm’s Account of Freedom.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 31 (2001): 221-244. Williams, Thomas. “The Libertarian Foundations of Scotus’s Moral Philosophy.” The Thomist (1998): 193-215. 6

Williams, Thomas. “How Scotus Separates Morality from Happiness.” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 69 (1995): 425-445.

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