Duns Scotus on the Will and Morality

355 Pages·1997·24.98 MB·English

by  John Duns Scotus

DUNSSCOTUS
on the Will and Morality

DUNSSCOTUS
on the Will and Morality
Selected & Translated
with an Introduction by Alan B. Wolter, O.EM.
Translation Edition
Edited by William A. Frank
The Catholic University of America Press
Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 1986,1997
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standards for Information Science--Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Ubrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Duns Scotus, John, ca. 1266-1308.
[Selections. English. 19971
Duns Scotus on the will and morality I selected and translated
with an introduction by Allan B. Wolter: edited by William A.
Frank.-Translation ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
I. Ethics, Medieval. 2. Will-Early works to 1800. I. Wolter.
Allan Bernard, 1913- . I I. Frank, William A. II I. Title.
B765·1l731l8613 1997
171' .2-dc21
97-2325
ISBN-IO: 0-8132-0895-5 (alk. paper)
ISBN-I 3: 978-0-8132-0895-4
Contents
Preface to This Edition ix
Preface to the Original Edition xvii
Introduction
I
General Remarks 3
I.
Scotus' metaphysical notion of God 5
I.
How divine free will differs from ours 9
2.
3. God's voluntary selrlove as both free and necessary I I
4. Right reason governs God's relationship to creatures 16
5. The moral law as accessible to reason 25
n. Notes on the Specific Selections 3 I
Part I. The will and intellect 3 I
I : Practical science 32
2. The will as a rational faculty 35
3. How the will controls thought 37
4. Coercion and free will 39
Part II. The will and its inclinations 39
5· The will and its inclinations 39
6. Natural will and natural volition 41
7· Happiness 42
8. Synderesis and conscience 45
Part lll. Moral goodness 47
9· The nature of moral goodness 47
10. The source of moral goodness 48
I I . Degrees of moral goodness and badness 48
12. Does the end alone justify actions? 5 I
13· Morally indifferent acts 52
14. Is moral goodness conformity to God's will? 53
Part IV. God and the moral law 54
15· God's justice 54
16. God's absolute and ordained power 56
Contents
Vl
Part v. The moral law in general 57
I7. Natural law and divine positive law 57
I8. The decalogue and the law of nature 60
I 9. On marriage and bigamy 64
20. Divorce and the Mosaic law 72
2 I. Positive law and civil authority 73
Part VI. The intellectual and moral virtues 75
22. The will as the seat of the moral virtues 75
23. Moral virtue and the gifts and fruits of the Spirit 78
24. Are the moral virtues connected? 84
Part VII. The love of God, self, and neighbor 89
25. The infused virtue of charity 89
26. Love of God and neighbor 94
27. Love of God and self 97
Part VIII. Sin 98
28. Is the power to sin from God? 98
29. The sin of Lucifer 100
30. The sin of malice 105
3 I. Lying 106
32. Perjury IIO
33. The obligation to keep secrets I I3
34. The sin of enslavement II 4
Texts in Translation
Part I. The Will and Intellect 127
I. Practical science 127
2. The will as a rational faculty 136
3. How the will controls thought ISO
4. Coercion and free will 151
Part II. The Will and Its Inclinations 153
5. The will and its inclinations 153
6. Natural will and natural volition 154
7· Happiness ISS
8. Synderesis and conscience 162
Part lll. Moral Goodness 167
9. The nature of moral goodness 167
Contents vii
10. The source of moral goodness 169
I I. Degrees of moral goodness and badness I 73
12. Does the end alone justify actions? 176
13. Morally indifferent acts 178
14. Is moral goodness conformity to God's will? IBI
Part IV. God and the Moral Law 183
15. God's justice 183
16. God's absolute and ordained power 191
Part v. The Moral Law in General 195
17. Natural law and divine positive law 195
18. The decalogue and the law of nature 198
19. On marriage and bigamy 20B
20. Divorce and the Mosaic law 2 I 2
21. Positive law and civil authority 219
Part VI. The Intellectual and Moral Virtues 223
22. The will as the seat of the moral virtues 223
23. Moral virtue and the gifts and fruits of the Spirit 237
24. Are the moral virtues connected? 252
Part VII. The Love of God, Self, and Neighbor 275
25. The infused virtue of charity
26. Love of God and neighbor
27. Love of God and self 291
Part VIII. Sin 293
2B. Is the power to sin from God? 293
29. The sin of Lucifer 295
30. The sin of malice 302
3 I. Lying 304
32. Perjury 314
33. The obligation to keep secrets 323
34. The sin of enslavement 325
Bibliography 331
Topical Index 341

Preface to This Edition
Since the appearance of the original edition of Duns Scotus on the
Will and Morality, there has been a remarkable growth of interest in
the thought of this early fourteenth,century Franciscan master. In
part, this renaissance reflects the spate of scholarly activity associated
with the official recognition of the cult of John Duns Scotus when
John Paul II confirmed his status as blessed during a Solemn Vespers in
the Basilica of St. Peter in 1993. It is also the case that Allan Wolter's
book on Scotus' volitional and ethical doctrine has itself provoked
and guided a good deal of the recent inquiry.
Whatever the source of the activity, it has become evident since the
recent international Scotus conferences held in Rome and Bonn that
there is active interest among philosophical scholars along several
lines of investigation directly connected with Duns Scotus on the Will
and Morality. The following three areas deserve special mention: (I)
Scotus' metaphysics of freedom and contingency (e.g., Vos, 1994;
Dumont, 1995; Frank, 1992; Honnefelder, 1991; and Wolter, 1990a),
(2) his anthropological doctrine of the will (e.g., Boler, 1990, 1993;
Incandela, 1992; and Adams, 1987, 1995), and (3) Scotistic ethical
theory (e.g., Adams, 1986; Santogrossi, 1994; Shannon, 1995, and
especially Ingham, 1996). In fact, these investigations have enabled us
to begin to see more critically a unity of concern in Scotistic thought.
In the balance of my remarks I shall try to sharpen the focus on this
unifying thread.
The problem of freedom. The lodestone of Scotus' theological vision
is the idea of Divine Love, as understood both within the mutuality of
the Trinitarian Persons and in God's relation to creation. His philo,
sophical thought expresses this fundamental reality under the aspects
of the metaphysics of contingency and the experience of freedom.
Scotistic freedom, however, is a subtle notion that does not easily
adjust itself to classical Greek or medieval concepts of nature and sci,
ence, nor does it happily jibe with prevailing modem libertarian
strains of thought. It is precisely this seminal understanding of free,
dom that has been increasingly brought to the fore in the last ten or
fifteen years of scholarship.
The correct understanding of the God/world relationship is one of
the more important metaphysical questions in which freedom is a cen,
tral issue. This is especially true in the case of Christian thinkers, and
ix