Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; List of Abbreviations; Note on the Texts and Translation; Introduction; Bibliography; Part I. Questions about Created Wills: 1. Are Memory, Intellect, and Will Really Distinct Powers? (Rep. II, q. 20); 2. On Pleasure, Pain, and Distress (Var. Ques. q. 6, a. 9); 3. On Practical Activity, Ends, and Moral Knowledge (Ord., Prologue, qq. 10-12, excerpts); 4. On Love, Hate, and Final Causes (Var. Ques., q. 4, excerpts); 5. Should Everything Other Than God Only Be Used? (Ord., d. 1. q. 1); 6. Is Enjoyment an Act of the Will Alone? (Ord., d. 1, q. 2); 7. Does the Will Contingently and Freely Enjoy the Ultimate End? (Ord., d. 1, q. 6); 8. Does a Beatified Will Necessarily Enjoy God? (Rep. IV, q. 16); Part II. Questions about the Divine Will: 9. Could God Make a World Better than this World? (Ord., d. 44, q. un, excerpts); 10. Is God's Will the Immediate and First Cause of Everything that is Done? (Ord., d. 45, q. un); 11. Could the Divine Will be Impeded by any Creaturely Power? (Ord., d. 46, q. 1); 12. Could God Command that a Bad Thing Be Done? (Ord., d. 47, q. un); 13. Is Every Created Will Obligated to Conform Itself to the Divine Will? (Ord., d. 48, q. un.); Part III. Questions about Virtue and Moral Goodness: 14. Does a Virtuous Habit have the Intellective Part as its Subject? (Rep. III, q. 11); 15. Is Every Virtuous Habit Generated from Acts? (Rep. III, q. 12); 16. On Self-Control, Temperance, and Prudence (Var. Ques. q. 6, a. 10); 17. Could the Will have a Virtuous Act concerning an Object about which there is an Error in the Intellect? (Var. Ques., q. 8); 18. Is a Bad Angel Always Engaging in a Bad Act? (Rep. II, q. 15); 19. On the Nature of Mortal Sin (Rep. IV, qq. 10-11, excerpts); 20. On Acts that are Intrinsically and Necessarily Virtuous (Var. Ques. VII, a. 1, excerpts); 21. Is Only an Act of the Will Necessarily Virtuous? (Quod. III, q. 14); 22. Can there be Demonstrative Knowledge about Morals? (Quod. II, q. 14); Part IV. Questions about Charity, Merit, and Grace: 23. Is it Necessary to Posit Three Theological Virtues in This Life that Can Remain in the Next Life? (Rep. III, q. 9, excerpts); 24. Is it Necessary to Posit, in addition to the Holy Spirit, Absolute Created Charity Formally Informing the Soul? (Ord., d. 17, q. 1); 25. Could an Act of the Will be Meritorious without Charity Formally Informing the Soul? (Ord., d. 17, q. 2); 26. Does Every Meritorious Act Presuppose Created Charity? (Ord., d. 17, q. 3); 27. On the Infusion of Virtue and Grace and the Removal of Guilt in Baptism (Rep. IV, qq. 3-5); Index.

Promotional Information

A collection of the influential ethical writings of medieval philosopher William of Ockham, published in English for the first time.

About the Author

Eric W. Hagedorn is Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. Norbert College, Wisconsin. He has published a number of articles and book reviews on medieval philosophy of mind, language, and logic in journals including Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy and Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

Reviews

'There is solid value in this volume: hard reasoning about ethics from a master of tough thinking and a form of philosophy that works an idea from its ontological range to its casuistic range. These are set within a doctrine, nominalism, that had profound effects on all manner of intellectual conception and cultural production in the Renaissance. All this is collected here from sources that are very long and thorny into an exemplary compendium for ethics, logic, and philosophical method.' Bennett Gilbert, Metascience

'This book is necessary for those interested in William of Ockham, medieval ethics, moral psychology, and the background to the Reformation.' Thomas M. Osborne, Speculum