Human Action in Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham

280 Pages·2014·1.08 MB·English

by  Jr. Thomas M. Osborne

The Catholic University of America Press
Washington, D.C.
Copyright  2014
The Catholic University of America Press
All rights reserved
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.
∞
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
available from the Library of Congress
ISBN: 978-0-8132-2178-6
In piam memoriam
Reverendi Eduardi Patricii Mahoney

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
A Note on the Texts xi
Introduction xiii
1. Causes of the Act 1
Thomas Aquinas 5
John Duns Scotus 19
William of Ockham 44
Trajectory of the Positions 56
2. Practical Reason 61
Thomas Aquinas 64
John Duns Scotus 80
William of Ockham 91
Practical Knowledge, Prudence, and
the Practical Syllogism 103
3. The Stages of the Act 109
The Aristotelian Background 110
Thomas Aquinas 113
John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham 132
Additions and Changes to Aristotle 145
vii
4. Evaluation and Specification
of the Act 149
Thomas Aquinas 154
John Duns Scotus 166
William of Ockham 175
Object, End, Circumstances 182
5. Indifferent, Good, and
Meritorious Acts 185
Natural and Moral Goodness 186
Morally Good, Bad, and Indifferent 192
Merit, Demerit, and Indifference to Merit 200
The Shift to the Interior Act 218
Conclusion 221
Bibliography 229
Index 247
viii
Acknowledgments
This book has its proximate origin during a 2009–2010 sabbat-
ical at the Thomas-Institut, University of Cologne, which was
funded by an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experi-
enced Researchers. I owe special gratitude to Andreas Speer,
the director of the Thomas-Institut, and to the Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation. I profited from my interaction with the
many fine scholars at the Thomas-Institut, including but not
limited to Guy Guldentops, Thomas Jeschke, Smilen Markov,
Maxime Mauriège, and Ubaldo Villani-Lubelli. Wolfram Klatt,
the librarian, was extraordinarily generous to me.
Timothy Noone, Peter Eardley, Jeffrey Brouwer, and Tobias
Hoffmann were generous with their advice. Many colleagues at
the Center of Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas,
including especially Steven Jensen and Rollen Edward Houser,
gave encouragement and correction. Steven Jensen assisted me
both through discussion and by making remarks on the entire
text. Two students, Charles Robertson and John Macias, pro-
vided much-needed help with the manuscript. The anonymous
readers caught several mistakes and infelicities and gave many
suggestions for improvement.
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