Front matter
John Duns Scotus
John Duns Scotus Selected Writings on Ethics
EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY
Thomas Williams
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Contents Acknowledgments ix Topical guide to the translations xi Introduction xiii 1. Questions on Aristotle's Metaphysics IX, q. 15: "Is the distinction
Aristotle draws between rational and non-rational powers appropriate?"
2. Ordinatio prologue, part 5, qq. 1 and 2 (omitting nn. 270–313):
"Is theology a practical or a speculative science?" / "Is a science called practical per se because it is ordered to praxis as its end?"
3. Ordinatio I, d. 1, part 1, q. 1: "Is the object of enjoyment per se the ultimate end?"
4. Ordinatio I, d. 1, part 2, q. 1, nn. 65–73: "Is enjoyment an act elicited by the will or a passion received by the will?"
5. Ordinatio I, d. 1, part 2, q. 2 (omitting nn. 100–33): "Does the will necessarily enjoy an end when it is apprehended by the intellect?"
6. Ordinatio I, d. 8, part 2, q. un., nn. 223–5, 269–74, 281–301:
"Is God alone immutable?"
7. Ordinatio I, d. 17, part 1, qq. 1–2, nn. 55–67, 92–100: "Is a moral habit, as a virtue, in some way an active principle with respect to moral goodness in an act?"
8. Ordinatio I, d. 38, q. un.: "Is God's knowledge with respect to created things practical?"
9. Reportatio IA, dd. 39–40, qq. 1–3, nn. 24–59: The nature and cause of contingency
10. Ordinatio I, d. 44, q. un.: "Can God make things otherwise than as it is well-ordered for him to make them?"
11. Ordinatio I, d. 47, q. un.: "Is divine permission an act of the divine will?"
12. Ordinatio I, d. 48, q. un.: "Is a created will morally good whenever it is in conformity with the uncreated will?"
13. Ordinatio II, d. 6, q. 1: "Was the evil angel able to desire equality with God?"
14. Ordinatio II, d. 6, q. 2: "Was the angel's first sin formally pride?"
vi CONTENTS 15. Ordinatio II, d. 7, q. un., nn. 28–39: The levels of goodness
16. Ordinatio II, dd. 34–7, q. 2: "Is sin per se a corruption of good?"
17. Ordinatio II, d. 38, q. un.: "Is intention an act of the will alone?"
18. Ordinatio II, d. 39, qq. 1–2: "Is synderesis in the will?" / "Is conscience in the will?"
19. Ordinatio II, d. 40, q. un.: "Is every act good in virtue of its end?"
20. Ordinatio II, d. 41, q. un.: "Can any act of ours be indifferent?"
21. Ordinatio II, d. 42, q. un.: "Are the capital sins distinct?"
22. Ordinatio II, d. 43, q. un.: "Can a created will sin ex malitia?"
23. Ordinatio II, d. 44, q. un.: "Is the power for sinning from God?"
24. Ordinatio III, d. 17, q. un.: "Were there two wills in Christ?"
25. Ordinatio III, d. 27, q. un.: "Is there a theological virtue that inclines one toward loving God above all else?"
26. Ordinatio III, d. 28, q. un.: "Ought one to love one's neighbor by the same habit by which one loves God?"
27. Ordinatio III, d. 29, q. un.: "Is each person required to love himself the most, after God?"
28. Ordinatio III, d. 32, q. un. (omitting nn. 12–18): "Does God love all things equally through charity?"
29. Ordinatio III, d. 33, q. un.: "Are the moral virtues in the will as in a subject?"
30. Ordinatio III, d. 34, q. un., nn. 1–5, 24–38, 45–83: "Are the virtues, gifts, beatitudes, and fruits the same habits?"
31. Ordinatio III, d. 36, q. un.: "Are the moral virtues connected?"
32. Ordinatio III, d. 37, q. un.: "Do all the precepts of the Decalogue belong to the natural law?"
33. Ordinatio III, d. 38, q. un.: "Is every lie a sin?"
34. Ordinatio IV, d. 15, q. 2, nn. 78–101: The origin of private property
35. Ordinatio IV, d. 17, q. un., nn. 1–2, 17–33: Sacramental confession and the natural law
36. Ordinatio IV, d. 21, q. 2: "Is a confessor bound in every case to conceal a sin disclosed to him in confession?"
37. Ordinatio IV, d. 26, q. un., nn. 12–31: The moral goodness of the marriage contract
CONTENTS vii 38. Ordinatio IV, d. 29, q. un., nn. 2, 11–28: Coerced consent
39. Ordinatio IV, d. 33, q. 1: "Was plural marriage ever licit?"
40. Ordinatio IV, d. 33, q. 3: "Was it licit under the Mosaic Law to divorce one's wife?"
41. Ordinatio IV, d. 46, qq. 1–3: "Is there justice in God?" / "Is there mercy in God?" / "Are justice and mercy distinct in God?"
42. Quodlibetal Questions q. 18: "Does an exterior act add any goodness or badness to an interior act?"
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments I am enormously grateful for the $138,000 Scholarly Editions and Translations Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities that relieved me of half my teaching in 2014 and 2015 and thereby allowed me to make much faster progress on this volume than would otherwise have been possible. The grant also funded the work of Jeff Steele as editorial associate, and I am very grateful for his tireless and skillful research, the keen eye he brought to the translations, and his invariably sharp suggestions for corrections and improvements.
I was fortunate also to be in residence at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh as the American Philosophical Association's Edinburgh Fellow in the fall of 2014 and at the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs at the University of St Andrews as a Visiting Fellow in the spring of 2015. I am grateful to the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) and the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs (CEPPA) for providing settings wonderfully conducive to work, and to the American Philosophical Association (APA) for its support.
I was sustained during my time in Scotland by the hospitality and welcome I found in the Scottish Episcopal Church. I am grateful to the Bishop of Edinburgh, the Right
Revd John Armes, and the Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane, the Most Revd David Chillingworth, for granting me permission to officiate in their dioceses, and to the clergy and people of Old St Paul's Church and St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh and All Saints' Church in St Andrews for making me a part of their communities.
I am also grateful to the University of South Florida for granting me a research leave in the fall of 2014 as compensation for serving a term as chair of Religious
Studies, and to my chair in Philosophy, Roger Ariew, for accommodating my comings and goings.
I owe a particular debt of gratitude to my medieval history professor at Vanderbilt,
Paul Freedman, for introducing me to paleography. Neither of us had any particular reason at the time to suppose that I would ever use it; he simply had an exuberant love of learning that found expression in teaching, and as a medievalist-in-training
I was intrigued enough to pay close attention. But this proved to be the most consequential side-conversation of my scholarly life, despite the fact that it corresponded to no pre-approved "learning outcome" (such things having mercifully not been invented yet in the 1980s). The state of the editions being what it is, I could not have completed this project responsibly without spending a good deal of time in the manuscripts, and I am grateful to Prof. Freedman for introducing me to the skills
I would need in order to do so.
Topical guide to the translations The decision to present mostlycomplete questions rather than primarily shorter excerpts meant that it was not practical to organize the material under general topical headings, since most ofthe chapters cover two ormore majortopics in some detail. Here I provide a list of major topics and the numbers of the chapters in which those topics are treated extensively. Thisguide is meant to help in selecting and organizing readings thatfocus on particular themes; I hope it will be especially useful for those preparing syllabi for courses on Scotus, medievalphilosophy, the history of ethics, and so forth. For every discussion of a topic, even in passing, the index will be a better guide. absolute vs ordered power: 10 analogy/disanology between intellect and will: 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 41, 42 capital sins: 14, 21 charity: 5, 15, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 36 composed vs divided sense: 1, 9 confession (sacramental): 35, 36 conscience: 18 consent: 38 contingency: 1, 2, 5, 6, 9 Decalogue: 32 deliberation: 29, 31 efficacious vs simple/restrained volition: 11, 13, 28 end: 2, 3, 5, 16, 19, 31, 32 enjoyment: 3, 4, 5 friendship: 25, 30 friendship-willing vs desire-willing: 13, 14
God's justice and mercy: 41
God's love: 28 goodness and badness generic: 15, 19, 33, 37, 42 meritorious: 15, 19, 20 moral: 7, 12, 15, 19, 20, 37, 42 natural: 15, 19, 42 habits: 7, 18, 25, 26, 29, 31 happiness: 5, 14, 25 immutability of God: 6 imputability: 42 indeterminacy, kinds of: 1, 6, 9, 29 indifference of an act: 15, 20
xii
TOPICAL GUIDE TO THE TRANSLATIONS
intellect: see will, relation to intellect intention: 17 interior (elicited) vs exterior (commanded) act: 2, 38, 42 irascible vs concupiscible: 30 justice: 14, 16, 30, 39, 40, 41, 42 law divine: 10, 34, 35, 36 Mosaic: 35, 40 natural: 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39 positive: 32, 34, 35, 36 love of God: 14, 25, 26, 27, 32, 42 love of neighbor: 26, 27, 32 lying: 33, 36, 38 marriage: 37, 38, 39, 40 necessary vs contingent moral truths: 2, 32 passions: 7, 29, 30 pleasure: 4, 29, 30, 31 powers for opposites: 1, 9, 42 rational vs non-rational: 1, 42 practical principles: 2, 8, 32, 35 practical science/cognition: 2, 8, 31, 32 praxis: 2, 8 pride: 14 private property: 32, 34 prudence: 7, 29, 30, 31 rectitude/correctness: 16, 42 right/correct reason: 2, 7, 15, 19, 25, 31, 37, 38, 42 sin: 13, 14, 16, 22, 23, 33, 42 synderesis: 18 virtue(s): 7, 25, 29, 30, 31 will acts of (willing, willing-against, etc.): 4, 11, 13, 14, 17 as rational power: 1 as subject of virtue: 29 divine: 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 28, 41 freedom of: 1, 4, 5, 14, 18, 22, 23, 29, 42 natural vs free: 14, 18, 24, 29 relation to intellect: 1, 2, 5, 8, 13, 17, 29, 31, 41 relation to sensory appetite: 14, 21, 22, 24, 29, 30 two affections of: 14, 18 vs nature: 1, 5, 29