Aquinas and Later Scholastics on Willful Wrongdoing

158 Pages·2014·1.33 MB·English

UC Irvine
UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Aquinas and Later Scholastics on Willful Wrongdoing
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8x19s71c
Author
Dressel, Ashley
Publication Date
2014

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,
IRVINE

Aquinas and Later Scholastics on Willful Wrongdoing

DISSERTATION

submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

in Philosophy

by

Ashley Dressel

Dissertation Committee:
Professor Bonnie Kent, Chair
Professor Sean Greenberg
Professor Casey Perin
Professor Martin Schwab

2014
© 2014 Ashley Dressel
DEDICATION

To Matt

For your boundless support and unconditional love.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii

CURRICULUM VITAE viii

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION x

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 1: Aquinas on Willful Wrongdoing and Vice 4

1. The Pursuit of Happiness and the Guise of the Good 8
2. Sinning from malitia 9
3. Clear-eyed Evil 14
4. Clear-eyed Evil and the Socratic Thesis 17
5. Corrupt States 22
6. Challenges for the Clear-eyed Evil Account of Vice 36
Conclusion 45

CHAPTER 2: Aquinas on Willful Wrongdoing in the Absence of Vice 46

1. Hope of Heaven and Fear of Hell 47
2. Despair, Presumption, and Clear-eyed Wrongdoing 53
3. Despair, Presumption and the Socratic Thesis 58
4. Despair as an Instance of Willful Wrongdoing 62
5. What Has Jerusalem to do with Athens? 74
Conclusion 75

CHAPTER 3: Error in the Intellect and Evil in the Will: Capreolus and Cajetan on 77
Willful Wrongdoing

1. 1277 78
2. John Capreolus: The Prince of the Thomists 82
i. Ultimate Particular Conscience 85
ii. Ignorance, Inconsiderationis, and Disordered Willing 91
iii. Prudence and malitia 95
3. Thomas Cajetan 97
i. Willful Wrongdoing and Comparative Particular Judgments 98

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ii. Evil in the Will 103
Conclusion 111

CHAPTER 4: Suárez on the Moral Necessity of Ignorance in Evil 113

1. The State of the Texts 117
2. Suárez on Willful Wrongdoing 118
3. Suárez on the Socratic Thesis 123
4. Moral Necessity 132
Conclusion 137

BIBLIOGRAPHY 139

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Works by Aquinas
In Iob Expositio super Iob ad Litteram (Commentary on Job)
In NE Sententiae libri Ethicorum (Commentary on Aristotle's Ethics)
In Sent. Scriptum super libros Sententiarum (Commentary on the Sentences)
QDV Quaestiones de veritate (Disputed Questions on the Truth)
QDVC Quaestiones de virtutibus in communi (Disputed Questions on Virtue)
QDM Quaestiones disputatae de malo (Disputed Questions on Evil)
ST Summa Theologiae

Works by Suárez
DA De Angelis (On the Angels)
DFH De Fine Hominis (On the Human End)
DM Disputationes Metaphysicae (Metaphysical Disputations)
DS De Spe (On Hope)
DVP De Vitiis et Peccatis (On Vices and Sins)

Works by Other Authors
EN Nichomachean Ethics
DDT Defensiones Theologiae Divi Thomae Aquinatis (Capreolus)
CST Commentaria in Summam Theologiae St Thomae (Cajetan)

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General Abbreviations
a. article
ad. reply to an objection
arg. argument
c. around
disp. disputation
dist. distinction
lib. book
obj. objection
q. question
sect. section
Citation Style

References to Aquinas's works cite the abbreviation for the work (ST, for instance, for the
Summa), the part of the work in which the reference is found (I-II, for example, refers to
Aquinas's Prima Secundae), then the relevant question within that part of the work. Finally,
if applicable, these references cite the numbers of both the relevant article within that
question and reply to an objection within that article.
References to Capreolus’s Defensiones follow a similar schema, citing the abbreviation for
the work (DDT), the book under consideration, distinction number, and then the numbers
corresponding to the relevant question and article. Since an article can be rather lengthy,
citations also indicate the section within the article under consideration and, if applicable, a
particular argument. Finally, I have included reference to the place each citation can be
found in the Paban and Pègues edition of the text. The format for these citations is volume
number, page number, then column (a or b).
References to Cajetan’s work cite the abbreviation for the work (CST), the location of the
reference within the Summa, and a Roman numeral indicating the section of Cajetan’s
commentary as it appears in the Leonine edition.
Finally, references to Suárez’s work cite the abbreviation for the work, as well as the
relevant book, then chapter, then paragraph number within that work as noted in the Vivés
edition. This citation is followed by reference to the place each citation can be found in the
Vivés edition of Suárez’s Opera Omnia: volume, page number, and then column.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Bonnie, my Doktormutter. Thank you for your guidance, mercy, and generous mentorship. I
will miss our conversations and I anticipate that your work will always be the unattainable
standard against which I measure my own.
Thank you to Sean Greenberg, Casey Perin, and Martin Schwab for your feedback over the
years, for the discussions that have helped me to think through this nest of issues, and for
your continued support and guidance.
I am indebted to those who, through workshops and conferences, aided in the development
the first two chapters of this work. Special thanks are due to Calvin Normore and Owen
Goldin for providing me opportunities to present my work. I would also like to thank John
Carriero, Brian Copenhaver, Gavin Lawrence, Colleen McCluskey, and Richard Taylor for
particularly insightful questions and remarks.
I owe a great deal to Nathan Goetting, Mark Pestana, and Peggy Vandenberg. Your
philosophical clarity, earnestness, and passion inspired me to take this journey. I have
never regretted it.
I am immensely grateful to those anonymous members of the academic community who
painstakingly scan thousands of pages of arcane texts into free-use databases. Because of
you, I will be able to do serious scholarly work no matter where my academic journey takes
me.
Thank you to my parents, Brian and Karen Comstock, who have always trusted me enough
to encourage me to succeed doing what I love.
Thank you, April, for ensuring I take breaks filled with bubbles, stories, laughter and fun.
Finally, thank you, Matt, my partner and best friend, for your love, support, insight, and
sacrifice.

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CURRICULUM VITAE
Ashley Dressel

EDUCATION
University of California, Irvine Ph.D., Philosophy, July 2014
University of California, Irvine M.A., Philosophy (with Distinction), 2011
Grand Valley State University B.A., Philosophy, magna cum laude, Honors College, 2008

Dissertation: Aquinas and Later Scholastics on Willful Wrongdoing
Committee: Bonnie Kent (chair), Sean Greenberg, Casey Perin, and Martin Schwab

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
Medieval Philosophy; Early Modern Philosophy; History of Ethics
AREAS OF COMPETENCE
Ancient Philosophy; Ethics; Moral Psychology

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS (excludes travel grants)
President's Dissertation Year Fellowship, University of California, 2013
Summer Dissertation Fellowship, University of California, Irvine, 2013
Kavka Prize in Philosophy, University of California, Irvine, 2012
Machette Foundation Award for Philosophy, University of California, Irvine, 2011
Abraham Melden Fellowship, University of California, Irvine 2008
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, invited 2006

PUBLICATIONS
'Weakness and Willful Wrongdoing in Aquinas's De Malo', for The Cambridge Critical
Guide to Aquinas' “On Evil” (co-authorship with Bonnie Kent; forthcoming)
'Aquinas on Evil and Sin', for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (forthcoming)
'Directed Obligations and Deathbed Promises' in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

PRESENTATIONS
May 2014 'A Road to Sin: Aquinas on Despair'; International Congress on
Medieval Studies, St. Thomas Aquinas Society sponsored session,
Kalamazoo, MI.
April 2014 'Aquinas on Vice and Clear-eyed Evil'; UCLA History Workshop, Los
Angeles, CA.
June 2013 'How A Virtuous Person Might Come to Sin on Purpose: Aquinas on
Willful Wrongdoing'; Marquette Summer Seminar on Aristotle and the
Aristotelian Tradition, Milwaukee, WI.
March 2013 Commentary on Joseph Anderson's 'Scotus on Omnipotence and the
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