PHIL 860 Fall of the Angels: Augustine to Scotus
Medieval thinkers take angelic sin as a test case for refining their theories of free will, just as philosophers today employ thought experiments to test commonly accepted opinions and develop innovative ideas. For one thing, in analyzing an evil choice by a perfectly intellectual creature free of habits and bodily emotions, the essential factors of free choice come sharply into focus, because the first choice of the angels results from the interplay of intellect and will alone. For another thing, the narrative of the angelic fall, which medieval thinkers accepted on theological grounds, contains four key details that pushed commonly accepted philosophical ideas to the limit. (1) Although God created all angels good, some sinned. (2) Their choice was irreversible, such that the evil angels could no longer have a good will and the good angels could no longer sin. (3) Lucifer, the highest angel, sinned in a particular way, by aspiring to equality with God. (4) The evil angels sinned immediately upon their creation. The task of accounting for each of these details philosophically would generate four corresponding philosophical problems, provoking medieval thinkers to extraordinarily ingenious and significant conceptual developments. This course studies the solutions to these problems by Augustine, Pseudo-Dionyius, Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, and John Duns Scotus.