PHIL 871 Thomas Aquinas on Free Choice
For Aquinas, the will is essentially ordered toward the known good. The fundamental problem of morality consists in appropriately knowing the good, so that the will can adhere to it. Accordingly, liberum arbitrium (free choice or free decision) is a "power of reason and will." The course will consist in the close reading of selected texts from the Prima pars and Prima secundae of the Summa theologiae and from De malo. Besides a general study of the nature of the will and of free choice, special attention will be given to the question of how, though the will adheres to the known good, it is possible to choose evil.