How Is Strength of the Will Possible? Concerning Francis of Marchia and the Act of the Will

Author: Robiglio, Andrea A.

Source: Vivarium, Volume 44, Number 1, 2006 , pp. 151-183(33)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

Francis of Marchia dealt at length in several different contexts with the nature of the will and willing. Here I examine just one of those discussions: the possibility for the will to go against reason's final judgment, a topic related to weakness of will and the source of sin. Marchia is clearly of a voluntaristic bent, holding that the will can indeed act against the determination of reason. After examining Marchia's argumentation for his position, I explore some of the background to Marchia's view in a distinctively later medieval understanding of the human mind as a system of internal acts and dispositions, with the possibility that several of them belong to the same faculty simultaneously. This increasingly complex conceptualisation of the mind mirrors a new, more complex conceptualization of the "Self".

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1163/156853406778169077

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