Augustine, the origin of evil, and the mystery of free will

Willows, Adam M.

doi:10.1017/s0034412513000401

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“… 9. Wood is referring primarily to Katherin Rogers (2008), 104, 106. He also references similar passages written by Visser & Williams (2009), 189–191; Timpe (2012), 203; Willows (2014), 267. …”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 80%

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The ‘harder problem’ of the devil's fall is still a problem: a reply to Wood

Barnwell

2016

Rel. Stud.

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William Wood has importantly distinguished between a ‘hard problem’ and a ‘harder problem’ in explaining the devil's fall. He points out that previous attempts to explain Satan's sin have focused only on the former and cleverly argues that consumer preference theory, when applied to Anselm's account of Satan's sin, can solve the latter. In this article, I demonstrate that Wood's solution (i) undermines itself, (ii) fails to absolve God of the charge of being tyrannical, (iii) surreptitiously reintroduces the harder problem, and (iv) eventually collapses back into the initial hard problem. I conclude by suggesting why one might nonetheless be motivated to distinguish between the two problems and what this implies about a belief in the devil's fall.

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Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 80%

“… 1. Among those Wood criticizes for having committed this fault are Rogers (2008); Timpe (2012); Willows (2014); Visser & Williams (2009); MacDonald (1999). …”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘harder problem’ of the devil's fall is still a problem: a reply to Wood

Barnwell

2016

Rel. Stud.

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“…Since he also desired the gift of perseverance, he could have preferred, and chosen, that good instead. It is a mystery that he preferred the former and not the latter, but once we have shown that Satan's choice is logically possible, our work is done (see also Visser and Williams (2009), 189–191; Timpe (2012), 203; Willows (2014), 267).…”

Section: Anselm Solves the Hard Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…and its own effect’ ( De casu 27). Contemporary interpreters are inclined to agree with Anselm, and to treat Satan's sinful choice as no more or less mysterious than any other act of libertarian free will (see, for example: Rogers (2008), 97–107; Timpe (2012); Willows (2014)). On this line of argument, once we have shown that Satan's choice is free, and expresses his genuine preferences and desires, then no further explanations are available, even in principle.…”

Section: Anselm Solves the Hard Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Granting that Satan disobeyed God because he loved himself too much, the question remains: unless Satan's cognitive and volitional faculties are defective, how could he ever come to believe that he, a finite creature, is more worthy of love than his perfectly good creator? Satan's pride pushes the problem of the first sin back a step, but does not solve it (Brown (1978), 322; Willows (2014), 259).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Anselm of Canterbury on the fall of the devil: the hard problem, the harder problem, and a new formal model of the first sin

Wood¹

2015

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The fall of the devil poses two distinct philosophical problems. Only one of those problems has received sufficient scholarly attention. The hard problem asks how the devil's choice to disobey God can be both suitably free and morally significant. The harder problem asks how it can be subjectively rational. Explaining the former does not suffice for explaining the latter. Drawing on the thought of Anselm of Canterbury, I develop a model of the first sin that uses the framework of consumer preference theory to show how Satan's act of disobedience can be free, morally significant, and subjectively rational.

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Adaptive Transformations: Nineteenth-Century Stage Adaptations of Nineteenth-Century Novels

Amy¹

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This study analyses nineteenth-century stage adaptations of Victorian novels. It argues that doing so, provides an important insight into the way that nineteenth-century society engaged with and responded to proto-feminism. A selection of nineteenth-century stage adaptations of three novels, which were both popular at the time and have subsequently become canonical, are analysed. The thesis focuses on how dramatists responded to the germinal proto-feminist elements in the novel when they transferred the plot of the original source to the stage. In Chapter One, the issue of female agency is looked at in the nineteenth century stage adaptations of Jane Eyre. Chapter Two focuses on the figure of the ‘fallen woman’ in the shape of Isabel Vane, Mrs Henry Wood’s central figure in East Lynne. Finally, in Chapter Three the complex issue of madness, criminal culpability and femininity is examined in the stage adaptations of Mary Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret. Despite the attention devoted to the novels by feminist critics, the study of these popular adaptations has received comparatively little attention. One of the plays examined in this thesis has never been examined at an academic level before (The Mystery of Audley Court by John Brougham 1866). Building on the pioneering work of Patsy Stoneman, this thesis contributes to the growing interest in popular plays. The argument of this thesis is that by studying popular adaptations it is possible from both a New Historicist and a proto-feminist perspective to identify how nineteenth-century society engaged with and responded to proto-feminism. The key findings of this thesis are to do with the amount of license that the dramatists gave themselves as they went about adapting the original source to the stage, for example, the characteristics of the main characters are altered, characters are omitted and new characters are created and inserted into the plot, themes are removed or highlighted and it is the argument of this thesis that those changes were made due to contemporaneous events.

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Augustine, the origin of evil, and the mystery of free will

Cited by 4 publications

References 10 publications

The ‘harder problem’ of the devil's fall is still a problem: a reply to Wood

The ‘harder problem’ of the devil's fall is still a problem: a reply to Wood

Anselm of Canterbury on the fall of the devil: the hard problem, the harder problem, and a new formal model of the first sin

Adaptive Transformations: Nineteenth-Century Stage Adaptations of Nineteenth-Century Novels

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