Moral Dilemmas in Medieval Thought From Gratian to Aquinas

This book offers a rich and fascinating overview of medieval debates on moral dilemmas.

The history of moral dilemma theory often ignores the medieval period, overlooking the sophisticated theorizing by several thinkers who debated the existence of moral dilemmas from 1150 to 1450. In this book Michael V. Dougherty offers a rich and fascinating overview of the debates which were pursued by medieval philosophers, theologians and canon lawyers, illustrating his discussion with a diverse range of examples of the moral dilemmas which they considered. He shows that much of what seems particular to twentieth-century moral theory was well-known long ago - especially the view of some medieval thinkers that some forms of wrongdoing are inescapable, and their emphasis on the principle 'choose the lesser of two evils'. His book will be valuable not only to advanced students and specialists of medieval thought, but also to those interested in the history of ethics.

Preface; Introduction; 1. Gratian and his Glossators on conflicts in the natural law; 2. Twenty moral dilemmas from two early 13th-century summaries of theology: William of Auxerre's Summa aurea and the Franciscan Summa Halesiana; 3. Raymond Lull and moral ensnarement in the Vita coaetanea; 4. Thomas Aquinas, moral dilemmas, and a missing article from Quodlibet XII; 5. Thomas Aquinas on failures of practical reasoning: why synderesis doesn't inoculate agents against malformed conscience dilemmas; 6. Moral dilemmas in the early Thomistic tradition: Johannes Capreolus and the deceiving demon dilemma; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

This book offers a rich and fascinating overview of medieval debates on moral dilemmas which were pursued by philosophers, theologians and canon lawyers. It will be valuable not only to advanced students and specialists of medieval thought, but also to those interested in the history of ethics.

M. V. Dougherty is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Ohio Dominican University. He is the editor of Pico della Mirandola: New Essays (Cambridge University Press, 2008).