Abstract
In his comprehensive treatise On Human Beings, Albert the Great discusses a large number of questions centring on the nature of humans. A fundamental question in this context is in what sense humans are unique. Therefore, Albert also raises various questions concerning the features and capacities of nonhuman animals. One of the features that Albert examines is what is commonly called ‘free choice’ (liberum arbitrium). His answer to the question of whether only humans or also nonhuman animals possess free choice focuses on various components of volition, namely, free appetite, free judgment, and free choice. For in order to choose something one needs to desire or to have an appetite for it. This, in turn, requires a judgment about what is desirable or not. Moreover, this appetite and this judgment must not be determined, because otherwise it could not be said that one has freely or voluntarily chosen something. Although Albert’s answer to the question of whether nonhuman animals possess free will is negative, it is illuminating insofar as it scrutinises the assumptions lying behind an ascription of free choice to an animal.
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Notes
- 1.
On this problem, see, for instance, Korolec (1982), 630.
- 2.
Bernard of Clairvaux, De gratia et libero arbitrio VI.16, ed. Leclercq & Rochais (1963), 177f.
- 3.
Albert the Great, De homine, eds. Anzulewicz & Söder (2008), 487.
- 4.
Aristotle, Metaphysica I.1, 982b25f.
- 5.
I.e. at the beginning of the first paragraph.
- 6.
The editors of the Latin edition provide a list of people to whom Albert might refer in this passage; see Albert the Great, De homine, eds. Anzulewicz & Söder (2008), 507.
- 7.
Unlike in other passages, the term ‘arbitrium’ is translated with ‘decision’ instead of ‘choice’ to make the phrase less tautological.
- 8.
This definition actually appears in Peter Lombard’s Sententiae in IV libris distinctae, b. II, dist. 24, ch. 3, ed. Brady (1971), 452, but was commonly (mis)attributed to Augustine.
- 9.
Aristotle, De anima III.9, 433a7f.
- 10.
John of Damascus, De fide orthodoxa, c. 41 ( = II.27), ed. Buytaert (1955), 153.
- 11.
A list of possible references, including Augustine, John of Damascus, and Avicenna, is provided by the editors of the Latin text; see Albert the Great, De homine, eds. Anzulewicz & Söder (2008), 508.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
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Secondary Sources
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Oelze, A. (2021). Free Choice, Free Judgment, and Free Appetite (Albert the Great, De homine I). In: Animal Minds in Medieval Latin Philosophy. Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67012-2_21
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