ONTOLOGICAL AND VALUE INCOMENSURATION: MARILYN MCCORD ADAMS ON MEDIEVAL AND MODERN APPROACHES TO THEODICY MICHAEL AJAY CHANDRA DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 2007 TEST 002006 DECLARATION I declare this thesis has been composed by me, it represents my own research, and it has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. ~.A..~ Michael Ajay Chandra 1 April 2008 TEST 002008 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... vi ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................vii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. ix INTRODUCTION 1. Biographical Sketch ............................................................................................ 1 2. Outline of Adams’s Project on Theodicy ............................................................ 2 3. Status of Question ............................................................................................. 11 4. Outline of Thesis ............................................................................................... 12 5. Textual and Critical Approach .......................................................................... 14 PART I. METAPHYSICS: GOD AND EVIL CHAPTER 1: CONTEMPORARY THEODICY AND MEDIEVAL THEORIES OF DIVINE TRANSCENDENCE 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 24 2. A Preliminary Objection ................................................................................... 26 3. Medieval Metaphysics in Adams’s Theodicy (1987-2004) .............................. 27 4. Medieval Approaches to Modern Problems ...................................................... 38 5. A Second Objection .......................................................................................... 48 6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 56 CHAPTER 2: MEDIEVAL CONFLICT ON DIVINE TRANSCENDENCE: SCOTUS VERSUS AQUINAS 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 57 2. Problems with Adams’s Account ...................................................................... 59 3. Medieval Motivations for the Doctrine of Divine Simplicity ........................... 63 4. Scotus’s Criticism of Aquinas on Divine Simplicity ........................................ 65 5. Aquinas on Naming God ................................................................................... 71 6. Scotus versus Aquinas on Divine Infinity ......................................................... 94 7. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 105 iv CHAPTER 3: HORRENDOUS EVILS: TWO ACCOUNTS 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 109 2. Initial Distinctions: Overbalance/Defeat, Global/Individual .......................... 111 3. A Psychological Account ................................................................................ 114 4. A Parts-Whole Account .................................................................................. 117 5. Criticisms of Adams’s Two Accounts ............................................................ 122 6. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 129 PART II. VALUE THEORY CHAPTER 4: AUGUSTINE AND MORALIST VALUE THEORIES 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 132 2. Augustine’s Free Will Approach to Evil ........................................................ 134 3. Adams’s Criticisms of Augustine ................................................................... 137 4. Augustinian and Modern Moralities ............................................................... 150 5. Moral Responsibility ....................................................................................... 156 6. Evil’s Origin .................................................................................................... 173 7. Just Deserts ..................................................................................................... 182 8. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 187 CHAPTER 5: THE DEFEASIBILITY OF MORALITY: HUME AND THE FRANCISCAN ARISTOTELIANS 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 191 2. Metaphysical Misfits and Moral Pragmatism ................................................. 192 3. Hume on Justice .............................................................................................. 198 4. Scotus and Ockham on Morality’s Defeasibility ............................................ 206 5. Impaired Freedom and Franciscan Via Eminentia .......................................... 211 6. Participation and Moral Philosophy ................................................................ 213 7. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 231 CONCLUSION 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 233 2. Summary of Argument ................................................................................... 233 3. Medieval Lessons for Modern Thinkers ......................................................... 238 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................... 248 v TEST 002010 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The debts that I have incurred during the writing of this thesis are many. Many staff and students of the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, helped me during the last six years. In particular, my primary supervisor Nicholas S. Adams provided keen comments and showed patience and trust. He introduced me to the writings of the Cambridge theologians Rowan Williams, Gillian Evans, Nicholas Lash, and John Milbank. I learned much from my secondary supervisor Fergus Kerr about how to read Catholic theology and analytic philosophy profitably and together. Michael Northcott graciously invited me to present a draft of my chapter on horrendous evils at a Theology and Ethics Research Seminar in October 2004. Seminar participants provided valuable responses and questions. The School of Divinity Scholarship Committee made awards that supported this study between 2001 and 2004. I met with Marilyn Adams twice in the United Kingdom and once in Canada. My thanks to Theodore Scaltsas and the School of Philosophy, University of Edinburgh, who included me in an evening’s entertainment of Marilyn and Bob Adams in May 2004. Marilyn Adams met with me at Oxford University in July 2005 to discuss a chapter and the overall project, and she later read a submission copy of my thesis and provided comments through correspondence. She followed-up with me at the University of Toronto in March 2006. Professor Adams is exemplary in her hospitality, inquisitiveness, openness to disputation, and encouragement. I had several valuable exchanges about the early chapters of this thesis with Mark R. Talbot at Wheaton College and the Most Reverend Chrysostomos of Etna from the Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies. My thesis examiners, Oliver Davies and David Fergusson, pressed non-medieval counterpoints that I had not encountered. I am indebted to them for widening the range of readings of Adams that I now must consider and for their assistance in completing the thesis process. I am grateful to many friends who provided love, encouragement, meals, and humor during my four years of study. Among the closest are Catherene Babu and her family, Sean Doyle, Andrew and Henriette McFarlane, and Margaret Acton. The kind help of the McFarlanes, the Bartons, and the Promods, enabled me to complete this study. Through their generous prayers, financial support, and constant friendship, my parents Michael and Lynette Chandra made all these things possible. To them I owe a special thanks. vi TEST 002011 ABBREVIATIONS PRIMARY SOURCES Anselm CDH Cur Deus Homo De Casu Diab. De Casu Diaboli De Conc. Virg. De Conceptu Virginali Mon. Monologion Pros. Proslogion Aquinas De Malo De Malo Sent. Scriptum super Libros Sententiarum SCG Summa contra Gentiles ST Summa Theologiae Augustine De Doct. Chr. De Doctrina Christiana De Civ. Dei De Civitate Dei De Lib. Arb. De Libero Arbitrio De Trin. De Trinitate In Evan. Ioan. In Evangelium Ioannis Tractatus Retr. Retractionum Libri Duo Calvin Inst. Christianae Religionis Institutio Duns Scotus De Prim. Prin. De Primo Principio Lect. Lectura In Metaph. Quaestiones super Libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis Ord. Ordinatio Rep. 1A Reportatio Parisiensis 1A Hume Treatise A Treatise of Human Nature Enquiry An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals Julian of Norwich Shew. Shewings of Divine Love William Ockham Ord. Ordinatio vii TEST 002012 VERSIONS AND TRANSLATIONS Beauchamp 1998 Hume, David. 1998. An enquiry concerning the principles of morals. Oxford Philosophical Texts. Edited by Tom L. Beauchamp. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Frank