Aquinas and Scotus: Free will, teleological ethics and deontic logic

Simo Knuuttila suggests in "The Emergence of Deontic Logic in the Fourteenth Century" that the acceptance of a voluntarist account of will led to the rejection of teleological ethics which paved the way for the development of deontic logic. I argue that Knuuttila's account rests on a misrepresentation of the positions of Aquinas and Scotus. Chapter One provides an introduction to medieval considerations of deontic logic and Knuuttila's account. Chapters Two and Three give an exposition of Aquinas's and Scotus's accounts of the will and contrast them. I conclude that the differences in their views of the will are motivated by Scotus's prior opposition to teleological ethics, rather than changes in the understanding of the will motivating opposition to teleological ethics. Chapter Four argues that it is in part continuing commitment to the intellect's role in free choice that underpins the fourteenth century interest in deontic logic.