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The Weak Will as Cause in Acts of the Incontinent: A Response to Bonnie Kent
Author(s) -
Lendman Daniel
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
new blackfriars
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1741-2005
pISSN - 0028-4289
DOI - 10.1111/nbfr.12356
Subject(s) - passions , watson , action (physics) , philosophy , weakness , epistemology , principal (computer security) , psychoanalysis , psychology , medicine , surgery , physics , quantum mechanics , natural language processing , computer science , operating system
This article has three parts. The first two explore contemporary philosopher Bonnie Kent's important contributions to the role of the weakness of the will in actions of the morally incontinent in Thomas Aquinas treatment of human action. While Kent's treatment gives many important insights, nevertheless, she fails to recognize that the weakness of the will does in fact have role in the actions of the morally incontinent. Kent is correct that, for Aquinas, the passions cause the incontinent act to act as such. She fails, however, to recognize that the role of the passions does not exclude the weakness of the will as a cause, and even a principal cause. The third part takes up the criticisms of Gary Watson to which Kent's remarks were meant as a reply and shows that even with the causative role of the weak will, Aquinas' account does not fall prey to Watson's criticisms.