Synopses & Reviews
'Catharism was a popular medieval heresy based on the belief that the creation of humankind was a disaster in which angelic spirits were trapped in matter by the devil. Their only goal was to escape the body through purification. Cathars denied any value to material life, including the human
body, baptism, and the Eucharist, even marriage and childbirth. What could explain the long popularity of such a bleak faith in the towns of southern France and Italy?
Power and Purity explores the place of cathar heresy in the life of the medieval Italian town of Orvieto. Based on extensive archival research, it details the social makeup of the Cathar community and argues that the heresy was central to the social and political changes of the 13th century. The
late 13th-century repression of Catharism by a local inquisition was part of a larger redefinition of civic and ecclesiastical authority. Author Carol Lansing shows that the faith attracted not an alienated older nobility but artisans, merchants, popular political leaders, and indeed circles of
women in Orvieto as well as Florence and Bologna. Cathar beliefs were not so much a pessimistic anomaly as a part of a larger climate of religious doubt. The teachings on the body and the practice of Cathar holy persons addressed questions of sexual difference and the structure of authority that
were key elements of medieval Italian life. The pure lives of the Cathar holy people, both male and female, demonstrated a human capacity for self-restraint that served as a powerful social model in towns torn by violent conflict. This study addresses current debates about the rise of persecution,
and argues for a climate of popular toleration. Power and Purity will appeal to historians of society and politics as well as religion and gender studies.'
Review
"Excellent anthology!"--James Coley, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
"An excellent collection."--Susan Sauve, Harvard University
"Excellent--exactly what I need for my free will course."--George B. Thomas, University of Virginia
"Outstanding and much needed."--Don Garrett, University of Utah
"An excellent collection of recent work on the ever-perplexing issues of mechanism and free will."--Lynne Rudder Baker, Middlebury College
Synopsis
The new edition of this highly successful text will once again provide the ideal introduction to free will. This volume brings together some of the most influential contributions to the topic of free will during the past 50 years, as well as some notable recent work.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [455]-457) and index.
Table of Contents
Introduction,
Gary Watson1. Human Freedom and the Self, Roderick M. Chisholm
2. An Argument for Incompatibilism, Peter van Inwagen
3. Free Will, Praise and Blame, J.J.C Smart
4. Freedom and Resentment, Peter Strawson
5. Towards a Reasonable Libertarianism, David Wiggins
6. Are We Free to Break the Laws?, David Lewis
7. Freedom and Practical Reason, Hilary Bok
8. Alternative Possibilities and Moral Responsibility, Harry G. Frankfurt
9. Libertarianism and Frankfurt's Attack on the Principle of Alternative Possibilities, David Widerker
10. Frankfurt-Style Compatibilism, John Martin Fischer
11. The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility, Galen Strawson
12. Freedom, Thomas Nagel
13. Agent Causation, Timothy O'Connor
14. Toward a Credible Agent-Causal Account of Free Will, Randolph Clarke
15. Responsibility, Luck, and Chance: Reflections on Free Will and Indeterminism, Robert Kane
16. Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person, Harry G. Frankfurt
17. Free Agency, Gary Watson
18. The Significance of Choice, T.M. Scanlon
19. Sanity and the Metaphysics of Responsibility, Susan Wolf
20. Freedom in Belief and Desire, Philip Pettit and Michael Smith
21. Freedom of Will and Freedom of Action, Rogers Albritton
22. Addiction as Defect of the Will: Some Philosophical Reflections, R. Jay Wallace
Notes on the contributors
Selected bibliography
Index of names