Abstract

VASCONCELLOS, Manoel Luís Cardoso. Free will and moral rectitude: a reflection about Saint Anselm’s on the devil’s fall. Conjectura: filos. e Educ. [online]. 2016, vol.21, n.3, pp.645-658. ISSN 2178-4612.  https://doi.org/10.18226/21784612.v21.n3.10.

Moral rectitude, understood as the practice of justice, is a theme that runs through the trilogy written by St. Anselm (1033-1109), to which the treatises De Veritate, De libertate arbitrii and De casu diaboli belong. This paper aims to highlight the thoroughly critical role of free will so as one can act in accordance with justice. The analysis of some passages, especially the treaty on fallen angels, will lead to the conclusion that even though the will is a gift, the rational creature, by the free manifestation of his will, is able to be absolutely free of constraints, being the protagonist of his own moral actions. True freedom is not doing what we want. The will is truly free when we do what we must.

Keywords : Will; Freedom; Righteousness.

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