Calculating Ethics in the Fourteenth Century explores an important moment in the history of medieval ethics when logic and physics intersected with ethics, blurring the boundary between the possible and the impossible, and making the impossible a favored territory. The book sheds light on the still understudied trend that germinated at Oxford in the 1330s.
The primary aim of this volume is to acquaint a wider audience with the varied dimensions of Calculatory ethics, spawned and cultivated by the Oxford Calculators and soon fleshed out further by philosophers at Oxford and on the Continent. By discussing an array of cases, methods, and concepts, the volume illuminates the rise of a novel and unified approach to calculating virtues, vices, the will, and its acts, which gave thrust to the development of late medieval theories of the will.
We wish to extend our warmest gratitude to the contributors to Calculating Ethics in the Fourteenth Century for their patience, determination, and dedication to our project.
We are deeply grateful to Patrycja Poniatowska, who read all the contributions with impressive accuracy, suggesting many improvements and making this book a smooth read.
While we are indebted to numerous people, a special, heartfelt thank-you goes to Wojtek and our families for their affection and invariable support.
We greatly appreciate the assistance and patience of the IMP editorial board and especially Marcella Mulder.
Edit Anna Lukács and Monika Michałowska
February 2024