Landolfo Caracciolo, Peter Auriol, and John Duns Scotus on Freedom and Contingency

the present paper offers the first edition ever of one of Caracciolo’s main text on human free will (I Sent., d. 1, p. 3, q. 4), and a doctrinal analysis of Caracciolo’s view of the relationship between freedom, on the one hand, and necessity and contingency, on the other. for a better understanding of Caracciolo’s thought, his position is compared with those of duns scotus and Peter Auriol, the most innovative thinkers of the period on the subject of free will. the position of Caracciolo, who identifies freedom and contingency, confirms the tendency of early-fourteenth-century theologians to simplify Scotus’ doctrine, which in fact distinguishes freedom (intrinsic characteristic of the power) from contingency (mode of acting); Caracciolo’s view foreshadows the extremely sophisticated solution developed a few years later by Francis of Marchia.