Richard Kilvington’s Quaestiones super libros Ethicorum: A Critical Edition with an Introduction (Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, 121)

Book info: Richard Kilvington’s Quaestiones super libros Ethicorum: A Critical Edition with an Introduction (Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, 121) (Hardcover, 352 pages) – Brill, 2016. Language: English.

Among the commentaries on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics produced in the Middle Ages, that of Richard Kilvington is one of the most thought-provoking. Kilvington adopts a unique perspective of argumentation in which he applies concepts and terminology from the fields of logic and physics to ethical dilemmas. This unprecedented approach allows him to formulate original solutions to various ethical problems. He concentrates on the will, moral weakness, the relationship between the will and prudence, the change of virtues and vices, and the nature of ethical objects. The presented commentary is a valuable record of the philosophical debates at Oxford in the 14th century. Editorial Reviews Review ''Monika Michałowska has now edited Kilvington’s Quaestiones super libros Ethicorum,a series of lectures on Aristotelian ethics held at Oxford from 1324 to 1326,which survives in eleven manuscripts. In her introduction, she investigates and discusses the provenance of all manuscripts, whose interrelation is described with the help of two stemmata.Furthermore, she offers a short presentation of Kilvington’s life and career and describes the philosophical content of his work.Her editorial work is very careful and thorough, and it provides the reader with both a reliable philosophical text and a variety of slightly differing readings,which are recorded in the apparatus''.
Risto Saarinen, in Speculum 94/2 (2019). About the Author Monika Michałowska (Ph.D. 2007), is an Assistant Professor at Medical University of Łódź. Her research focuses on medieval ethics, theology and grammar from the ninth century to the late Middle Ages.