Robert Grosseteste, Peter John Olivi and John Duns Scotus on Freedom of the Will

Duns Scotus’s claim that the will, both human and divine, has a capacity for opposites at a single instant has been seen as a turning point in the history of modality. But historians have discovered anticipations of Scotus’s position in Robert Grosseteste and Peter John Olivi. I argue that none of these three authors focuses on modality or has a new modal theory, but that the discussions do show the development of a new view about freedom of the will and what is required for it. The discussions also raise the question of whether immutability (the impossibility of changing) is sufficient for God’s simplicity, or whether it must also be impossible for God to be in any way otherwise, as Grosseteste, but not Scotus, holds.