Voluntarism and the Self in Medieval Literature

The voluntarist movement in later medieval philosophy accentuates the role of the will in human agency. A robust account of human freedom is tied to the indeterminacy of the will, and our character as moral agents is articulated in terms of the will's free choices. These philosophical developments are often said to manifest themselves in various works of fourteenth-century English literature. Here I explore what exactly voluntarism is and how it appears in the work of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland.