Libero arbitrio e responsabilità: anime umane e non umane nei Treatises di Cudworth

Abstract

Ralph Cudworth (1617-1688) is not a canonical author but was engaged in his own time discussions. In this paper I intend to offer a sketch of Cudworth’s conception of human mind and its relationship to freewill and responsibility in comparison to non-human animal case, because that would allow a different approach between human and non-human beings. In order to do that, I will look not only in his main book, The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678), but mostly in his posthumously published work, Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality (1731) and Treatise of Freewill (1838).