Freedom in the thought of the School of Salamanca

Bibliogr. s. 110

The article aims to provide an introduction to the understanding of the notion of freedom in the School of Salamanca. This school was active in Spain in sixteenth and seventeenth century. The major figures of the school include Francisco de Vitoria, Domingo de Soto, Martin de Azpilcueta, Francisco de Suárez. Though their members were Dominican or Jesuit theologians, the School of Salamanca has an immense significance not only for theology, but also for political theory. The essay sheds light on one of the important aspects of the school's thought, i.e. the problem of human freedom. The proper understanding of it presupposes acknowledging the profound difference between our contemporary notion of freedom which is based on the moral agent's free activity and the notion of freedom developed within the school which conceives the moral agent in its relation to the species nature, i.e. the human nature, as well as in its relation to the Divine grace.