La volonté de croire au Moyen Âge

• Scholastic Philosophy (c. 1100-1500)
• Religious Philosophy
• Scholastic Theology (c. 1200-1500)

« Nicolas Faucher propose une étude novatrice et méritante, nourrie d’interrogations contemporaines, sur un sujet fort complexe. » (Jean-Marc Goglin, La Cliothèque, février 2020)

"Medieval discussions of faith might not, on their face, look like the most fertile territory for fresh topics of philosophical reflection, but Nicolas Faucher proves in this volume just how much we still have to learn from this material. [...] Combining an encyclopedic knowledge of the texts with an understanding of the current debate in analytic philosophy, he shows how diverse and resourceful medieval discussions of this topic were." (R. Pasnau, Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy, 8; 2020, p. 278-279)

"What makes Faucher’s subtle and detailed study so fascinating is the rich variety of theories he documents. […] Faucher does an excellent job in analyzing and explaining them on a solid textual basis, and he pays attention to sources (e.g., texts by Alexander of Hales and Godfrey of Fontaines) that are often neglected. […] Faucher’s rich and well-documented study gives rise to fundamental questions. It shows that medieval accounts of the structure and justification of religious beliefs deserve close analysis. This original book will be indispensable reading for every philosopher interested in the ethics of belief." (D. Perler, dans Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales, 87/2, 2020, p. 471-475)

« Ce grand travail, qui interroge les différents moyens d’accès humain à une vérité indiscutable en matière de foi, offre aussi de belles perspectives de réflexion, depuis le Moyen Âge, pour notre contexte moderne, sur la place des religions, niée ou exacerbée, et la valeur de leurs croyances. » (Alice Lamy, dans Le Moyen Âge, 2, 2021, p. 468-469)

"This excellent book provides a novel analysis of medieval theories of faith, using as its conceptual basis the notion of doxastic voluntarism: the thought that belief is in some sense in our power to choose. This notion fits very neatly with medieval accounts, since, other than in cases in which the intellect’s assent is compelled (for example, by necessary truths), the medieval philosophers all maintained that assent to a given proposition— paradigmatically the supernatural claims of Catholic Christianity, the principal interest of tthe earliest thinkers in Nicolas Faucher’s account—was in some sense voluntary. Indeed, one thing that the book illustrates very nicely is the way in which problems that begin in the early thirteenth century as fundamentally theological in nature become progressively more general and philosophical in character by the beginning of the fourteenth.[...] there are various issues closely related to the topic of Faucher’s study that would repay further study in light of his conclusions [...]. Still, that this book might (and I hope will) inspire further study is a mark of its quality rather than the opposite." (R. Cross, in Journal of the History of Philosophy 60/2, pp. 338-340)

"The monograph, which references the most cutting-edge scholarship, is an impressive, noteworthy, and important contribution to the study of medieval philosophy in general and to the highly complex discussion of the thirteenth century at the University of Paris in particular. With commendable clarity, Faucher articulates the intricate issues of epistemology, the psychology of cognition, and the interaction between intellect andwill, all set within the complex discussion of nature and grace. [...] The discourse that Faucher explores and so ably reconstructs is one that unquestionably reaches a point of profound and even paradigmatic articulation among the authors discussed [...]. Would that contemporary theology might return to the theory of faith and regain some of the perspicuity and depth of its thirteenth-century ancestry. Faucher’s excellent monograph is an opportune starting point for such a recovery of what is in its fullness nothing less than a theology of faith." R. Hütter, in Speculum 97/3, pp. 828-829)

“This excellent book provides a novel analysis of medieval theories of faith, using as its conceptual basis the notion of doxastic voluntarism: the thought that belief is in some  sense in our power to choose.” (Richard Cross, in The Journal of the History of Philosophy, 60/2, 2022, p. 338-39)

« Le livre, indéniablement, se situe au cœur d’une tendance éditoriale actuelle concernant un sujet central, the Ethics of Belief. En ce sens, elle apporte une contribution décisive par ses conclusions autour du désenchantement à la manière gauchétienne de la philosophie du croire. » (Bénédicte Sère, dans Cahiers de civilisation médiévale n°262, April-June 2023, p. 198)

Nicolas Faucher est chercheur au Centre of Excellence in Reason and Religious Recognition de l'Académie de Finlande. Il est l'auteur et l'éditeur de plusieurs livres et articles scientifiques portant sur l'histoire de la philosophie médiévale, avec un intérêt particulier pour la philosophie de la religion, l'épistémologie et la philosophie de l'esprit.