MILTON AND DANTE ON FREE WILL, WITH REFERENCES TO THEIR HUNGARIAN RECEPTION

Abstract

In the present paper the author intends to analyze the concept of free will in John Milton’s thought, in particular in his Paradise Lost, and to compare it with Dante Alighieri’s theory on free will, arguing also in favor of the thesis according to which Paradise Lost can be considered an early-modern version of Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, taking in account also the fact that Milton was a Dante-scholar and his main work was deeply inspired by Dante’s Comedy. In connection to Milton’s work are analyzed – among other elements – his animist materialism, his special monism, his relation to Hobbes, and his antitrinitarianism, as foundations of his idea on free will. In connection to Dante’s work the author tries to give an insight to his peculiar dualism, to his ideas on free will as expressed in the Comedy and in the Monarchia. Some aspects of the Hungarian reception of Milton and of Dante are also presented. In the elaboration of his own arguments the author uses the works of some highly ranked scholars.