The aim of this volume is the same as that of The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy (CHLMP), to which it is a companion: to help make the activity of contemporary philosophy intellectually continuous with medieval philosophy. Direct acquaintance with medieval philosophical texts, or acquaintance as close to direct as translation from one language to another can provide, is crucial for this end. Philosophy is peculiarly resistant to summary. Even the best scholarly discourse about an Albert the Great or William of Ockham cannot provide the historical insight and incitement to further reflection that comes from reading the philosopher's own work. Our hope, then, is that this volume may both stimulate current philosophical discussion of normative issues and significantly broaden the understanding of earlier discussions.

Modern scholarship has recovered much that is philosophically illuminating from the Middle Ages. In particular, by focusing on late medieval problems and approaches that are intelligible from within the mind-set of Anglophone analytic philosophy, CHLMP has elicited increased engagement with medieval thought even from those who are not especially sympathetic to the period's dominant religious and metaphysical presuppositions. Yet at the same time as medieval thought has become more congenial to contemporary philosophers, doubts have been raised in various quarters about the intellectual and moral values of modernity and Enlightenment on the basis of which contemporary philosophy itself has developed.