Theological Fatalism
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The argument from free will, also called the paradox of free will or theological fatalism, contends that
omniscience Omniscience is the property of possessing maximal knowledge. In Hinduism, Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, it is often attributed to a divine being or an all-knowing spirit, entity or person. In Jainism, omniscience is an attribute that any ...
and
free will Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...
are incompatible and that any conception of
God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
that incorporates both properties is therefore inconceivable. See the various controversies over claims of God's omniscience, in particular the critical notion of foreknowledge.''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''
Foreknowledge and Free Will
/ref> These arguments are deeply concerned with the implications of predestination.


Omniscience and free will

Some arguments against the
existence of God The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and theology. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the exis ...
focus on the supposed incoherence of humankind possessing
free will Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...
and God's
omniscience Omniscience is the property of possessing maximal knowledge. In Hinduism, Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, it is often attributed to a divine being or an all-knowing spirit, entity or person. In Jainism, omniscience is an attribute that any ...
. These arguments are deeply concerned with the implications of predestination. Noted Jewish philosopher
Moses Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle A ...
described the conflict between divine omnipotence and his creation's person's free will, in traditional terms of good and evil actions, as follows: A "standard Anglican" theologian gave a similar description of Christian revelation: A logical formulation of this argument might go as follows: # God knows choice "C" that a human would claim to "make freely". # It is now necessary that C. # If it is now necessary that C, then C cannot be otherwise (this is the definition of “necessary”). That is, there are no actual "possibilities" due to predestination. # If you cannot do otherwise when you act, you do not act freely (Principle of Alternate Possibilities) # Therefore, when you do an act, you will not do it freely. Norman Swartz, however, contends that the above arguments commit the modal fallacy. In particular, he asserts that these arguments assume that if C is true, it becomes necessary for C to be true, which is incorrect as C is contingent (see
modal logic Modal logic is a kind of logic used to represent statements about Modality (natural language), necessity and possibility. In philosophy and related fields it is used as a tool for understanding concepts such as knowledge, obligation, and causality ...
). Otherwise, one can argue that the future is set already regardless of his actions. Other means of reconciling God's omniscience with human free will have been proposed. Some have attempted to redefine or reconceptualize free will: * God can know in advance what I will do, because free will is to be understood only as freedom from
coercion Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to i ...
, and anything further is an illusion. This is the move made by compatibilistic philosophies. * The sovereignty (autonomy) of God, existing within a free agent, provides strong inner compulsions toward a course of action (calling), and the power of choice (election). The actions of a human are thus determined by a human acting on relatively strong or weak urges (both from God and the environment around them) and their own relative power to choose. A proposition first offered by
Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480–524 AD), was a Roman Roman Senate, senator, Roman consul, consul, ''magister officiorum'', polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middl ...
and later by
Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
See also '' Divine Providence'' versus the concept of Fate and
C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...
, suggests that God's perception of time is different, and that this is relevant to our understanding of our own free will. In his book '' Mere Christianity'', Lewis argues that God is actually outside time and therefore does not "foresee" events, but rather simply observes them all at once. He explains: A common objection is to argue that Molinism, or the belief that God can know counterfactually the actions of his creations, is true. This has been used as an argument by
Alvin Plantinga Alvin Carl Plantinga (born November 15, 1932) is an American analytic philosophy, analytic philosopher who works primarily in the fields of philosophy of religion, epistemology (particularly on issues involving theory of justification, epistemic ...
and
William Lane Craig William Lane Craig (; born August 23, 1949) is an American Analytic philosophy, analytic philosopher, Christian apologetics, Christian apologist, author, and theologian. He is a professor of philosophy at Houston Christian University and at the T ...
, amongst others.


Free will argument for the nonexistence of God

Dan Barker suggests that this can lead to a "Free will Argument for the Nonexistence of God" on the grounds that God's omniscience is incompatible with God having free will and that if God does not have free will, God is not a personal being. Theists generally agree that God is a personal being and that God is omniscient,see e.g. Richard Swinburne ''Does God Exist?'' of ''The Catechism of the Catholic Church'' but there is some disagreement about whether "omniscient" means: # "knows everything that God chooses to know and that is logically possible to know"; or instead the slightly stronger: # "knows everything that is logically possible to know"see e.g. John Polkinghorne These two terms are known as ''inherent'' and ''total'' omniscience, respectively.


See also

* *
Determinism Determinism is the Metaphysics, metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes ov ...
*
List of paradoxes This list includes well known paradoxes, grouped thematically. The grouping is approximate, as paradoxes may fit into more than one category. This list collects only scenarios that have been called a paradox by at least one source and have their ...
* Molinism


Notes


References


Further reading

* Thomas Aquinas. ''Summa Contra Gentiles'' * Thomas Aquinas. ''Summa Theologica'' I, Q. XIV, esp. Art. 13: "Whether the Knowledge of God is of Future Contingent Things?". * Boethius. ''The Consolation of Philosophy''. Many editions. * Hasker, William. ''God, Time, and Foreknowledge". Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. * Molina, Luis de. ''On Divine Foreknowledge'', trans. Alfred J. Freddoso. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988. * Plantinga, Alvin. "On Ockham's Way Out". ''Faith and Philosophy'' 3 (3): 235–269. * Ockham, William. ''Predestination, God's Foreknowledge, and Future Contingents'', trans. M.M. Adams and N. Kretzmann. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1983. * Zagzebski, Linda. "The Dilemma of Freedom an Foreknowledge". New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. * Luther, Martin: ''De servo arbitrio'', in English: '' On the Bondage of the Will''. In Latin and German 1525, in modern English: J.I. Packer and O. R. Johnston, trans. Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1957.


External links


Foreknowledge and Free Will
article in the ''
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia with around 900 articles about philosophy, philosophers, and related topics. The IEP publishes only peer review, peer-reviewed and blind-refereed original p ...
''
Omniscience and Divine Foreknowledge
article in the ''
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia with around 900 articles about philosophy, philosophers, and related topics. The IEP publishes only peer review, peer-reviewed and blind-refereed original p ...
''
The Paradox of Free will
– An online discussion

{{DEFAULTSORT:Argument From Free Will Free will, argument from Free will Philosophical paradoxes