5 views:
- compatibilist view
- 1 - we can have free will even when God knows exactly everything you will do. or the natural world is deterministic
- however, this changes the meaning of freedom - if we cant do otherwise than what was predetermined we are not free
- Libertarianism holds onto a concept of free will that requires the agent to be able to take more than one possible course of action under a given set of circumstances
- the next four are the incompatibilist views
- problem with God’s ability to determine the future if we are truly free
- 2 - God is outside time. His knowledge of what happens within is contemporaneous. He knows everything past to future at one instant. Inside time, he doesn’t literally know what will happen in the future (He knows everything up to the present)s
- where God is inside time:
- simple foreknowledge - God can see the possible outcomes. but has no part in causing it to happen
- open view - the future is open, there are no truths in what you will do tomorrow
- there is a fundamental asymmetry between past and future:
- past is fixed and known
- future is not fixed (there is no truth)
- there is a fundamental asymmetry between past and future:
- molinism - middle knowledge
- 3 components in God’s knowledge:
- god knows everything that is true (knows everything that happened)
- god knows everything that is necessary (1+1=2)
- middle knowledge - falls between the other two. God knows what every free creature would do in every given situation
- 3 components in God’s knowledge: