Foreknowledge Without Determinism
A number of philosophers and theologians have argued that if God has knowledge of future human actions then human agents cannot be free. This argument rests on the assumption that, since God is essentially omniscient, God cannot be wrong about what human agents will do. It is this assumption that I...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
Published: |
[2019]
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In: |
Sophia
Year: 2019, Volume: 58, Issue: 2, Pages: 103-113 |
IxTheo Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism FA Theology NBC Doctrine of God NBE Anthropology |
Further subjects: | B
Free Will
B Fatalism B Divine Foreknowledge B Divine Attributes |
Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) |
Summary: | A number of philosophers and theologians have argued that if God has knowledge of future human actions then human agents cannot be free. This argument rests on the assumption that, since God is essentially omniscient, God cannot be wrong about what human agents will do. It is this assumption that I challenge in this paper. My aim is to develop an interpretation of God's essential omniscience according to which God can be wrong even though God never is wrong. If this interpretation of essential omniscience is coherent, as I claim it is, then there is a logically consistent position according to which God is essentially omniscient, God foreknows what human agents will do, and yet it is possible for human agents to do otherwise. Thus, the argument for theological fatalism fails. |
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ISSN: | 1873-930X |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Sophia
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s11841-017-0623-8 |