The Philosophy Book

74

GOD FORSEES

OUR FREE THOUGHTS

AND ACTIONS

BOETHIUS (C.480–525 CE)

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Epistemology

APPROACH

Christian Platonism

BEFORE

c.350 BCE Aristotle outlines the

problems of claiming as true

any statement about the

outcome of a future event.

c.300 BCE Syrian philosopher

Iamblichus says that what can

be known depends upon the

knower’s capacity.

AFTER

c.1250–70 Thomas Aquinas

agrees with Boethius that God

exists outside of time, and so

is transcendent and beyond

human understanding.

c.1300 John Duns Scotus says

that human freedom rests on

God’s own freedom to act, and

that God knows our future, free

actions by knowing his own,

unchanging—but free—will.

T

he Roman philosopher

Boethius was trained in

the Platonist tradition of

philosophy, and was also a Christian.

He is famous for his solution to a

problem that predates Aristotle:

if God already knows what we are

going to do in the future, how can

we be said to have free will?

The best way to understand the

dilemma is to imagine a situation in

everyday life. For instance, this

afternoon I might go to the cinema,

or I might spend time writing. As it

turns out, I go to the cinema. That

being the case, it is true now (before

the event) that I will go the cinema

this afternoon. But if it is true now,

then it seems that I do not really have

the choice of spending the afternoon

writing. Aristotle was the first to

define this problem, but his answer

to it is not very clear; he seems to

have thought that a sentence such

God lives in the

eternal present.

God knows that I will

go to the cinema today.

I am free not to go

to the cinema today.

God knows the future

as if it were the present.

God foresees our free

thoughts and actions.