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Simple Necessity
In contrast to simple necessity, conditional necessity relies on some information beyond the nature of things. For example, it is not conditionally necessary that someone is walking because they are a human being, but if it is known than that person is walking, it is conditionally necessary that the person is walking. (The knowledge that they are walking is the condition that makes the statement necessary, because it is impossible for humans to know something that is not certain to be true.) Philosophy uses the concept of conditional necessity to explain why God’s foreknowledge of human events is compatible with humans having free will: God knows what people will decide to do, which makes these actions necessary only conditionally. Such actions are not simply necessary, and so have “no necessity in [their] own nature.” Therefore, people can still freely choose what to do, and their decisions are now conditionally necessary—necessary only because the person is, in fact, doing what they have decided to do. God can know about these actions because they are conditionally necessary, but this does not mean that people did not freely choose them.
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Conditional Necessity Term Timeline in The Consolation of Philosophy
The timeline below shows where the term Conditional Necessity appears in The Consolation of Philosophy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book V, Part VI
...two kinds of necessity: “simple” necessity, like the fact that people must be mortal, and “conditional” necessity , like “if you know someone is walking, it is necessary that [they are] walking”—even...
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So something’s place in Providence, or God’s plan for all things, is conditionally but not simply necessary, because although it will definitely happen, “it has no necessity in...
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