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Foreknowledge
People’s capacity to make free, autonomous decisions about what to do, rather than being compelled to act by some external force. Philosophy and Boethius worry that human free will, which Philosophy considers a logical requirement of human reason, might contradict with God’s foreknowledge about what will happen in the universe. However, by explaining that human actions are conditionally necessary (because people have freely chosen them) and not simply necessary (or based on humans’ inherent nature), Philosophy is able to show that God’s foreknowledge and human free will can both exist.
Human Free Will Quotes in The Consolation of Philosophy
The The Consolation of Philosophy quotes below are all either spoken by Human Free Will or refer to Human Free Will. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book V, Part III
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The question is, therefore, how can God foreknow that these things will happen, if they are uncertain?
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Book V, Part IV
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Therefore, all those things which happen without happening of necessity are, before they happen, future events about to happen, but not about to happen of necessity. For just as the knowledge of present things imposes no necessity on what is happening, so foreknowledge imposes no necessity on what is going to happen.
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Book V, Part V
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In the same way, human reason refuses to believe that divine intelligence can see the future in any other way except that in which human reason has knowledge. This is how the argument runs: if anything does not seem to have any certain and predestined occurrence, it cannot be foreknown as a future event. Of such, therefore, there is no foreknowledge: and if we believe that even in this case there is foreknowledge, there will be nothing which does not happen of necessity. If, therefore, as beings who have a share of reason, we can judge of the mind of God, we should consider it most fitting for human reason to bow before divine wisdom, just as we judged it right for the senses and the imagination to yield to reason.
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Human Free Will Term Timeline in The Consolation of Philosophy
The timeline below shows where the term Human Free Will appears in The Consolation of Philosophy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book IV, Part II
Philosophy states that human action requires two things: free will , which spurs people to take actions, and power, which gives them the capacity to...
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Book V, Part II
Boethius asks Philosophy if she believes in “freedom of the will .” She says she does: it is necessary “for any rational nature to exist,” because...
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Book V, Part III
Boethius raises another doubt: isn’t there a contradiction between “God’s universal foreknowledge and freedom of the will ?” That is, if Providence has determined the future, how can people truly control their...
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Philosophy asks how there can be “such enmity” between God’s Providence and the human will . How can the mind, she sings, yearn “to learn the secret signs of truth”...
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Book V, Part IV
...of divine foreknowledge.” She starts by considering the stance that God’s foreknowledge might not constrain human free will , or even determine events in advance. This foreknowledge would count as “a sign” of...
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...of necessity—things that aren’t inevitable? This would resolve the apparent contradiction between God’s foreknowledge and human free will . But Philosophy notes that many people would take issue with this solution because, “unless...
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Book V, Part VI
...condition which is added” (the knower’s knowledge). So the person is walking “of [their] own free will ,” but because they are in fact walking, it is necessary that they are walking.
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...has no necessity in its own nature.” When God foresees “future events which happen of free will ,” like someone choosing to walk, He actually perceives them as happening in the present....
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...through “His own immediacy,” and not because of people’s decisions. Therefore, people still have their freedom of will and are responsible for their decisions, which means that God doles out punishment and reward...
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