Boethius And The Consolation Of Philosophy Flashcards
? took up the problem of God’s omniscience and the effect it might have on our moral freedom, concerned about the judgement of God and whether it would be fair of Gods to praise or blame people if they didn’t have any real moral freedom and were constrained by what Gods knew about their future.
Boethius.
Boethius was worried about the problem of God’s omniscience, because it seemed on the surface that if God knows the future, then he’s wrong to reward us or punish us for our behaviour. Yet the Bible does teach about divine reward and punishment very clearly. Believing that he was likely to be facing God’s judgement in the near future. ? wanted to find a solution.
Boethius.
“How can God foreknow that these things will happen if they’re uncertain?”. God’s knowledge’s mistaken and can’t possibly be. If God knows that something might happen, it can hardly be called “?” and puts God in the position of being no wiser than we are. If God firmly knows things, they become inevitable. Things that at the moment seem fair become unfair.
Knowledge.
Boethius reaches the conclusion that he has made a mistake. He has forgotten that God can see things in a different way from the way in which we see them. Humans exist within time and because the future’s uncertain, humans have genuine ? ?
Free will.
When God’s knowing, he doesn’t have the same constraints in time that we have. God doesn’t have a past, present or future and so “his knowledge transcends all temporal change and abides in the immediacy of his presence”. God can look down on us “as though from a ? ?”. All events occur simultaneously for God, in his eternal presence.
Lofty peak.
Boethius thought it makes no sense to talk of what God should’ve known in the past or what God’ll come to know in the future. God doesn’t know what we’ll do in the future as there’s no future for God. All time happens in “?” for God. We have a genuine free choice and can be rewarded or punished with justice.
Simultaneity.
