Plantinga Free Will Defence Flashcards
what does plantingas FWD intend to do
1) prove that Mackie’s argument is unsound (‘a good being prevents all evil’)
2) offer a consistent proof (how can god exist and evil exist?)
What is the FWD
1) God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent
2) evil exists
3) God creates a world containing moral goodness
4) And, it is possible that all possible persons suffer from trans world depravity
5) hence it is consistent with Theism and gods attributes (goodness and power) to actualize a world in which there is evil
How to do a consistency proof (Plantinga)
Find proposition C which
(1) is consistent with A and,
(2) together with A implies B
(theism is true, evil exists)
What is proposition C in FWD
1) God creates a world containing moral goodness
2) And, it is possible that all possible persons suffer from trans world depravity
3) hence it is consistent with Theism and gods attributes (goodness and power) to actualize a world in which there is evil
moral goodness relies on the concept of trans world depravity
Two opposing views on freedom
incompatiblism: free will and determinism are incompatible
compatiblism: determinism and free will can coexist
an action cannot be free and compelled at the same time
what is determinism
determinism is the proposition that given the laws of nature and the state of the universe, only one future is possible
what are the two types of world building that incompatiblism leads to
weak actualization: if its a free action, god cannot be strongly actualized
strong actualization: god can set the stage. Creates people as free agents
strong vs weak actualization
strong: fully determine event
weak: placement of free being in event, lets being freely cause event
what is the assumption about goodness
moral goodness presupposes freedom. We cannot have goodness without freedom
you cannot praise someone who is not acting freely
what is trans world depravity
An agent is transworld depraved if in any possible world in which he is created, he freely performs at least one morally reprehensible action
even if god sets the stage perfectly for you to perform the action correctly, you still can perform the action wrong
no matter how the stage is set you will do at least one thing wrong
trans world sanctity
An agent is transworld sanctioned if in any possible world in which he is created, he freely performs all morally correct actions
what needs to be granted to grant the free will defence
1) incompatibalism about free will
2) moral goodness presupposes freedom
3) consistent with theism for god to create a world containing moral goodness
4) its possible that every possible person suffers from transworld depravity
what is the goal with the simple FWD
that theism is consistent with evil
expanded FWD
1) simple fwd
2) extend it to cover vast amount of evil
3) extending it to cover natural evil
what is incompatiblism
free will and determinism are incompatible
