Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site wucs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!mgnetp!we53!busch!wuphys!wucs!esk From: esk@wucs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.philosophy Subject: moRE Omniscience and Freedom Message-ID: <392@wucs.UUCP> Date: Wed, 3-Oct-84 14:49:29 EDT Article-I.D.: wucs.392 Posted: Wed Oct 3 14:49:29 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 5-Oct-84 04:35:24 EDT Distribution: net Organization: Washington U. in St. Louis, CS Dept. Lines: 34 [] To be sure, having the power to decide to act in a particular way and not another is a manifestation of freedom, not of unfreedom. However, it seems to me that our freedom is located in that moment of decision: to the extent that we have made an irrevocable decision, we are the servants of our past resolve. There can be no time at which an omniscient being makes a decision, because otherwise previously he would not know what his future action would be. Bob Renninger hou2a!54375rr An omniscient being could make a decision continuously. After all, few decisions are made only once: for example, I decide today to go to class tomorrow, but something comes up and tomorrow I change my mind. The omniscient being knows beforehand what it will decide at the moment when the decision becomes irrevocable, because it knows what the grounds are on which that decision will be based. If the omniscient being has a certain minimum of rationality, it will never do what I do and change its mind, because it always (at least ever since it has been omniscient) knows what the relevant facts are and what decision they justify. Therefore, each time the being remakes its decision, it confirms the original one. (Then why remake the decision? Well, if the omniscient being is also omnipotent, it can afford to, because it has plenty of time and energy.) Far from being unfree, such a being seems to me to be perfectly free. By the way, I agree that God must exist in time or at least "meta-time". However, I do not see how this creates any logical difficulties. Paul V Torek, ihnp4!wucs!wucec1!pvt1047 Please send any mail directly to this address, not the sender's. Thanks.