{"id":127,"date":"2006-10-05T19:49:24","date_gmt":"2006-10-05T19:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summametaphysica.com\/ge\/90010-contraction-of-divine-consciousness\/90013-dynamics-of-conflict-resolution\/90013c-divine-foreknowledge\/"},"modified":"2018-04-23T21:12:31","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T21:12:31","slug":"90013c-divine-foreknowledge","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.summametaphysica.com\/ge\/90010-contraction-of-divine-consciousness\/90013-dynamics-of-conflict-resolution\/90013c-divine-foreknowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"900.13c Divine Foreknowledge (pps.136-138)"},"content":{"rendered":"

hard cover page 136<\/p>\n

Divine knowledge has been viewed as being in conflict with human freedom.530<\/sup> Most Jewish medieval philosophers, including Saadia, Maimonides, Ibn Daud, and Gersonides. specifically sought to delimit God’s foreknowledge in one way or another to safeguard man’s freedom. Aristotle had maintained that in general God does not know particulars. Ibn Daud and Gersonides as well as Thomas Aquinas were specifically concerned with Divine fore knowledge, which all three severely circumscribed with regard to “contingent particulars” (particular events which are contingent on other events\/decisions\/actions) to protect man’s freedom.<\/p>\n

Ibn Daud wrote:<\/p>\n

That it [would be] vanity for a man to plough and to build buildings and to plant plants and to subjugate beasts and to increase acts of mercy and to choose weapons with which to fight, since what will happen already is decreed. Similarly it [would be] vanity to worship God, may He be exalted, since prosperity or its opposite is already decreed. The matter is clear that the truth is the opposite of this.531<\/sup><\/p>\n

Ibn Daud perceives a contradiction between absolute freedom of the will and God’s foreknowledge. It is inconceivable that a just God would punish man if he were not master of his own actions. Therefore, man must be free. Ibn Daud maintains, however, that this entails a significant modification of the notion of divine omniscience. If a man is free, and if freedom and foreknowledge are incompatible, it must follow that God does not have prior knowledge of man’s choices. Nevertheless, argues Ibn Daud, this in no way constitutes an imperfection in the nature of God. If a contingent action is truly contingent, he contends, it cannot be known in advance.
\n-Bleich532<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Anthony Kenny critiques Aquinas’s philosophy which simultaneously attempts to maintain man’s freedom, Divine foreknowledge. and Providence:<\/p>\n

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530 <\/sup>See Spero, Morality, Halakha and the Jewish Tradition,<\/em> p. 247, who believes that delimiting foreknowledge minimizes the problem: “Eliminate the time factor and you seem to eliminate the problem.” Actually, limiting foreknowledge alone, and leaving here-and-now knowledge, does not sufficiently minimize the problem. But Spero’s general proposition (just quoted) is an essential truth.<\/p>\n

531 <\/sup>Ibn Daud, Emunah Ramah,<\/em> Basic Principle 6, chap. 2, in Bleich. With Perfect Faith,<\/em> p. 421.<\/p>\n

532 <\/sup>Ibid., p. 416.
\nCf. ibid., p. 417. “Gersonides resolves the matter in a similar, but somewhat different, manner. He argues with Ibn Daud that man is free and that God’s knowledge is limited in a certain sense. God has absolute knowledge of universals, which are eternal and not subject to change. God’s knowledge of particulars is somewhat different. He knows them in one sense but does not know them in another. …God knows particulars insofar as they are ordered, but He does not know them insofar as they are contingent upon human choice. God knows them only to the extent that they are ordered by nature. This is not an imperfection in the nature of God because He knows the contingent in its true nature.”
\nCf. ibid., p. 417. “Crescas adopts precisely the opposite position. Confronted, as were Ibn Daud and Gersonides, with what he perceived to be a contradiction between divine omniscience and human freedom, Crescas was prepared to sacrifice the notion of human freedom in order to affirm God’s omniscience.” Cf. Encyclopaedia jdaica,<\/em> s.v. “Ibn Daud. Abraham ben David Halevi.”<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 137<\/p>\n

Accordingly, just as there is a problem how God’s foreknowledge may be reconciled with human freedom, so also there is a problem how human freedom may be reconciled with God’s providence.533<\/sup><\/p>\n

Therefore, either God cannot know what I shall do tomorrow, or else whatever I shall do tomorrow will not be done freely.
\n-Kenny on Aquinas534<\/sup><\/p>\n

The prophet said of Him: “He will be silent in His love” (Zephaniah 3:17). The very silence of God in history is due to His concern with man.
\n-Berkovits535<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, the problem with total a priori<\/em> Divine omniscience is not, as is widely posited, that it a priori <\/em>proscribes human free choice by virtue of the fact that the knowledge of God is immutable. For one can posit that it is theoretically possible, given complete data, including knowledge of thought patterns, for a Deity to know a contingent future. The fact that the Deity knows I will choose to jump off a cliff does not force me to jump off the cliff. If I do not jump off the cliff, the Deity’s foreknowledge would simply be different.<\/p>\n

The problem with foreknowledge is rather that a merciful and omnipotent Deity would be compelled to tamper with history to ameliorate evil at a given threshold. The possibility of intercession by the Deity thus (1) throws off the initial calculation of foreknowledge-since it is conditional on God’s nonintervention; (2) limits man’s freedom to commit evil; (3) increases man’s dependence; and (4) lowers man’s potential. Freedom to act only within the framework of non-gross evil limits man’s freedom. Yet gross evil does exist, implying significantly delimited Divine foreknowledge of particulars, if we are to simultaneously preserve the concepts of man’s freedom and God’s omnipotence.<\/p>\n

Thus, while we might concede foreknowledge of a general ultimate denouement, somewhat in parallel to Saadia Gaon,536 <\/sup>we are certainly averse to the concept of a willed foreknowledge of anything more particular.<\/p>\n

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533 <\/sup>Kenny, Aquinas: A Collection of Critical Essays,<\/em> p. 256<\/p>\n

534 <\/sup>Ibid.. p. 257.
\nCf. Aquinas, Summa Tfzeologiae, la 14, 3, 3. “Aquinas’ statement of the difficulty is as follows: ‘Whatever is known by God must be; for whatever is known by us must be, and God’s knowledge is more certain than ours. But nothing which is future and contingent must be. Therefore, nothing which is future and contingent is known by God.’ ” Cited in Kenny, Aquinas,<\/em> p. 258.<\/p>\n

535 <\/sup>Berkovits, God, Man and History,<\/em> p. 146.<\/p>\n

536 <\/sup>See also Saadia Gaon, Opinions and Beliefs<\/em> 4:4. “What God foreknows is the final denouement of man’s activity after it turns out after all his planning, anticipation, and delays.”<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 138<\/p>\n

Our basic thrust with regard to foreknowledge would find parallels in Abraham ibn Daud’s Emunah Ramah<\/em>537<\/sup> <\/sup>and in Gersonides’ Milchamoth Hashem.<\/em>538<\/sup><\/p>\n

The concept of Divine foreknowledge of particulars would seem in direct contradiction to numerous scriptural narratives. In numerous places Israel is told that if it hearkens to God’s word it will be blessed, and if it strays from God’s word it will suffer.539<\/sup> What is the point of this conditional phraseology if there is Divine foreknowledge of the particulars of Israel’s future actions? One must go through logical somersaults, not only to reconcile human freedom with Divine foreknowledge, but in the attempt to reconcile the clear intent of scriptural text itself.<\/p>\n

The “Hester<\/em> minimalists” (who retain essentially complete Divine surveillance even during Hester<\/em>) can more easily posit Divine foreknowledge, as foreknowledge does not directly contradict the implications of their minimalist definition of Hester, but face formidable and hitherto unassailable barriers to erecting a satisfactory theodicy. The “Hester<\/em> maximalists” (who posit a complete blockage of Divine surveillance during Hester<\/em>) are in an opposite situation, and face the manifold additional problems regarding Divine omniscience, judgment, and reward and punishment noted previously.<\/p>\n

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537 <\/sup>See Emunah Ramh<\/em> pt. I I, Basic Principle 6, chap. 2. According to the author, since man is free, and free to choose, those events which are the result of man’s freedom of choice are not, in fact, known beforehand by God. For, according to Ibn Daud, that would obviate the free choice.<\/p>\n

538 <\/sup>Wars of the Lord, 111, chaps. 1-6, similarly argues that God does not know the contingent. “But He does not know which of the two possible alternatives will be actualized from the point of view that they are contingents. NOTES PART TWO The reason for this is that if it were so, there could be no contingency in this world at all.” (chapter 4) Note that Saadia, Abraham ibn Daud, and Gersonides would seem to be in disagreement with Akiva as cited in Mishnah Avoth 3:19: “Everything is foreseen, yer freedom of choice is given.”<\/p>\n

539 <\/sup>See, for example, Leviticus 26 (in Parshat Bechokotai<\/em>) and Deuteronomy 28 (in Parshat Ki-Tavo<\/em>).<\/p>\n

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hard cover page 136 Divine knowledge has been viewed as being in conflict with human freedom.530 Most Jewish medieval philosophers, including Saadia, Maimonides, Ibn Daud, and Gersonides. specifically sought to delimit God’s foreknowledge in one way or another to safeguard man’s freedom. Aristotle had maintained that in general God does not know particulars. 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