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Document Details :

Title: God's Willing Knowledge, Redux
Author(s): LANGSTON, Douglas C.
Journal: Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales
Volume: 77    Issue: 2   Date: 2010   
Pages: 235-282
DOI: 10.2143/RTPM.77.2.2062478

Abstract :
God’s Willing Knowledge argued that Scotus should be seen as offering a non-libertarian view of freedom. Some critics of this interpretation point to Scotus’s texts that offer a synchronic view of possibility, which is seen as necessarily implying a libertarian view. Other critics point to the debt that Scotus owes to his libertarian predecessors and argue that Scotus follows their view. In order to address these critics, in the first section of the paper, some of the thinkers Scotus draws upon or reacts to in forming his views about freedom are examined. It turns out that Scotus’s non-libertarian view of freedom as it relates to divine omniscience is rather typical of medieval views. In the subsequent sections of the paper, Scotus’s texts are examined to show his non-libertarian views. Moreover, various criticisms offered against the argument of God’s Willing Knowledge are answered.

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