Freedom, Fatalism, and Foreknowledge [Paperback]

We typically think we have free will. But how could we have free will, if for anything we do, it was already true in the distant past that we would do that thing? Or how could we have free will, if God already knows in advance all the details of our lives? Such issues raise the specter of fatalism . This book collects sixteen previously published articles on fatalism, truths about the future, and the relationship between divine foreknowledge and human freedom, and includes a substantial introductory essay and bibliography. Many of the pieces collected here build bridges between discussions of human freedom and recent developments in other areas of metaphysics, such as philosophy of time. Ideal for courses in free will, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion,Freedom, Fatalism, and Foreknowledgewill encourage important new directions in thinking about free will, time, and truth.

I. Preface

II. IntroductionPatrick Todd and John Martin Fischer

III. The arguments for fatalism

Richard Taylor, Fate
Peter Van Inwagen, Fatalism
Trenton Merricks, Truth and Freedom
John Martin Fischer and Patrick Todd, The Truth about Freedom: A Reply to Merricks
Penelope Mackie, Fatalism, Incompatibilism, and the Power to Do Otherwise
Michael Rea, Presentism and Fatalism
John Perry, Compatibilist Options

IV. The problem of foreknowledge

Linda Zagzebski, Omniscience and the Arrow of Time
David Widerker, Troubles With Ockhamism
Alicia Finch and Michael Rea, Presentism and Ockham's Way Out
Patrick Todd, Geachianism
David Hunt, On Augustine's Way Out

V. The logic of future contingents

Charles Hartshorne, The Meaning of 'Is Going to Be
A.N. Prior, It Was to Be.
John MacFarlane, Future Contingents and Relative Truth
Sven Rosenkranz, In Defence of Ockhamism

VI. BilS