February 13, 2006

John Frame on Molinism

Since I just left this quote in the comment section on another blog, I will go ahead and post it here as well. John Frame, in his book The Doctrine of God, says this regarding "middle knowledge":
Today it is popular among philosophers to use the concept of divine "middle knowledge" (knowledge of what will happen granted any possible set of conditions) in order to reconcile divine sovereignty with indeterminst human freedom. Helm points out quite rightly that if people have such indeterminist freedom, God cannot have "middle knowledge" of what they will do granted previous conditions. For the conditions, on this view, never determine human free actions. Thus indeterminism excludes divine middle knowledge. Helm is absolutely right here, and I can't understand why so many sophisticated philosophers have failed to see this point.
John Frame, The Doctrine of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2002), 778.

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