 Boethius ( AD)  Fluent in both Latin and Greek  Familiar with works of both Plato & Aristotle  Translated Aristotle’s logical works into Latin  Thereby transmits Aristotle’s logical works to early medieval western Europe  Aristotle’s other works remain unknown in western Europe until

 Appointed to the office of Consul by the Roman Emperor Theodoric  Christian, opposed to Arian heresy, which denied the full divinity of Christ and which was espoused by Theodoric  Accused of treason, imprisoned & executed  While imprisoned composed The Consolation of Philosophy, which includes an analysis of the problem of freedom and determinism 2

 Is Human Freedom Compatible with God’s omniscience?  If God already knows with complete certainty whatever you will ever do, how could your future be up to you to determine?  How could you be genuinely free in planning your life and enacting your plans if God already knows what you will plan and what you will do? 3

 God foreknows everything that will happen  So, God foreknows my future in full detail  What God foreknows must happen exactly as it does happen  Hence, my future must happen exactly as it does  If my future must happen exactly as it does, then my future is necessary  Thus, my future is necessary  If my future is necessary, then I am not free  Consequently, I am not free! 4

 According to Boethius  The preliminary argument conceals a mistake pertaining to how the concept of necessity appears in the argument  It is true that if my future is necessary, then I am not free  But the argument fails to prove that my future is necessary  In general: knowledge of X does not imply the necessity of X  So, God’s knowledge of my future does not imply the necessity of my future  Augustine was entirely incorrect in supposing that God’s omniscience implies the necessity of what God knows  Hence, the Augustinian argument that begins with the assumption of God’s omniscience fails to prove that all my actions are necessary and, so, fails to prove that I am not free  Hence, Boethius is a compatibilist in the sense that he maintains that God’s omniscience is compatible with human freedom 5