Previous
Fate
Knowledge of future events, which Philosophy believes that God must possess by virtue of being all-knowing and all-powerful. In Book V, she and Boethius try to determine if there is a contradiction between God having foreknowledge of events and humans having free will over their actions. Ultimately, Philosophy argues that God does not truly have knowledge of the “future” because God is “eternal.” This means that he can “embrace and comprehend [the] whole extent [of the universe] simultaneously.” So what human beings consider the future is, to God, actually more like part of the present, and God can know things that lie in human beings’ future without infringing on people’s free will.
Foreknowledge Quotes in The Consolation of Philosophy
The The Consolation of Philosophy quotes below are all either spoken by Foreknowledge or refer to Foreknowledge. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Book V, Part III Quotes
The question is, therefore, how can God foreknow that these things will happen, if they are uncertain?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Just as Boethius devotes Book IV to resolving the classic philosophical problem of evil—how an all-powerful, benevolent God allows there to be evil in the world—in Book V he looks at a similar doubt that, unless explained away, threatens to show that Philosophy’s entire picture of the world and its workings is based on a fundamental contradiction: if God knows the future with absolute certainty, then how can humans have free will over their actions in that future? For instance, if God knows what someone will choose to eat for breakfast tomorrow, is this breakfast really a choice, or has Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus
Book V, Part IV Quotes
Therefore, all those things which happen without happening of necessity are, before they happen, future events about to happen, but not about to happen of necessity. For just as the knowledge of present things imposes no necessity on what is happening, so foreknowledge imposes no necessity on what is going to happen.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
As she tries to explain how God can have foreknowledge of events that are determined by human free will, Philosophy must distinguish between two kinds of necessity: there is the necessity that known facts are true and the necessity that things happen. It is possible to have the first without the second, she argues, because it is possible to know things that “happen without happening of necessity.” For instance, if someone is presented with a cheesecake, it is not necessary that they eat it: they can choose to dig in, or restrain themselves and not eat. But if they do Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum.
Book V, Part V Quotes
In the same way, human reason refuses to believe that divine intelligence can see the future in any other way except that in which human reason has knowledge. This is how the argument runs: if anything does not seem to have any certain and predestined occurrence, it cannot be foreknown as a future event. Of such, therefore, there is no foreknowledge: and if we believe that even in this case there is foreknowledge, there will be nothing which does not happen of necessity. If, therefore, as beings who have a share of reason, we can judge of the mind of God, we should consider it most fitting for human reason to bow before divine wisdom, just as we judged it right for the senses and the imagination to yield to reason.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Having explained the supreme powers of God’s divine intelligence, Philosophy admits that they are completely unfathomable to human beings, who are blessed with infallible reason but still fall far short of God’s far superior capacity for knowledge. However, people must realize that they are far from the most powerful thing in the universe, and that there is much they have yet to understand. Therefore, the notion that nothing without a “certain and predestined occurrence” can “be foreknown” relies on humans wrongly assuming that all knowledge must work in the same way as their own. While humans can only know things Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debiti
Book V, Part VI Quotes
God has foreknowledge and rests a spectator from on high of all things; and as the ever present eternity of His vision dispenses reward to the good and punishment to the bad, it adapts itself to the future quality of our actions. Hope is not placed in God in vain and prayers are not made in vain, for if they are the right kind they cannot but be efficacious. Avoid vice, therefore, and cultivate virtue; lift up your mind to the right kind of hope, and put forth humble prayers on high. A great necessity is laid upon you, if you will be honest with yourself, a great necessity to be good, since you live in the sight of a judge who sees all things.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Boethius dedicates Book V to Philosophy’s argument for why God’s perfect foreknowledge of everything that will ever happen does not in any way contradict people’s free will over the decisions they choose to make. She concludes that He is like “a judge who sees all things,” not a commander who forces humans to act. Having established this by reference to God’s superior capacity for knowledge through intelligence, rather than just reason, which comes from His position in the eternal realm outside human time, Philosophy seems to have fully justified her picture of God as all-knowing, all-powerful, completely benevolent, and identical Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet. Eaque et repellendus. Dolores aut voluptatibus. Voluptatem qui voluptatum. Voluptatibus sed placeat. Aut tenetur autem. Fugit voluptates in. Quidem impedit sunt. Excepturi ullam nobis. Ducimus odio quo. Ut autem harum. Omnis vel voluptatum. Assumenda officia maiores. Voluptatem sint velit. Quod quia sapiente. Cum sunt quo. Accusamus veritatis voluptatum. Rerum est et. Aut autem sit. Soluta dolor fuga. Debitis ut est. Inventore qui voluptas. Velit corporis saepe. Distinctio veritatis enim. Natus inventore perspiciatis. Eaque labore vel. Libero sunt eum. Est libero quia. Dolor eum doloremque. Omnis enim iusto. Ipsa quia nesciunt. Doloremque et omnis. Aut sint debitis. Velit ut id. Id aut omnis. Adipisci id dolor
Get the entire The Consolation of Philosophy LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Foreknowledge Term Timeline in The Consolation of Philosophy
The timeline below shows where the term Foreknowledge appears in The Consolation of Philosophy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book V, Part III
Boethius raises another doubt: isn’t there a contradiction between “God’s universal foreknowledge and freedom of the will?” That is, if Providence has determined the future, how can...
(full context)
Book V, Part IV
...“human reasoning” will never fully grasp Providence because it cannot “approach the immediacy of divine foreknowledge.” She starts by considering the stance that God’s foreknowledge might not constrain human free will,...
(full context)
But could God have foreknowledge of things that do not happen out of necessity—things that aren’t inevitable? This would resolve...
(full context)
Book V, Part V
...reason [should] bow before” it. And this “supreme intelligence,” she hopes to show, can have foreknowledge of things that aren’t certain to occur.
(full context)
Book V, Part VI
...everything, including the past and future, as if it’s happening in the present, and His foreknowledge is really “the knowledge of a never ending presence,” which Philosophy calls “providence or ‘looking...
(full context)
...can see things without making them necessary, so God should be able to have “divine foreknowledge [without] chang[ing] the nature and property of things.” He should see whether things are necessary,...
(full context)
Philosophy replies that something can be “necessary when considered with reference to divine foreknowledge,” but not necessary at all “in itself.” She explains this by distinguishing between two kinds...
(full context)
...These actions of free will can be taken as conditionally necessary, “with reference to divine foreknowledge,” but not necessary when “considered by themselves.” This is similar to how any sense-perception looks...
(full context)
...people have the power to make choices, Philosophy continues, they cannot do so without God foreknowing it, “just as [they] cannot escape the sight of an eye that is present to...
(full context)
