A necessity inherent in the nature of things: for instance, someone is mortal simply by virtue of their humanity. This contrasts with conditional necessity. Philosophy answers the question of how God’s foreknowledge is compatible with human free will by explaining that foreknowledge is about conditionally necessary things. While foreknowledge would be incompatible with free will if foreknowledge made things simply necessary (and therefore outside humans’ control), in fact God just knows what people will decide to do, and these decisions are only conditionally necessary.
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Simple Necessity Term Timeline in The Consolation of Philosophy
The timeline below shows where the term Simple Necessity appears in The Consolation of Philosophy. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book V, Part VI
...necessary at all “in itself.” She explains this by distinguishing between two kinds of necessity: “simple” necessity , like the fact that people must be mortal, and “conditional” necessity, like “if you...
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So something’s place in Providence, or God’s plan for all things, is conditionally but not simply necessary , because although it will definitely happen, “it has no necessity in its own nature.”...
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