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    Ockham's distinction between hard and soft facts about th... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The necessity of the past may simply be the principle that past events are outside the class of causable events.

    Ockham's distinction between hard and soft facts about the past shows that some past truths—like God's past beliefs—remain modally open relative to future actions.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Hard facts (e.g., Caesar crossed the Rubicon) are about past events themselves; soft facts (e.g., God believed Caesar would cross) depend on future contingencies.
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    • 2.If God's past beliefs are soft facts, they can vary with what agents freely choose to do, preserving genuine modal openness about future actions.
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    • 3.This distinction solves the theological problem: divine foreknowledge doesn't necessitate future events if those beliefs aren't hard facts about the past.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.The hard/soft fact distinction relies on an intuitive but ultimately circular criterion: softness is defined by dependence on the future, which already assumes the answer.
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    • 2.If God's past belief is true now, its truth-value is fixed regardless of whether we label it 'soft'—modal openness requires metaphysical, not merely semantic, indeterminacy.
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    • 3.Ockham's move only relocates the problem: it leaves unexplained how a soft fact can be genuinely true about the past while remaining metaphysically open.
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    Free Will & Foreknowledge1 linked

    Related

    Hard facts (e.g., Caesar crossed the Rubicon) are about past events themselves; ...If God's past belief is true now, its truth-value is fixed regardless of whether...If God's past beliefs are soft facts, they can vary with what agents freely choo...Ockham's move only relocates the problem: it leaves unexplained how a soft fact ...
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    The hard/soft fact distinction relies on an intuitive but ultimately circular cr...The necessity of the past may simply be the principle that past events are outsi...This distinction solves the theological problem: divine foreknowledge doesn't ne...

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    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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