Thomistic concurrentism, as Garrigou-Lagrange acknowledges, entails that God's premotion physically predetermines the creature's act to one determinate outcome, rendering genuine alternatives impossible.

?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.

1 reason for

1 reason against

Reasons For

1 perspective

Reason for

1.If God is omniscient, He knows all future contingents with certainty; this knowledge requires those events to be determined, not merely foreseen.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak
2.Physical premotion preserves divine causality as primary while explaining how creatures act; without it, creation becomes independent of God's sustaining power.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak
3.Genuine alternatives require the creature to act contrary to God's will, which contradicts God's absolute sovereignty and necessary existence as first cause.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

Reasons Against

1 perspective

Reason against

1.Physical premotion determining the act to one outcome makes the creature's will passive, not actively choosing; this seems incompatible with moral responsibility.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak
2.God's knowledge can be non-temporal or possess a different modal status than creature-knowledge, allowing genuine contingency without undercutting omniscience.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak
3.Concurrentism conflates sustaining existence with determining action; God can uphold creatures' being without predetermining each specific choice-outcome.
?
Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

Next step

Based on where you are in your exploration

Strongest counterpoint

Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.

Key Terms

Garrigou-Lagrange(a major modern interpreter of Thomistic ideas): A 20th-century Catholic priest and philosopher who specialized in Thomistic philosophy and wrote extensively about how God's power relates to human free will.
Genuine alternatives(describing whether we truly have free will or only appear to): Real, meaningful choices where different outcomes are actually possible—not just the illusion of choice when the outcome was already decided.
Physically predetermines(explaining how completely God controls what will happen): Sets something's outcome in advance through actual causal force, not just knowledge—meaning the result is fixed before it happens.
Premotion(describing how God might initiate or guide human action): God's action of moving or influencing a creature before it acts, thought of as a divine push that comes first in the sequence.
Thomistic(describes a particular school of philosophical thought): Related to the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, a medieval Christian thinker who tried to combine Aristotle's ideas with Christian theology.
concurrentism(medieval debates on divine concurrence with creaturely action): A position on God's activity vis-à-vis creaturely activity, intermediate in logical strength between mere conservationism and occasionalism
creature(Stirner uses 'creature' to describe a past act of will that should not be allowed to command the present self.): A particular expression of will at a specific moment in time, as distinct from the ongoing autonomous will of the individual.
knowledge(Distinguished from mere true belief, which may be the product of indoctrination and need not exercise deliberative capacities.): Justified true belief — true belief that has been arrived at through the exercise of deliberative capacities, including comparison of and deliberation among alternatives.

Connections

1 topic

Divine Attributes1 linked

Concurrentism conflates sustaining existence with determining action; God can up...Genuine alternatives require the creature to act contrary to God's will, which c...God's creative activity does not violate libertarian freedom.God's knowledge can be non-temporal or possess a different modal status than cre...

Details

Type: claim
Perspectives: 2 (1 for, 1 against)
Edits: 1 edit