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    William Hasker's 'Gordian Knot' argument establishes that... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Counterfactual power over the past (CPP) is not the same thing as changing the past.

    William Hasker's 'Gordian Knot' argument establishes that any world in which Jones does otherwise just is a world with a numerically distinct past, which collapses the CPP/changing-the-past distinction into a merely verbal one.

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    Key Terms

    CPP(Weaker than PPP for arguments involving conditionals)
    A conception of validity on which an argument preserves certainty: if probability 1 is assigned to the premises, probability 1 must be assigned to the conclusion
    Changing-the-past distinction(the philosophical disagreement being resolved)
    The debate about whether having free will means you could have literally altered history, or whether that's impossible and free will means something else instead.
    Gordian Knot argument(the name of Hasker's specific argument)
    A clever logical solution to a seemingly impossible problem—named after a famous knot from ancient history that was solved by cutting rather than untying. In philosophy, it refers to an argument that cuts through a difficult debate by showing the two sides are actually the same thing.
    Jones does otherwise(referring to the possibility of making different choices)
    A shorthand way of saying 'Jones could have made a different choice' or 'Jones could have acted differently'—used when discussing whether people have genuine free will.

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    Merely verbal distinction(describing the nature of the distinction being collapsed)
    A difference that only exists in how we use words, not in any real difference between the actual things themselves—like calling a car 'automobile' versus 'car'; they're the same thing with different names.
    Numerically distinct past(describing different possible histories)
    A completely separate, different version of history—as opposed to just the same past described in different words. 'Numerically distinct' means it's a genuinely different thing, not just a different way of talking about the same thing.
    William Hasker(as the originator of the 'no-freeze' objection)
    A contemporary American philosopher who specializes in philosophy of religion and metaphysics, known for developing arguments about how God can know future events without controlling them.

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    Free Will & Foreknowledge1 linked

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