Essays in Philosophy of Religion (Jostarhaye Falsafeh Din)

A Study of William Hasker’s Views on‘Divine Middle Knowledge’;Based on Thomas Flint’s Standpoints

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

zahra karandish 1
Abdolrasoul Kashfi 2

1 Master of Philosophy and Islamic Theology, University of Tehran - Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies

2 Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion, University of Tehran, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies

Abstract
The theory of middle knowledge is one of the responses to ‘theological fatalism’. The key point of theological fatalism is that if God is Omniscience and knows everything about the future, then the free agents cannot do anything but the one that God had known in eternity; so, they are not free in their acts. The theory solves this difficulty through proving that God has pre-volition knowledge to all counterfactuals of freedom. But, William Hasker, the American philosopher of religion, believes that there are no true counterfactual of freedom; therefore, the theory of middle knowledge is not correct. In this article, based on Thomas Flint’s views, we show that some premises of Hasker’s argument is not true; consequently, he is not successful in refuting middle knowledge.

Keywords

Middle Knowledge
Theological fatalism
pre-volition knowledge
counterfactuals of freedom
William Hasker
Thomas Flint
Essays in Philosophy of Religion (Jostarhaye Falsafeh Din)
Volume 3, Issue 1 - Serial Number 6
February 2015
Pages 97-125

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