Shannon Costello

Augustine describes Cicero as a man whose logic had forced him into a false dichotomy: either man has free will and foreknowledge does not exist or man does not have free will and foreknowledge does exist.

Augustine assures us of God’s prescience while maintaining free will. For him, a God without foreknowledge is no god at all. In addition, it is clear to him from observation that we have free will.

I wonder if Augustine ever considered the possibility of a matrix-type existence, where we think we have free will but are actually imprisoned. I think this is a possibility we sometimes fear. I would say that it certainly doesn’t match with our observations of ourselves- if we don’t have free will we have a strikingly good imitation of it. I also think we confuse free will with freedom, by which we mean absolute control to do as we like and not have to answer to anyone for it, even God.