PHILOS 2XX3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Jean-Paul Sartre, Fatalism, Canadian English
26 Jan 2017
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God is necessitated to act: but has freedom at that point. God could have chosen to do things differently. God is perfect, so he has to make the best choice. For clarke, god is all perfect: anything perfect does what is best. God is by necessity of nature a free agent: god cannot choose to cease to exist. God has no choice but to choose. Human beings are by necessity free agents. We a(cid:396)e (cid:374)ot f(cid:396)ee (cid:271)y (cid:374)atu(cid:396)e, (cid:271)ut (cid:271)y god"s appoi(cid:374)t(cid:373)e(cid:374)t. By implication, we have to be free, we have to make choices. Sartre: condemned to be free: not making a choice is still a choice. Clarke considers this the very essence of liberty: we do(cid:374)"t ha(cid:448)e the (cid:272)hoi(cid:272)e to (cid:374)ot (cid:271)e f(cid:396)ee. Si(cid:374)(cid:272)e god is o(cid:373)(cid:374)is(cid:272)ie(cid:374)t, (cid:449)ould(cid:374)"t he k(cid:374)o(cid:449) all ou(cid:396) a(cid:272)tio(cid:374)s: suppose that is so. Humans are discursive thinkers, step by step knowledge, slow: while god just knows, intellectual insight.
