Divine Providence and Simple Foreknowledge

Abstract

A mainstay of the traditional doctrine of divine omniscience is the assumption that foreknowledge can make an essential contribution to God's providential action in the world. The tendency in recent analyses, however, is to regard the providential use of foreknowledge as "self-stultifying". I argue that this conclusion is premature: neither the "metaphysical" nor the "doxastic" objection employed by the critics is sufficient to nullify a significant providential appeal to foreknowledge. Thus there is no reason to embrace either of the "solutions" proposed by the critics: the rejection of foreknowledge, or its assimilation to middle knowledge.