Medieval Philosophy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Medieval Philosophy - Assignment Example Hence, metaphysical forces, including heavenly bodies and evil spirits, constrain human desires and create hurdles on the way to getting involved in different activities out of their free will. Furthermore, since the blessings and bounties showered by God upon humans, bring joys in their life, so humans must seek His protection in order to escape misfortunes in life. However, God has also granted powers to the evil forces existing in the universe and has allowed them to hurt and harm the individuals through their trickery. These forces tempt humans to follow their desires without making the adequate judgment between right and wrong. Consequently, there seems to be a high probability of humans to become prey to the evil temptations by extending their wishes and desires to a great extent. As a result, natural forces inflict the humans with deprivations that constraint their free will and limit their actions and conducts for the future days to come on the basis of the foreknowledge the Providence maintains. Question 3 (Answer): Contemporary era theologian and philosopher, Nelson Pike, has critically examined the Boethius’ doctrine regarding omniscience and free will. Since Boethius has submitted his claim that it is omniscience that constrains human free will, no human action is free and independent one in its nature and scope. However, Pike refutes the very notion by declaring it false and against the very evidence altogether. Pike is of the view that since God is all-Knowing and all-Powerful, He has foreknowledge of each and every incident that would happen in the life of every human throughout his life. Pike supports his thesis with several illustrations and examples, in order to clarify his argument regarding the powers granted to humans by the Lord for performing their domestic and professional duties and obligations. If a person, Pike argues, is determined to do something either trivial or important, God certainly maintains foreknowledge of it. Howeve r, He has allowed humans to apply their free will, out of their personal choices, in order to perform their everyday activities without any hurdle or obstacle on the way. In other words, though every incident to be taken place in the world in the life of humans is in the knowledge of God, yet He does not restrict the humans from taking part in individual and collective activities of their choice by constraining each and every human action. On the contrary, He has gifted the humans with the powers to even negate His very existence, as atheist observe, though He has complete foreknowledge of it. If God starts imposing constraints on every human action, then there would neither be any space for the atheists and infidels nor could humans be able to make this world a region where crimes, offenses, sins, and law-breaking occur very frequently. Thus, Pike nullifies Boethius’s doctrine that God’s omniscience limits human actions in such a powerful manner that it destroys the c oncept of free will altogether. However, Boethius does not claim that every human action is barred by the natural regulatory authorities.