Co – zdaniem angielskich myślicieli XIV wieku – Bóg wie o przygodnej przyszłości?

Abstract

What does God know about future contingents? – according to some fourteenth-century English thinkers


The paper is concerned with the problem of God’s knowledge aboutfuture contingents, which has raised many doubts connected with the incompatibility of certainty and necessity of God’s knowledge and contingency of future events, or, even more, with the incompatibility of God’s precognition causing necessary events with human’s free choice guaranteed by his free will. From the very beginning of the Middle Ages theologians tried to find solutions to these questions, but—in my opinion—the most interesting ones were those expressed by John Duns Scotus. This paper presents mostly the theories of some English thinkers who were active at Oxford Universityin the 14th century and who criticized or agreed with Scotus’s ideas. They introduced new terminology and clarified particular problems initiating original logico-theological debates, in which the problem of God’s action with regard to His potentiaabsoluta et ordinataplayed the main role.

Keywords: Middle Ages theologians, English thinkers, God’s knowledge, future contingents.