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Does God Know the Occurrence of a Change Among Particulars? Avicenna and the Problem of God’s Knowledge of Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2018

AMIRHOSSEIN ZADYOUSEFI Open the ORCID record for AMIRHOSSEIN ZADYOUSEFI [Opens in a new window]
AMIRHOSSEIN ZADYOUSEFI*
Affiliation:
Tarbiat Modares University
*
*<[email protected]>
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Abstract

(i) God is omniscient; therefore, for any change, C, among particulars, God knows the occurrence of C. (ii) If God knows the occurrence of C, then X. (iii) not-X. It is clear that the set of propositions (i)—(iii) is inconsistent. This is the general form of two problems—which I call the ‘problem of change in knowledge’ (PCK) and the ‘problem of change in essence’ (PCE)—for Avicenna concerning God’s knowledge of particulars. No work in the secondary literature has discussed exactly what PCK and PCE are. In this paper, I will clarify exactly what they are.

(i) Dieu est omniscient. Donc, pour tout changement C parmi les particuliers, Dieu connaît la survenance de C. (ii) Si Dieu connaît la survenance de C, alors X. (iii) Non-X. Or la série de propositions (i) – (iii) est clairement incohérente. Ceci est la forme générale de deux problèmes relevés par Avicenne concernant la connaissance par Dieu des particuliers, que j’appelle «le problème du changement dans la connaissance» (PCC) et «le problème du changement dans l’essence» (PCE). Aucune œuvre dans la littérature secondaire ne discute de la nature des PCC et PCE. Je la clarifierai dans cette étude.

Keywords

AvicennaGod’s knowledge of particularsoccurrence of a changechange in God’s knowledgechange in God’s essence
Type
Original Article/Article original
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 621 - 652
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2018 

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