Reddit reviews Free Will and Theism: Connections, Contingencies, and Concerns

Hey! These are good questions and if I am understanding you correctly, they are questions that are very relevant to contemporary analytic philosophy.

Let's first try and clarify the problem: does Aquinas, by endorsing a specific cause and effect theory of causation, endorse determinism about human creatures? Is this compatible with Catholicism? Or even Christian theism for that matter?

I read Aquinas as a compatibilist; he thinks that determinism is compatible with free will. So it seems you are correct in thinking that he finds determinism to be true, but also that free will is real and that it is compatible with the former.

The problem is seen in contemporary philosophy with two premier philosophers in Peter van Inwagen (an Anglican) and Alexander Pruss (Catholic). van Inwagen, so it seems, is a libertarian concerning free will and so is Pruss. There is this idea called the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) which says that every contingent thing must have a reason, ground, or cause for its existence. But if this is true, like Pruss thinks (he uses it skillfully to defend a contingency argument), how can there be libertarian free will? Doesn't the PSR, if true, rule out all contingency in the world? It seems we cannot say a choice is free if it is not contingent. van Inwagen thinks precisely this case and thinks it is worrisome for the theist and thus he rejects it; Pruss disagrees.

Pruss wrote a fantastic book where he argues that the PSR (Principle of Sufficient Reason) is true.

If you want a fantastic book about free will, God and evil I would recommend these two books: this book by Alvin Plantinga (which I think should be read by every Christian--it's that important) and this book.

Libertarian. The problem is he’s an analytic Thomist; Aquinas is read most of the time as a compatibilist.

Personally, I don’t see how theism can reconcile the existence of evil without humans being morally responsible for at least some of their actions. The problem of evil is difficult as is but without genuine freedom I’m not sure how to continue.

Now the question is: what is moral responsibility and what are the requirements for it.

Edit: I have this volume but didn’t pay full price. I would highly recommend this:


Free Will and Theism: Connections, Contingencies, and Concerns https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198743955/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Sc9HDbFRNA66Y