The Error of Boethius: Resolving the problem of free will - Softcover

Shepard, Mr. Daniel J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1463656947 ISBN 13: 9781463656942

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011

Synopsis

Boethius argued we must accept free will as being recessive, submissive to divine foreknowledge, determinism, pre-destination, and predestination. Now if submissive independence is not an error, what is? Is Boethius to blame for our having been unable to resolve the paradox regarding free will and divine foreknowledge? An alternative metaphysical perception, metaphysical model, to Boethius’ metaphysical perception exists and is presented within this tractate. The problem is to gain the attention of religion, philosophy, and science, all of who have rejected the very validity of metaphysics itself. Boethius moves our perceptual understanding regarding the system being filled with free will into that of being ‘the’ system filled with both free will and divine foreknowledge. As such, free will and divine foreknowledge, with the help of Boethius, now have a location within which they can be found. However, the understanding regarding the role of both free will and divine foreknowledge as well as the understanding regarding the interrelationship between free will and divine foreknowledge not only remain in a state of confusion but even more disconcerting, the existence of such an interrelationship is not recognized as a significant aspect of the ‘larger’ system. It is this state of this confusion which will be specifically addressed within this tractate.

About this title

About the Author

Mathematics/Science Undergraduate degree - University of Michigan Master's degree in Physical Science - Eastern Michigan University 30 years teaching mathematics & science 20 years science and/or mathematics department chair I'm not sure if I became a philosophical thinker because I was a depressant or if I became a depressant because I was a philosophical thinker. Whichever the case, I am both. To make matters even stranger I am an optimistic depressant philosophical thinker. Actually it might be more accurate of me to state that I am an optimistic depressant philosophical thinking metaphysicist. But how did metaphysics enter the picture? During my early teens I began questioning what was 'out there beyond ...' Over time this thinking sequentially lead to 'beyond the stars', 'beyond the galaxy', 'beyond time and space' until I came to the end of the physical universe itself. Once I had reached this 'outer wall' of the physical universe. I could not help but mentally poke a hole in this wall. Having created a hole in the outer wall of the physical, I peered through the hole only to see nothing. At this point I was mesmerized with questions that forever haunted me: What is this nothingness on the 'outside' of the physical universe? What is the physical universe immersed within? What is out there? What are the characteristics of this existence outside the universe? What does this outside of the universe have to do with us, with myself, with God Itself? The questions became cruelly unrelenting and overpoweringly dominating of my very psyche. With time and the use of humanity's four perceptual tools (observation - science, universal teachings - religions, rational dialectics - philosophy and universal language - mathematics) the answers began to reveal themselves. The answers came not in terms of a bias on the part of one tool as opposed to another but in terms of all four tools agreeing with each other. The biggest hurdles to the work came in the form of cynicism, skepticism, closed minds and most of all in the form of the words, 'can't', 'its impossible to know', 'humankind is not intended to understand', 'prove it'. In all good conscience, it must be stated, 'We cannot prove anything beyond all doubt ...' Having stated the obvious, we can then move on to state: '... but we can 'prove beyond a reasonable doubt.' So it is a new model of reality emerged capable of leading our species into the new age of the third millennium.

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1463656947
• ISBN 13: 9781463656942
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 152