Topic:  Divine and Human Freedom

What makes us more than complicated robots? "We can choose how to
act—we act of our own free will," you say. Ahh. And what exactly
does that amount to, this thing called "free will"? We'll spend much
of our term thinking long and hard about this one.

Our question is of obvious moral significance, since it bears upon
how each of us thinks about himself and his fellow human beings.
Even our dogs. (Might dogs have free will? How would you decide?) We
hold most adult humans responsible for their actions on the
assumption that their choices somehow have their ultimate origin in
them and are under their control. Yet we know that how we make
choices is heavily 'shaped' by our environment and our genes. The
Human Genome Project has laid the groundwork for the much greater
understanding of genetic influences on behavior that surely will
come in the future. Here's a disquieting thought: what if the
verdict of future science is that our view of ourselves as morally
responsible agents is all a crock? Could that happen? What kind of
evidence would it take?

Having pondered the mysterious springs of human actions, we will
turn to an even more elusive target: God. Can God be free? If so, is
He free to do the immoral? For that matter, is He free to create
anything other than the best? (But as a glance at your roommate
confirms, this is surely not the best.) Or is divine freedom an
altogether different matter? And finally, can human freedom co-exist
with God’s providence and control over all things?

Each of these questions when pursued leads to a series of twists and
turns that will have you glued to your seats. (Failing that, they’ll
at least be more interesting than listening to your roommate’s
current romantic interest.) A range of philosophers, some dead and
others happily very much alive, will guide our inquiries. No
particular course is a prerequisite, but one is unlikely to thrive
without having already taken a minimum of two upper division courses
in philosophy.