Fate and Foreknowledge
The Human Being · 4 passages · 11 more on file · Broad agreement in this library · Against: Stoic Fate
Prophecy and necessity arguments do not cancel accountability.
- 2nd century3 passages
- 3rd century1 passage
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We do not say that what happens to people is done or suffered by fate. Each person succeeds or sins by deliberate choice (προαίρεσις), and wicked demons also work against the serious — as they did against Socrates and his like — while a Sardanapalus or an Epicurus seems to prosper.
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And the power of the Word, having in itself foreknowledge of what will turn out, was not predicting outcomes according to fate, but according to the judgment of free choosers. By prohibitions it became a restrainer of wickedness, and a praiser of the goods that remain.
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Greek
Ἡ δὲ τοῦ λόγου δύναμις ἔχουσα παρ᾿ ἑαυτῇ προγνωστικὸν τὸ μέλλον ἀποβαίνειν, οὐ καθ᾿ εἱμαρμένην, τῇ δὲ τῶν αἱρουμένων αὐτεξουσίων γνώμῃ, τῶν μελλόντων προὔλεγε τὰς ἀποβάσεις· καὶ τῆς μὲν πονηρίας κωλυτὴς ἐγίνετο δι᾿ ἀπαγορεύσεων, τῶν δὲ μενόντων ἀγαθῶν ἐγκωμιαστής.
But we ourselves stand above fate. Instead of wandering demons we have learned one Master who does not wander, and since we are not driven by fate we have refused the ones who wrote its laws.
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Greek
Ἡμεῖς δὲ καὶ εἱμαρμένης ἐσμὲν ἀνώτεροι, καὶ ἀντὶ πλανητῶν δαιμόνων ἕνα τὸν ἀπλανῆ δεσπότην μεμαθήκαμεν, καὶ οὐ καθ’ εἱμαρμένην ἀγόμενοι τοὺς ταύτης νομοθέτας παρῃτήμεθα.
Some give the name “atoms” to certain imperishable and most minute bodies, infinite in number, and they put forward a void of unbounded extent. These atoms, they say, are borne about at random in the void, collide of themselves through an irregular rush, and tangle because they are many-shaped and catch hold of one…
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Greek
οἶ μὲν γὰρ ἀτόμους προσειπόντες ἄφθαρτά τινα καὶ σμικρότατα σώματα πλῆθος ἀνάριθμα, καί τι χωρίον κενὸν μέγεθος ἀπεριόριστον προβαλόμενοι, ταύτας δή φασι τὰς ἀτόμους ὡς ἔτυχεν ἐν τῷ κενῷ φερομένας αὐτομάτως τε συμπιπτούσας ἀλλήλαις διὰ ῥύμην ἄτακτον καὶ συμπλεκομένας διὰ τὸ…
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