God wills His own goodness necessarily, i.e., the principle object of His will is His own infinite goodness. Things outside of God such as created creatures God does not will necessarily. He is free to create them or not.In a previous thread, someone challenged the idea that God had libertarian free will. I was wondering: what kind of will does God posses? It seems that from the very first paragraph in the Catechism, God is able to do things freely (i.e., “He… freely created man.”) What is the nature of this freedom?
What about inside himself?He’s not constrained by anything outside himself.
So, the only thing God has to will is his own goodness? God is then incapable to will anything that is directly contrary to his own goodness? Besides that, he is free to “do” or “do not”?God wills His own goodness necessarily, i.e., the principle object of His will is His own infinite goodness. Things outside of God such as created creatures God does not will necessarily. He is free to create them or not.
What do you mean? It seems that you contradict yourself (or Aquinas). How can “God not have a cause of His will” and “the cause of His will [be] the good of creation”?Aquinas says that God does not have a cause of His will, and created us because of His goodness. Is not the cause of His will the good of creation?
I’m not sure what Scotus taught. Aquinas probably taught that God did not have a cause for His existence, but I’m not really sure what else.When I was reading the Summa I was wondering what he meant by God not having a cause of His. Did He mean nothing forced Him to do it? He says it is based on His will and on His reason, with emphasis on His will. Isn’t this what Scotus taught?