Can an omniscient being possess free will?

[Filthy Tugboat]

Can an omniscient being possess free will?

Omniscience is defined as:

•The state or quality of knowing everything.
mises.org/easier/O.asp

With that definition in mind, it is reasonable to conclude that any omniscient being would know the inifnite future which includes the actions that they will perform for the entire expanse of their existence.

•The question of free will is the philosophical question whether, and in what sense, rational agents exercise control over their actions, decisions, or choices.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will

Based on this definition free will is being able to make choices without restriction. So the entirity of this argument is basically addressing the concept that omniscience is a restriction on freewill.

So if you know the infinite future including your own actions then can you make a choice? Is the knowledge of what you will do and why a restriction on how many 'choices' you can make? If you are physically capable of performing countless actions or making countless responses, does omniscience restrict your options to just one? If omniscience does restrict your options in every scenario to just one, how could that be considered free will?

[McCulloch]

You're saying that if I sit down and write a book, I exercise no free will since after the book is written I can't change it? Just because I know what the book says?

No, my focus was on the term know. If you know what will happen to the characters in the book, then it is fixed and unchanging. Unless your book can be edited and re-published, then you exercise no free will in the universe created in the book. If the book is editable, then you do not know for certain, what will happen to the characters. Yes, outside of the book, you may have free will, but from the perspective of within the book, you have no free will. Indeed, what you know restricts your choices.

[Goat]

Knowledge of the future in this universe simply requires a knowledge of the location, velocity and direction of every particle within it. If you know where everything is, where everything is going and how long it will take to get there then you know the future within that localised space

Of course, this is where the Heisenberg uncertainty principle come in. You can't know the velocity, location and direction of ANY particle all at the same time.

[cholland]

You're saying that if I sit down and write a book, I exercise no free will since after the book is written I can't change it? Just because I know what the book says?

No, my focus was on the term know. If you know what will happen to the characters in the book, then it is fixed and unchanging. Unless your book can be edited and re-published, then you exercise no free will in the universe created in the book. If the book is editable, then you do not know for certain, what will happen to the characters. Yes, outside of the book, you may have free will, but from the perspective of within the book, you have no free will. Indeed, what you know restricts your choices.

But I am the one writing the characters, what they will do, etc. If what I know about them is their character, their actions, etc, since I am the one writing it, then me knowing what will happen does not restrict my free will since I cannot restrict my own free will.

Me writing: "Billy will walk down Main St." conveys my free will to write it and my knowledge of the action Billy will take.

[Filthy Tugboat]

Knowledge of the future in this universe simply requires a knowledge of the location, velocity and direction of every particle within it. If you know where everything is, where everything is going and how long it will take to get there then you know the future within that localised space

Of course, this is where the Heisenberg uncertainty principle come in. You can't know the velocity, location and direction of ANY particle all at the same time.

The uncertainty principle is more based on measuring the physical properties rather than knowing them. The more accurately you can measure one the less accurately you can measure the other (momentum and position). Omniscience is suggesting that you know everything all at once. So either omniscience is impossible or the uncertainty principle does not effect an omniscient being as 'measurement' was not required to obtain the knowledge. Beats me how an omniscient being could obtain knowledge but omniscience in itself is simply describing absolute knowledge, it is suggesting they have it, not how they got it.

[Filthy Tugboat]

You're saying that if I sit down and write a book, I exercise no free will since after the book is written I can't change it? Just because I know what the book says?

No, my focus was on the term know. If you know what will happen to the characters in the book, then it is fixed and unchanging. Unless your book can be edited and re-published, then you exercise no free will in the universe created in the book. If the book is editable, then you do not know for certain, what will happen to the characters. Yes, outside of the book, you may have free will, but from the perspective of within the book, you have no free will. Indeed, what you know restricts your choices.

But I am the one writing the characters, what they will do, etc. If what I know about them is their character, their actions, etc, since I am the one writing it, then me knowing what will happen does not restrict my free will since I cannot restrict my own free will.

Me writing: "Billy will walk down Main St." conveys my free will to write it and my knowledge of the action Billy will take.

Using your example, if you know that your book will remain with, 'Billy will walk down the Main Street.' Then you have no free will to change that, the final result in the book will always have Billy walking down the main street. If the final result doesn't contain that event then you didn't know what would happen in the book when you said you KNEW Billy would wak down the main street, would you? Knowledge in an absolute forms reveals the path that WILL happen. Once you know what WILL happen then you stop making choices and merely start following what you KNOW will happen. If you diverge from that path then you didn't really know what would happen and therefore you didnt have absolute knowledge.

[cholland]

But I am the one writing the characters, what they will do, etc. If what I know about them is their character, their actions, etc, since I am the one writing it, then me knowing what will happen does not restrict my free will since I cannot restrict my own free will.

Me writing: "Billy will walk down Main St." conveys my free will to write it and my knowledge of the action Billy will take.

Using your example, if you know that your book will remain with, 'Billy will walk down the Main Street.' Then you have no free will to change that, the final result in the book will always have Billy walking down the main street. If the final result doesn't contain that event then you didn't know what would happen in the book when you said you KNEW Billy would wak down the main street, would you? Knowledge in an absolute forms reveals the path that WILL happen. Once you know what WILL happen then you stop making choices and merely start following what you KNOW will happen. If you diverge from that path then you didn't really know what would happen and therefore you didnt have absolute knowledge.

I don't follow the If the final result doesn't contain that event then you didn't know what would happen in the book when you said you KNEW Billy would wak down the main street, would you? in my scenario. I am writing what will happen, there's no chance of the final result not containing it.

[Filthy Tugboat]

But I am the one writing the characters, what they will do, etc. If what I know about them is their character, their actions, etc, since I am the one writing it, then me knowing what will happen does not restrict my free will since I cannot restrict my own free will.

Me writing: "Billy will walk down Main St." conveys my free will to write it and my knowledge of the action Billy will take.

Using your example, if you know that your book will remain with, 'Billy will walk down the Main Street.' Then you have no free will to change that, the final result in the book will always have Billy walking down the main street. If the final result doesn't contain that event then you didn't know what would happen in the book when you said you KNEW Billy would wak down the main street, would you? Knowledge in an absolute forms reveals the path that WILL happen. Once you know what WILL happen then you stop making choices and merely start following what you KNOW will happen. If you diverge from that path then you didn't really know what would happen and therefore you didnt have absolute knowledge.

I don't follow the If the final result doesn't contain that event then you didn't know what would happen in the book when you said you KNEW Billy would wak down the main street, would you? in my scenario. I am writing what will happen, there's no chance of the final result not containing it.

Correct, if you knew what would happen then you have no free will to change that. So this is not a question of who's controlling the story, it is a suggestion that any being, within the story(universe(?)) or the creator that has omniscience, the question is, can they also have free will or will their knowledge of what will happen regardless remove the choices all together?

[cholland]

Correct, if you knew what would happen then you have no free will to change that. So this is not a question of who's controlling the story, it is a suggestion that any being, within the story(universe(?)) or the creator that has omniscience, the question is, can they also have free will or will their knowledge of what will happen regardless remove the choices all together?

I thought I addressed this earlier. I'm writing this story. I have both complete free will of what/when/where/how the story will occur AND knowledge of what/when/where/how the story will occur.

[McCulloch]

Me writing: "Billy will walk down Main St." conveys my free will to write it and my knowledge of the action Billy will take.

No, it conveys your decision about the action Billy is to take. If you did not know what you were going to have Billy do, then you would have had choices, options that you could have used. However, if you knew what Billy was going to do, because it was necessary for the plot, then you would have had no options, no choices but to have Billy do the thing that he must do.

See? If you know that Billy is to walk down Main St, then you have no freedom. If you don't know what Billy is to do, then you have freedom.

[Filthy Tugboat]

Correct, if you knew what would happen then you have no free will to change that. So this is not a question of who's controlling the story, it is a suggestion that any being, within the story(universe(?)) or the creator that has omniscience, the question is, can they also have free will or will their knowledge of what will happen regardless remove the choices all together?

I thought I addressed this earlier. I'm writing this story. I have both complete free will of what/when/where/how the story will occur AND knowledge of what/when/where/how the story will occur.

Yes, You're wirting the story but you neither have omnisceince nor the final result of the story so this answer does not apply to the OP. If before you put pen to paper you know the entire layout of the story and nothing will change before publication then what choice did you make while writing? You're not making it up as you go along, you dojn't have 'other options' to consider, you know how the story is going to be and there is nothing you can do to change that, therefore, no free will. If you did not know the final result then you do not have omniscience.