Rota Fortunae Fr Inconstancy is my very essence

Rota Fortunae • Fr "Inconstancy is my very essence; it is the game I never cease to play as I turn my wheel in its ever changing circle, filled with joy as I bring the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top. Yes, rise up on my wheel if you like, but don't count it an injury when by the same token you begin to fall, as the rules of the game will require. " -Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy

Or “Fate” "I know how Fortune is ever most friendly and alluring to those whom she strives to deceive, until she overwhelms them with grief beyond bearing, by deserting them when least expected. … Are you trying to stay the force of her turning wheel? Ah! dullwitted mortal, if Fortune begin to stay still, she is no longer Fortune. " Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy

Or “Chance" Welcome to the Wheel of Fortune. There it is, the wheel that throughout the centuries has been used as a symbol for the vicissitudes of life. Boethius himself in his great work 'The Consolation of Philosophy' compares history to a great wheel, hoisting us up, then dropping us down again. "Inconsistency is my very essence" -says the wheel- "Raise yourself up on my spokes if you wish, but don't complain when you plunge back down" Now spin the wheel. (Character of Tony Wilson in 24 Hour Party People) No mortal power may stay her spinning wheel. The nations rise and fall by her decree. None may foresee where she will set her heel: she passes, and things pass. Man's mortal reason cannot encompass her. She rules her sphere as the other gods rule theirs. Season by season her changes change her changes endlessly, and those whose turn has come press on her so, she must be swift by hard necessity. (Dante, Inferno VII 82 -90)

If bad things happen to good people… And good things happen to bad people, then a) No real cause for praise (virtue) or blame (vice) b) There is no (moral) responsibility c) Some things come from nothing d) Nothing happens for a reason

Principles? -Something cannot come from nothing (ex nihilo nihil fit) -For everything that happens there is a reason why it happens; for everything that does not happen there is a reason why it does not happen (principle of sufficient reason) ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Divine “Foreknowledge” (1) Human mind applies reason to external stimuli it receives through the body. Physical impressions are of particulars; reason applies universality to these. (ex: “cat”) The divine mind, which has no body, applies reason to itself. Thereby, the divine mind’s knowledge is pure judgment of universals. (1)

Divine Knowledge (2) Just as human sense and imagination (of particulars) accedes to human reason, human reason (application of universal to particular) accedes to divine reason which is only of universals (pure judgment or “forms”). Human knowledge (of particulars) exists in time and is of time, but divine knowledge (of universals)is “eternally present”: “For it is one thing to live an endless life…and another for the whole of unending life to be embraced all at once as present, which is clearly proper to the divine mine” (131).

Sub species aeternatis The divine mind “knows” what it knows “under the aspect of eternity. ” (ex: déjà vu) “…since God lives in the eternal present, His knowledge transcends all movement of time and abides in the simplicity of its immediate present. It encompasses the infinite sweep of past and future, and regards all things in its simple comprehension as if they were now taking place. ”