On Molinism, God's knowledge of what would happen in all possible worlds serves to delimit God's Natural knowledge of all that could happen. Or again, God's Natural Knowledge has as its contents all that is broadly logically possible, whereas God's middle knowledge has as its contents all that is feasible for God to actualize. Now, God's Free Knowledge, or what will happen is logically posterior to God's Middle Knowledge, and God's decree to create. Thus, God's middle knowledge grounds His Free Knowledge, but the contents of God's free knowledge also depend on what world God decrees to create. So, if God had never decreed to create, then He wouldn't have any Free Knowledge, but He would still have Natural and Middle Knowledge.
A brief discussion of logical priority:
Molinists represent God's knowledge in three logical moments, where each moment is logically prior to the next: Natural knowledge, Middle Knowledge, and Free Knowledge. To say that somehting is logically prior to something else is not to say that one occurs before the other in time. For example, the premises of an argument are logically prior to the conclusion and they explain, or provide the ground for the conclusion as well. However, the premises and conclusion are all simultaneously true, and there is no temporal before or after about them. So then, much like premises logically grounding and being prior to a conclusion in an argument; God's Natural Knowledge is logically prior to His Middle Knowledge, and His Middle Knowledge is logically prior to His Free Knowledge. That is all there is to it!
Very simply God has three logical moments of knowledge (each level serves to explain the next, and keep in mind that each logical moment is timeless):
1. God has knowlede of everything that could be (Called God's Natural Knowledge; it is essential to Him, it includes all necessary truths.)
2. Middle Knowledge: God's knowledge of what every possbile free creatue would do under any possible circumstances and, hence, knowledge of those possible worlds which God can make actual. (The content of this knowledge is not essential to God.)
God' Free Decision to Create a World
3. Free Knowledge: God's knowledge of the actual world, what will happen. The content of this knowledge is not essential to God.
Everybody agreed that logically prior to God's decree to create a world, God has knowledge of all necessary truths, including all the possible worlds He might create. This was called God's natural knowledge. It gives Him knowledge of what could be. Moreover, everyone agreed that logically subsequent to His decree to create a particular world, God knows all the contingent truths about the actual world, including its past, present, and future. This was called God's free knowledge. It involves knowledge of what will be. The disputed question was where one should place God's hypothetical knowledge of what would be. Is it logically prior to or posterior to the divine creative decree? Calvinists have traditionally placed God's hypothetical knowledge logically posterior to God's divine decree to create. The Molinists charged that the Dominicans had in effect obliterated human freedom by making counterfactual truths a consequence of God's decree. For it is God who determines what a person would do in whatever circumstances he finds himself. By contrast, the Molinists, by placing God's hypothetical knowledge prior to the divine decree, made room for human freedom by exempting counterfactual truths from God's decree. In the same way that necessary truths like 2+2=4 are prior to and therefore independent of God's decree, so counterfactual truths about how people would freely choose under various circumstances are prior to and independent of God's decree. Not only does the Molinist view make room for human freedom, but it affords God a means of choosing which world of free creatures to create. For by knowing how people would freely choose in whatever circumstances they might be in, God can, by decreeing to place just those persons in just those circumstances, bring about His ultimate purposes through free creaturely decisions. Thus, by employing His hypothetical knowledge, God can plan a world down to the last detail and yet do so without annihilating human freedom, since what people would freely do under various circumstances is already factored into the equation by God (Borrowed from WLC).
Molinists represent God's knowledge in three logical moments, where each moment is logically prior to the next: Natural knowledge, Middle Knowledge, and Free Knowledge. To say that somehting is logically prior to something else is not to say that one occurs before the other in time. For example, the premises of an argument are logically prior to the conclusion and they explain, or provide the ground for the conclusion as well. However, the premises and conclusion are all simultaneously true, and there is no temporal before or after about them. So then, much like premises logically grounding and being prior to a conclusion in an argument; God's Natural Knowledge is logically prior to His Middle Knowledge, and His Middle Knowledge is logically prior to His Free Knowledge. That is all there is to it!
Very simply God has three logical moments of knowledge (each level serves to explain the next, and keep in mind that each logical moment is timeless):
1. God has knowlede of everything that could be (Called God's Natural Knowledge; it is essential to Him, it includes all necessary truths.)
2. Middle Knowledge: God's knowledge of what every possbile free creatue would do under any possible circumstances and, hence, knowledge of those possible worlds which God can make actual. (The content of this knowledge is not essential to God.)
God' Free Decision to Create a World
3. Free Knowledge: God's knowledge of the actual world, what will happen. The content of this knowledge is not essential to God.
Everybody agreed that logically prior to God's decree to create a world, God has knowledge of all necessary truths, including all the possible worlds He might create. This was called God's natural knowledge. It gives Him knowledge of what could be. Moreover, everyone agreed that logically subsequent to His decree to create a particular world, God knows all the contingent truths about the actual world, including its past, present, and future. This was called God's free knowledge. It involves knowledge of what will be. The disputed question was where one should place God's hypothetical knowledge of what would be. Is it logically prior to or posterior to the divine creative decree? Calvinists have traditionally placed God's hypothetical knowledge logically posterior to God's divine decree to create. The Molinists charged that the Dominicans had in effect obliterated human freedom by making counterfactual truths a consequence of God's decree. For it is God who determines what a person would do in whatever circumstances he finds himself. By contrast, the Molinists, by placing God's hypothetical knowledge prior to the divine decree, made room for human freedom by exempting counterfactual truths from God's decree. In the same way that necessary truths like 2+2=4 are prior to and therefore independent of God's decree, so counterfactual truths about how people would freely choose under various circumstances are prior to and independent of God's decree. Not only does the Molinist view make room for human freedom, but it affords God a means of choosing which world of free creatures to create. For by knowing how people would freely choose in whatever circumstances they might be in, God can, by decreeing to place just those persons in just those circumstances, bring about His ultimate purposes through free creaturely decisions. Thus, by employing His hypothetical knowledge, God can plan a world down to the last detail and yet do so without annihilating human freedom, since what people would freely do under various circumstances is already factored into the equation by God (Borrowed from WLC).
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