The Case for Individual Providence

DOES GOD CARE FOR CREATURES? Is this care universal or limited to certain kinds of creatures? Can this care reach individuals as particulars, or does it emanate only to species, or kinds, of individuals? And if there is divine care, or providence, for individuals, why does it seem to be arbitrarily distributed such that the righteous or the innocent suffer, whereas the wicked prosper? These are some of the questions about divine providence that have puzzled and perplexed not only philosophers and theologians but also the ordinary religious person throughout the ages. The general topic of providence is also another one of those questions where Greek philosophy and biblical religion come into contact, and in some cases confront each other with divergent points of view. In fact, it is an issue that is explicitly discussed in detail in one specific biblical book, the book of Job, which may be considered to be the most philosophical book of the Bible.

Many of the major Greek philosophers addressed this issue. In his Laws, Plato confronts an anonymous denier of divine providence and attempts to answer the latter's doubts by appealing to the perfection of the universe and the benevolence and omniscience of the gods. In the Hellenistic period the question of divine providence was a major bone of contention between the Epicureans and the Stoics, the former rejecting divine providence, the latter affirming it. For the Epicureans the world was characterized more by chance and randomness than by order, and they thought the gods were too busy enjoying their own serenity and happiness to concern themselves with us. The Stoics, however, were firm believers in a natural providential order that manifests divine wisdom and beneficence. The later Platonists too were concerned with this issue. Plotinus dealt with it in two books of his Enneads, Proclus devotes several treatises to the subject, and in his philosophical treatise The Consolation of Philosophy, written shortly before his execution, the Christian Platonist Boethius discussed this topic in detail.

But what about Aristotle? Was he oblivious to these questions? Here we are faced with a problem of distinguishing between what Aristotle actually says and how he was understood by medieval philosophers, especially Gersonides.