This is getting off Harry Potter and into my own philosophies, but I have always been of the mind that just because, in my mind, there's a divine plan, that does not negate the possibility or the importance of free will. Just because it is predestined what someone does, does that really keep him from making a choice? Most of the time, except for fictional examples mostly, no one's going to know what that predestined outcome will be, so it doesn't enter into the equation of choice. It's even dealt with in Harry Potter. We have the prophecies. In this case, Dumbledore states that they are not infallible, but that, in the case of Harry and Voldemort, they are self-fulfilling because Voldemort chooses to act upon them. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's something that is predestined but only through someone's choice. There are many examples of this in literature and drama, like Oedipus. In this case, obviously, the Greeks believe in predestiny exclusively, but it's always one's choices that bring about their doom. There are some who would say that no matter what happened, fate would twist its way around to make sure that Oedipus killed Laertes and married Iocasta, but I'm not sure I believe that. I think it's more that the prophecy was able to take into account how Laertes and Iocasta (and later Oedipus) would interpret the prophecy and how they would react to it. Had they not gone crazy and taken those specific steps to prevent it, the outcome probably wouldn't have happened. But it knew they would choose to behave a certain way. I know that's not what the Greeks had in mind, but that's how I've always figured out the balance between predestination and free will. We just have it easy because, in the real world, we're never forced into a position where we know what will happen to us and then have to decide whether to act on it or leave it alone, and if any of it will make any difference.
This is getting off Harry Potter and into my own philosophies, but I have always been of the mind that just because, in my mind, there's a divine plan, that does not negate the possibility or the importance of free will. Just because it is predestined what someone does, does that really keep him from making a choice? Most of the time, except for fictional examples mostly, no one's going to know what that predestined outcome will be, so it doesn't enter into the equation of choice. It's even dealt with in Harry Potter. We have the prophecies. In this case, Dumbledore states that they are not infallible, but that, in the case of Harry and Voldemort, they are self-fulfilling because Voldemort chooses to act upon them. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's something that is predestined but only through someone's choice. There are many examples of this in literature and drama, like Oedipus. In this case, obviously, the Greeks believe in predestiny exclusively, but it's always one's choices that bring about their doom. There are some who would say that no matter what happened, fate would twist its way around to make sure that Oedipus killed Laertes and married Iocasta, but I'm not sure I believe that. I think it's more that the prophecy was able to take into account how Laertes and Iocasta (and later Oedipus) would interpret the prophecy and how they would react to it. Had they not gone crazy and taken those specific steps to prevent it, the outcome probably wouldn't have happened. But it knew they would choose to behave a certain way. I know that's not what the Greeks had in mind, but that's how I've always figured out the balance between predestination and free will. We just have it easy because, in the real world, we're never forced into a position where we know what will happen to us and then have to decide whether to act on it or leave it alone, and if any of it will make any difference.