# VIII explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

The chapter presents a philosophical argument distinguishing foreknowledge from foreordination, asserting that foreknowledge is an effect of an event's future occurrence rather than a cause predetermining it.

## Key lines

> The doctrine of foreknowledge does not imply the truth of foreordination. Foreordination is a cause antedating an event. Foreknowledge is an effect, not of something that is going to occur, which would be absurd, but the effect of its being going to occur.

Knowing something will happen in advance does not mean it was predetermined to happen. Predetermination is a cause that comes before an event, while foreknowledge is a result—not of the event itself, which would be illogical, but of the fact that the event will indeed happen.

_The narrator distinguishes between foreknowledge and foreordination, arguing that foreknowledge is a consequence of an event's future occurrence, not a cause._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se/chapters/viii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_se/chapters