Jiang uses this for what one chooses to do, the action-layer that can cloud one's relation to truth.
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contingent will
A transcript-matched topic anchored by excerpts such as "...again this goes back to the idea of absolute will and contingent will okay absolute will is what your soul is okay contingent will..."
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Key Notes
The level of enacted choice, where outward behavior can fail to match the deeper absolute will.
The will that consents to wrong out of fear that resisting would bring even greater harm. The will that reacts to worldly threats and can yield out of fear of greater harm.
Jiang introduces a split between absolute will and contingent will: Virgil may know cosmic truth in principle, but chosen actions can cloud how that truth is lived and interpreted.
Jiang defines absolute will as what one truly believes and who one is, while contingent will is what one actually chooses to do.
The passage Jiang has read into the room distinguishes absolute will, which does not consent to wrong, from contingent will, which yields out of fear of worse consequences.
Jiang treats the distinction between absolute will and contingent will as a crucial interpretive key that the class must unpack before Piccarda's case can make sense.
Jiang says Dante's framework does not seek divinization through power; it distinguishes the absolute will that stays connected to God from the contingent will that acts within worldly choice, and it aims to harmonize them so a person moves closer to God.
Jiang accepts the idea that redemption would require Piccarda's contingent will to come back into harmony with her deeper will rather than merely multiplying good outcomes.
Timestamped Evidence
"...again this goes back to the idea of absolute will and contingent will okay absolute will is what your soul is okay contingent will..."
"...you believe what your ideal state is and then there's the contingent will okay we learned this in paradise is contingent will which is..."
"...joint act. Absolute will does not concur in wrong, but the contingent will, through fear that its resistance might bring greater harm, consent. Okay...."
"...unpack, okay? There's a difference between absolute will and relative will, contingent will. What's the difference? Yes?"
"...absolute will is, I will love God no matter what, and contingent will is, I will love God. And then someone tells you, if..."
"Any other explanations? Absolute will, contingent will. What is the difference?"
"I don't know. Like, absolute will is no matter what, it's going to happen, but contingent, it's kind of like, because I don't want..."
"...which is always in connection with God. And then there's a contingent will, which is your choices on this world. And what we're trying..."
"like her will should be able to change so like instead of wanting to be closer to god thus being in an enemy she..."
"is that her contingent will is now harmonized with her will she's coming from a place of"
"...Now he has complete will. The absolute will is now the contingent will as well, okay? So that's what this prophecy has done for..."
"Yeah. I would say contingent will is constrained by reality. And absolute will is like, it's always there."
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