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    A being with maximal power cannot necessarily bring about... — Carmelics
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    A being with maximal power cannot necessarily bring about whatever any other agent can bring about.

    Divine Attributes
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.If agent a can bring about state s and agent b cannot, it does not follow that b is not overall more powerful than a.
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    • 2.It could be that b can bring about more states of affairs than a can, rather than the other way around.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Maximal power, properly defined, entails the capacity to instantiate any compossible state of affairs within logical possibility.
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    • 2.If a lesser agent can bring about a state s, then s is logically possible, and a maximally powerful being's inability to bring about s constitutes a genuine power deficit.
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    • 3.Aquinas's own framework in Summa Theologiae I.25 holds that omnipotence covers all that is absolutely possible, implying no possible act falls outside its scope.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The supporting argument conflates overall superiority in power with completeness of power, but omnipotence requires the latter, not merely the former.
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    • 2.Geach's distinction between 'almighty' and 'omnipotent' in 'Omnipotence' (1973) shows that even a weaker reading of maximal power must account for every type of possible action, not just a greater quantity.
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    • 3.A being that cannot replicate any act performable by a lesser agent fails the modal criterion that maximal power be unbounded by the capacities of inferior agents.
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    Related

    A being that cannot replicate any act performable by a lesser agent fails the mo...Aquinas's own framework in Summa Theologiae I.25 holds that omnipotence covers a...Geach's distinction between 'almighty' and 'omnipotent' in 'Omnipotence' (1973) ...If a lesser agent can bring about a state s, then s is logically possible, and a...
    +4 moreShow less
    If agent a can bring about state s and agent b cannot, it does not follow that b...It could be that b can bring about more states of affairs than a can, rather tha...Maximal power, properly defined, entails the capacity to instantiate any composs...The supporting argument conflates overall superiority in power with completeness...

    Similar

    A maximally powerful being cannot necessarily bring about any state of...87%Omnipotence in the sense of maximal power means that no being could ex...83%Perfect power is quite naturally viewed as the maximal degree of power...79%Definition (D3) does not unduly limit the power of an omnipotent agent...79%

    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: omnipotence
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    A second sense of ‘omnipotence’ is that of maximal power, meaning just that no being could exceed the overall power of an omnipotent being. It does not follow that a maximally powerful being can bring about any state of affairs, since, as observed above, bringing about some such states of affairs is impossible. Nor does it follow that a being with maximal power can bring about whatever any other agent can bring about. If \(a\) can bring about \(s\), and \(b\) cannot, it does not follow that \(b\) is not overall more powerful than \(a\), since it could be that \(b\) can bring about more states ...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit