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    An omnibenevolent being and an omnipotent being cannot be... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    An omnibenevolent being and an omnipotent being cannot be identical, because their properties conflict.

    Against an attribute of GodDivine Attributes
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Omnipotence, on the Anselmian view, entails the power to actualize any logically possible state of affairs, including states involving great evil.
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    • 2.Omnibenevolence, as analyzed by Adams and Zagzebski, entails a motivational structure that makes acting evilly not merely unlikely but constitutively impossible for the agent.
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    • 3.A being whose motivational constitution renders evil impossible lacks the power to actualize evil states through its own agency, contradicting the Anselmian omnipotence requirement.
      ?

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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Harry Frankfurt's analysis of free will shows that genuine agential power requires the ability to act on first-order desires that conflict with higher-order volitions.
      ?

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    • 2.An omnibenevolent being, by the account defended by Eleonore Stump, has perfectly unified will such that no first-order desire toward evil can arise, eliminating the motivational plurality Frankfurt's account requires for full agential power.
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    • 3.Therefore, the perfectly unified will constitutive of omnibenevolence structurally precludes the unrestricted agential power that omnipotence demands, making the two attributes incompatible in a single being.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.An omnibenevolent being would be impeccable and thus incapable of wrongdoing.
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    • 2.An omnipotent being would be capable of doing things that would be wrong to do.
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    • 3.A being cannot be both incapable of wrongdoing and capable of wrongdoing simultaneously.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesAgainst an attribute of God

    Connections

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    Modality & Possibility1 linked

    Related

    A being cannot be both incapable of wrongdoing and capable of wrongdoing simulta...A being whose motivational constitution renders evil impossible lacks the power ...An omnibenevolent being would be impeccable and thus incapable of wrongdoing.An omnibenevolent being, by the account defended by Eleonore Stump, has perfectl...
    +5 moreShow less
    An omnipotent being would be capable of doing things that would be wrong to do.Harry Frankfurt's analysis of free will shows that genuine agential power requir...Omnibenevolence, as analyzed by Adams and Zagzebski, entails a motivational stru...Omnipotence, on the Anselmian view, entails the power to actualize any logically...Therefore, the perfectly unified will constitutive of omnibenevolence structural...

    Similar

    If God necessarily exists and is essentially omnipotent, then any acci...85%The conflict between omnipotence and omnibenevolence can be resolved b...83%Therefore, neither x nor y would be omnipotent, contradicting the assu...82%If one is neutral about whether God exists, then omnipotence should no...82%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: atheism-agnosticism
    View source passageHide passage
    Many attempts have been made to construct such arguments. For example, it has been claimed that an omnibenevolent being would be impeccable and so incapable of wrongdoing, while an omnipotent being would be quite capable of doing things that would be wrong to do. There are, however, sophisticated and plausible replies to arguments like these. More importantly, even if such an argument succeeded, omni-theists could plausibly claim that, by “omnipotent”, they mean, not maximally powerful, but opti
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

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