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    Aquinas argues in Summa Theologiae I.14 that God's intell... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→A perfect being could be omniscient without knowing all truths.

    Aquinas argues in Summa Theologiae I.14 that God's intellect and essence are identical, making divine knowledge coextensive with all being itself.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.If God is absolutely simple (no composition of parts), then God's knowing faculty cannot differ from God's essence without introducing real distinction.
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    • 2.If God is truly infinite and omniscient, divine knowledge must encompass all possible and actual beings without limitation or external dependence.
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    • 3.Being itself is the ultimate ground of intelligibility; God's self-knowledge as infinite being naturally includes knowledge of all derivative beings.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.If God's knowledge is identical to God's essence, then God cannot know counterfactuals (unrealized possibilities) without them being real parts of God.
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    • 2.Identity of intellect and essence seems to conflate epistemology with ontology—knowing X does not require X to literally be part of the knower's being.
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    • 3.The claim makes God's knowledge of evil identical to God's essence, which contradicts the principle that God's essence is purely good and free of evil.
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    Key Terms

    knowledge(Distinguished from mere true belief, which may be the product of indoctrination and need not exercise deliberative capacities.)
    Justified true belief — true belief that has been arrived at through the exercise of deliberative capacities, including comparison of and deliberation among alternatives.

    Connections

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    Divine Attributes1 linked

    Related

    A perfect being could be omniscient without knowing all truths.Being itself is the ultimate ground of intelligibility; God's self-knowledge as ...Identity of intellect and essence seems to conflate epistemology with ontology—k...If God is absolutely simple (no composition of parts), then God's knowing facult...
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    If God is truly infinite and omniscient, divine knowledge must encompass all pos...If God's knowledge is identical to God's essence, then God cannot know counterfa...The claim makes God's knowledge of evil identical to God's essence, which contra...

    Details

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