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    Aquinas distinguishes absolute power (potentia absoluta) ... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Infinite capacities such as God's infinite power cannot have limits (termini) assigned to them

    Aquinas distinguishes absolute power (potentia absoluta) from ordained power (potentia ordinata), showing divine infinity operates within self-imposed rational limits.

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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.An omnipotent being can rationally choose self-imposed limits without losing omnipotence, just as a chess master limits moves by rules.
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    • 2.Divine rationality requires consistency; absolute power without logical constraints would make God's actions arbitrary and unpredictable.
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    • 3.Aquinas's distinction preserves God's freedom while explaining why the world exhibits intelligible natural laws rather than chaos.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.If God truly imposes limits on himself, those limits constrain his power, making him not genuinely omnipotent by definition.
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    • 2.The distinction between absolute and ordained power seems ad hoc—invented to solve logical puzzles rather than grounded in theological necessity.
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    • 3.Divine rationality itself becomes a constraint on power, suggesting something higher than God that makes rationality binding on him.
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    Against an attribute of God1 linkedDivine Attributes1 linked

    Related

    An omnipotent being can rationally choose self-imposed limits without losing omn...Aquinas's distinction preserves God's freedom while explaining why the world exh...Divine rationality itself becomes a constraint on power, suggesting something hi...Divine rationality requires consistency; absolute power without logical constrai...
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    If God truly imposes limits on himself, those limits constrain his power, making...Infinite capacities such as God's infinite power cannot have limits (termini) as...The distinction between absolute and ordained power seems ad hoc—invented to sol...

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