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    Definition (D3) does not unduly limit the power of an omn... — Carmelics
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    Definition (D3) does not unduly limit the power of an omnipotent agent.

    Divine Attributes
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    2 reasons against

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    Reasons For

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    • 1.An agent's bringing about a state of affairs can always be 'cashed out' in terms of that agent's bringing about an unrestrictedly repeatable state of affairs that it is possible for some agent to bring about.
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    • 2.Necessarily, for any state of affairs s, if an agent a brings about s, then either s is an unrestrictedly repeatable state of affairs which it is possible for some agent to bring about, or else a brings about s by bringing about q, where q is an unrestrictedly repeatable state of affairs which it is possible for some agent to bring about.
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    • 3.For instance, an omnipotent agent can bring about the state of affairs that in one hour Parmenides lectures for the first time, by bringing about the unrestrictedly repeatable state of affairs that in one hour Parmenides lectures, when this lecture is Parmenides's first.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.D3 excludes essentially indexed states of affairs—e.g., 'Caesar himself crosses the Rubicon'—which cannot be reduced to unrestrictedly repeatable states without remainder.
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    • 2.An omnipotent being who cannot bring about haecceity-dependent states of affairs is genuinely less powerful than one who can, contra the claim that D3 imposes no undue limitation.
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    • 3.Plantinga's work on thisness and Duns Scotus's haecceitas establish that individual essences ground states of affairs irreducible to qualitative, repeatable descriptions.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Flint and Freddoso's analysis shows D3 covertly smuggles in a Humean regularity assumption: that all causally producible states are type-repeatable across possible agents.
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    • 2.However, libertarian agent causation—defended by Roderick Chisholm and Timothy O'Connor—entails that some states of affairs are producible only by a specific agent with a specific causal history.
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    • 3.If any state of affairs is agent-essentially producible rather than repeatable across agents, D3 systematically misrepresents the scope of omnipotent power by excluding it from the domain.
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    Related

    An agent's bringing about a state of affairs can always be 'cashed out' in terms...An omnipotent being who cannot bring about haecceity-dependent states of affairs...D3 excludes essentially indexed states of affairs—e.g., 'Caesar himself crosses ...Flint and Freddoso's analysis shows D3 covertly smuggles in a Humean regularity ...
    +5 moreShow less
    For instance, an omnipotent agent can bring about the state of affairs that in o...However, libertarian agent causation—defended by Roderick Chisholm and Timothy O...If any state of affairs is agent-essentially producible rather than repeatable a...Necessarily, for any state of affairs s, if an agent a brings about s, then eith...Plantinga's work on thisness and Duns Scotus's haecceitas establish that individ...

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    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: omnipotence
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    But even if there is some sort of infinite power such that, necessarily, an agent, A, is omnipotent if and only if A has that sort of infinite power, the definitional claim that omnipotence is such power is far too general to provide a granular analysis of omnipotence – the kind of analysis of omnipotence which we are seeking. Proposed granular analyses of omnipotence offer considerably greater specificity about the powers of an omnipotent agent.

    Details

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