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    God is not necessitated to actualize every good that God ... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    God is not necessitated to actualize every good that God has the power to bring about.

    Divine Attributes
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.In his omnipotence, God can do anything that is good.
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    • 2.Divine freedom means God need not do everything that is good.
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    • 3.God need not do anything at all.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.God's perfect goodness entails that God necessarily wills the best possible state of affairs if one exists (Leibniz, Theodicy §8).
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    • 2.A being that could actualize a greater good but freely refrains lacks the perfection constitutive of divinity.
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    • 3.Therefore, divine freedom from necessity is incompatible with the classical doctrine of divine perfection.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.God's nature is identical to God's existence (actus purus), meaning no unrealized potentiality exists in God (Aquinas, ST Ia q.3).
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    • 2.If God has the power to bring about a good yet refrains, this implies an unrealized potentiality in God, contradicting divine simplicity.
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    • 3.The claim therefore presupposes a composition of power and act in God that classical theism explicitly denies.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesFree Will & Foreknowledge

    Connections

    1 topic

    Against an attribute of God2 linked

    Related

    A being that could actualize a greater good but freely refrains lacks the perfec...Divine freedom means God need not do everything that is good.God need not do anything at all.God's nature is identical to God's existence (actus purus), meaning no unrealize...
    +5 moreShow less
    God's perfect goodness entails that God necessarily wills the best possible stat...If God has the power to bring about a good yet refrains, this implies an unreali...In his omnipotence, God can do anything that is good.The claim therefore presupposes a composition of power and act in God that class...Therefore, divine freedom from necessity is incompatible with the classical doct...

    Similar

    Nothing that is not good comes from the Supreme Good, and every good c...79%From the Supreme Good/Supreme Being, nothing proceeds unless it is bot...78%Adams holds that God is essentially good and that God's commands are n...78%Nothing outside of God, not even eternal truths or immutable essences,...78%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: peter-damian
    View source passageHide passage
    In some passages, Damian assumes that divine omnipotence can be characterized as God’s ability to bring about anything that he can will. Because God can will anything that is good, and he cannot will anything that is evil, this amounts to the same as the characterization of omnipotence as God’s ability to bring about anything that is good (cf. 596C–597B, 599A, 600A–B). However, the characterization of omnipotence as God's ability to bring about anything that he can will reveals an important aspe
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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