An omnipotent person has free will — Bartricks
Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to convey. There's a thread around here somewhere that asks the question "Does God have free will?" — Agent Smith
Can that which is omnipotent and has free will, kill itself? — universeness
I asked the same question! Can an omnipotent god kill himself? Yes! I wouldn't be surprised if he's done that already! — EugeneW
Those omnigods have got it all! — EugeneW
I asked the same question! Can an omnipotent god kill himself? Yes! I wouldn't be surprised if he's done that already! — EugeneW
Free Will (can do anything one wants) = Omnipotence (can do anything one wants)
hird of all, omnipotence can be interpreted two ways: that which is literally all powerful or that which is logically all powerful. In regards the former, it is equivalent to holding that a square circle exists — Bob Ross
Free Will (can do anything one wants) = Omnipotence (can do anything one wants) — Agent Smith
Yes. An omnipotent person can kill themselves. Why would you think otherwise? — Bartricks
Not necessarily: if the omnipotent agent was necessary, and the omnipotence was essential, most metaphysicians would hold that this is not possible (once again, barring Cartesians). — Kuro
That's false. Being able to make a square circle is obviously not equivalent to actually making one
I am not affirming the actual existence of square circles
But it doesn't matter what it involves, for no matter what it involves, an omnipotent being is going to have it.
I can refurbish my statement as "it is equivalent to holding that a square circle is possible" and nothing changes in my argument. — Bob Ross
However, a being that is literally an omnipotent being is self-contradictory — Bob Ross
That just demonstrates the falsity of those ideas. An omnipotent person can always divest themselves of their omnipotence, else they would not be omnipotent (it is absurd to suppose that a person who is unable to do something is nevertheless omnipotent). Thus, no omnipotent person is omnipotent 'necessarily' but rather they are omnipotent contingently. Indeed, there will be no necessary truths if there is an omnipotent being, for the omnipotent being will have the power to render any truth false if they so wish. Thus, all truths - including the truth that there is an omnipotent being - will be contingent if, that is, there is an omnipotent being (which there is). — Bartricks
What you said about Frankfurt type cases was mistaken. One can be a libertarian 'and' a Frankfurtian (plenty are). What Frankfurt type cases do - if they are successful, that is - is show that you do not need to have alternative possibilities in order to be morally responsible. But one could still argue that determinism undermines free will for other reasons. — Bartricks
This is just as the same Cartesian doctrine I was speaking about earlier. Yes, I said that /unless/ you're a Cartesian, you'd generally tend to think that omnipotent agents cannot actualize any potential that is non-logical because such potential does not exist in the first place, or bring about a contradictory state of affairs because it is not possible in the first place. Of course, a Cartesian takes the opinion that is otherwise, hence why I mentioned this in my initial comment as I am in perfect recognition of this position. — Kuro
I'm of the opinion that it is not sensical to speak about any agent who is purportedly omnipotent in the Cartesian sense, because they can undermine any primitive conceptual schema we commit to (including the very idea that it can actualize any potential). — Kuro
To be more clear, it is that I think supposing this kind of agents poses a bigger epistemic problem in virtue of the very claim supposing it (and any other claim). — Kuro
I'm referring to Frankfurt style /free will/, where free will is interpreted to be the actualization of whatever is in accord with an agent's higher-order volitions such that an agent can be free without being able to do otherwise. — Kuro
Free Will (can do anything one wants) = Omnipotence (can do anything one wants)
Discuss. — Agent Smith
On the contrary, your argument now fails. For you can generate no actual contradiction from that claim. I claim that it is possible for there to be square circles. Not epistemically, of course - we can be totally certain none exist, for their existence would constitute an actual contradiction and we can be sure there are no actual contradictions. But it is metaphysically possible for there to be some, for God exists and God can do anything.
to generate an 'actual' contradiction you're going to have to make the mistake you previously made: you're going to have to confuse being 'able' to do something with actually doing it.
There is nothing contradictory about an omnipotent being.
If you think otherwise, show it without assuming that the omnipotent being has actually realized a contradiction.
Those who are using the label 'omnipotent' to denote a person who is not able to do everything and anything are simply using the word in a misleading way - which is, of course, their right. — Bartricks
Those who are using the label 'omnipotent' to denote a person who is not able to do everything and anything are simply using the word in a misleading way - which is, of course, their right. — Bartricks
That's because you are confused and have once more conflated being 'able' to do something with actually doing it. He has not actually undermined anything, has he? So everything still makes sense. And thus it is not nonsensical to talk of a person who has the ability to make everything cease to make sense (unless you are supposing him actually do have exercised the ability in question - which he hasn't). This is what you have to do to generate nonsense - to generate actual contradictions. You have to suppose him to have done what he merely has the ability to do. Ironically it is those who think an all powerful being cannot do some things who are affirming a contradiction and thus talking actual nonsense. — Bartricks
That's just an article of faith on your part. What if I could prove to you that such a person exists? Would you decide, in advance, that no such proof exists? Is your agnosticism unreasonable? — Bartricks
Anyway, Frankfurt-style cases, if they work, refute the principle of alternative possibilities. They do not thereby demonstrate compatibilism to be true (even if they help that cause) and so they do not demonstrate incompatibilism to be false (and so tehy don't demonstrate libertarianism to be false).
The sourcehood condition is neutral between compatibilist and incompatibilist conceptions of free will. That's precisely why a Frankfurtian might nevertheless be a libertarian (or incompatibilist). — Bartricks
A square circle is a logical contradiction epistemically and metaphysically: metaphysics is simply the extrapolation of the overlying instantiation of the physical world via reason which abides by logic (which are epistemic claims, unless you aren't claiming to "know" the metaphysical assertions you put forth, then it may just be beliefs). The shape of a circle cannot be that of a square, a "square circle" is a contradictio in adjecto. When you say it is metaphysically possible, what exactly do you mean? Likewise, what do you mean by epistemically impossible? When you say "we can be sure none exist", that is an empirical claim (pertaining to the objects) and a claim pertaining to the mind (a circular triangle, for instance, can't exist in the mind either), but it is important to note that we can only obtain metaphysical claims via logic and reason. Metaphysics is directly constraint to the basic principles of logic. Furthermore, if you agree that we "know" there cannot be square circles (which would be an epistemic claim), then God can't instantiate one in the universe (we "know" this). — Bob Ross
If a being is 'able' to make a square circle, then it is epistemically possible for a square circle to exist. — Bob Ross
I am not following you here. "being has actually realized a contradiction"? The realizations of a being have no effect on the fact that it will never be able to conjure up a square circle. — Bob Ross
These individuals make up the majority of how omnipotence is understood, from Thomists to Avicenna to many others. Descartes seems to be the only prominent philosopher in dissent here. — Kuro
There's no confusion. — Kuro
Ability to do something entails that it can possibly occur, not that it actually occured. So God being able to change the laws of logic or create contradictions does not mean he already did so, but can do so if he wants to i.e. it is possible that this can occur. You've done nothing but misrepresent what I said. — Kuro
No such proof can exist because you can never trust any absolute rule of reason, because any absolute rule of reason can be possibly false in the presence of a God that can possibly change these rules of reason if he wishes to do so. — Kuro
If you go the Cartesian route, you get the Cartesian result. — Kuro
I don't disagree with this, I elaborated in my earlier comment that I called it Frankfurt style free will not because I'm referencing Frankfurt style cases themselves rather I'm saying that it's Frankfurt style free will precisely because Frankfurtian notions (including Frankfurt cases as well as theory of volitions, which I highlighted as /different avenues/ meant to support the conclusion, not as one thing) are most often what is employed to support that conception of free will. — Kuro
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