[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-43496-en":3,"doc-seo-43496-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},43496,13056703020460,"Valentina","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/be000253dac470eee5d?_k=1778207105932848923",9,"Religion & Spirituality","Omnipotence and Necessary Moral Perfection: Are They Compatible?","This paper defends an argument that necessary moral perfection and omnipotence are not compatible. Assuming God is necessarily good across all possible worlds, the paper argues that God cannot possess maximal power, because omnipotence requires the ability to actualize morally impermissible states of affairs, even if God never does so. It analyzes and rejects several Anselmian strategies attempting to reconcile these doctrines, concluding that the greatest possible being may be less than all-powerful.","Omnipotence and necessary moral perfection : are they compatible?  \nwes morriston  \nDepartment of Philosophy, University of Colorado at Boulder, 169 Hellems,  \nCampus Box 232, Boulder, CO 80309–0232  \nAbstract: This paper elaborates and defends an argument for saying that if God is necessarily good (morally perfect in all possible worlds), then He does not have the maximum conceivable amount of power and so is not all-powerful. It considers and rejects several of the best-known attempts to show that necessary moral perfection is consistent with the requirements of omnipotence, and concludes by suggesting that a less than all-powerful person might still be the greatest possible being.  \nGreat is your power, and your wisdom is immeasurable.  \nPsalm 147.51  \nMany contemporary philosophers of religion follow St Anselm in holding that God is the greatest of all possible beings. They believe this commits them to the view that God not only exists necessarily, but that He possesses his various perfections (omnipotence, omniscience, and moral goodness) in every possible world. Critics of this conception of God have sometimes argued that necessary moral perfection is incompatible with omnipotence. If God is omnipotent, He must be able to do evil (even if He never actually does any), whereas if God is necessarily morally perfect, it follows not only that He does not, but that He cannot, do evil. Or so the argument goes.  \nSome philosophers who have written about this issue conclude that the concept of necessary moral perfection is a mistake.2 Others have suggested that the philosophical concept of omnipotence should simply be discarded.3 But contemporary‘Anselmians’, as I shall call them, hold that such drastic measures are not called for. The purpose of the present paper is to take a critical look at several of the most prominent Anselmian strategies for showing that omnipotence is compatible with necessary moral perfection. I shall argue that none of these strategies is successful and that more drastic measures are required.  \nA more precise statement of the problem will help focus our discussion. Let E be some possible state of affairs that God’s moral perfection prevents Him from  \n143  \n144 wes morriston  \nactualizing. Then each of the following propositions has a great deal of prima facie plausibility.  \nP1 If God is necessarily morally perfect, then there is no possible world in which He actualizes E.  \nP2 If God is omnipotent, He has the power to actualize E.  \nP3 If God has the power to actualize E, then there is a possible world in which God actualizes E.  \nIt shouldn’t be too hard to find a filling for E that makes P1 true – some state of affairs that is so bad that it is hard to believe that there is any possible situation in which God (or anyone) would be morally justified in actualizing it. Perhaps ‘ an innocent child’s being maliciously tortured ’ is a sufficiently uncontroversial example.4  \nThe case for P2 is based on what might be called the ‘ maximal power test ’ for omnipotence. Whatever else omnipotence may be, an omnipotent being must have the maximum possible amount of power.5 The problem is that, however much power God may have in other respects, we seem to be able consistently to conceive of a being with that much power, plus the power to actualize E. So if God lacks the power to actualize E, He does not have the maximum possible amount of power and is not omnipotent. By contraposition, it follows that if God is omnipotent, then He has the power to actualize E.  \nP3 will strike most libertarians, at any rate, as obviously true. Libertarians usually think of freedom as a two-way power either to do, or to refrain from doing, an act. Ifa person Ppossesses this two-way power with regard to an actA at a time t, then as things are at t, it must be possible for P to exercise this power by doing, or by refraining from doing, A at t. If this is right, then it follows that one necessary condition of P’s having the power to do ","cbCaivNX6cBKVC4Q","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivNX6cBKVC4Q","pdf",246867,4,1,18,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n# Problem Setup (P1–P3)\n## Maximal Power and Rejection of P2\n## Weak vs. Strong Actualization\n# Critiques of Anselmian Strategies\n# Implications for the Anselmian Conception of God","[{\"question\":\"What is the paper’s main claim about omnipotence and necessary moral perfection?\",\"answer\":\"If God is necessarily morally perfect, then God does not have the maximum conceivable power and therefore is not all-powerful. The conclusion follows from a challenge built on propositions P1–P3.\"},{\"question\":\"How are propositions P1–P3 used to challenge the Anselmian view?\",\"answer\":\"P1 says necessary moral perfection prevents actualizing certain morally bad states. P2 says omnipotence requires the power to actualize those states. P3 then supports that if the power exists, a possible world exists where the state is actualized.\"},{\"question\":\"What account of omnipotence is discussed as a response to P2?\",\"answer\":\"The paper considers an approach by Thomas Flint and Alfred Freddoso that relies on Plantinga’s distinction between weak and strong actualization, using it to carve out logical room for reconciling omnipotence with moral perfection.\"}]",1783381829,45,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"omnipotence-and-necessary-moral-perfection-are-they-compatible","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/omnipotence-and-necessary-moral-perfection-are-they-compatible/43496/",{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-20","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What is the paper’s main claim about omnipotence and necessary moral perfection?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"If God is necessarily morally perfect, then God does not have the maximum conceivable power and therefore is not all-powerful. The conclusion follows from a challenge built on propositions P1–P3.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How are propositions P1–P3 used to challenge the Anselmian view?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"P1 says necessary moral perfection prevents actualizing certain morally bad states. P2 says omnipotence requires the power to actualize those states. P3 then supports that if the power exists, a possible world exists where the state is actualized.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What account of omnipotence is discussed as a response to P2?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The paper considers an approach by Thomas Flint and Alfred Freddoso that relies on Plantinga’s distinction between weak and strong actualization, using it to carve out logical room for reconciling omnipotence with moral perfection.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,125,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":121,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":122,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":124},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]