Omnipotent

## Summary

Sometimes called "Unlimited Power," Omnipotent characters can literally do anything, as they are considered the be-all and end-all of characters and most of the time, God. They are the absolute strongest beings in their respective fictional franchises.

In fiction characters can only be presumed omnipotent, as much like in theology it is impossible to prove. In the best case there can be an impressive definition.

However, the following will show some points of what philosophy says about it, from the paradoxes to the current notion that it has.

**KEY WORDS**:

1. Scholastics
2. Possible Worlds
	1. Necessity
	2. Contingency
	3. Impossibility
3. Contradictions
	1. Paraconsistent Logic
	2. Dialetheism
	3. Trivialism
4. God
5. Universal Possibilism

## Etymology

**Omnipotence** derives from Latin, and means "All Power," or "All Potency". **Omnipotent**, being derived from this word, would have meant near to "Almighty" or "That can do all".

* Omni - from the Latin: *omnis* | meaning: every, all
* Potence
	+ from the Latin: *potentia* | meaning: power, potence
	+ from the Latin: *potens* | meaning: power, potence

## Definition

Omnipotence is from the beginnings of monotheism, an incommunicable attribute of God, usually accompanied by other attributes – Omniscience and Omnipresence.

This divine quality would be the possibility of having in itself the ability to do all things. The main religions whose God is omnipotent are the Abrahamic religions.

Since the advent of classical atheism, several paradoxes have been developed, pointing to the presence of logical inconsistencies – contradictions – in this attribute, many of them concluding that it is impossible for real omnipotence to exist. The best known of such is the paradox of stone.

From this point of view, various aspects have emerged in the attempt to invalidate such paradoxes or point out other definitions for omnipotence, the main and most defended of these views being the scholastic side presented by Thomas Aquinas in his compiled Summa Theologiæ.

The following will go into a little more detail on each side.

## Thomas Aquinas: The Scholastic Current

The scholastic omnipotence is "logical" omnipotence, which is most defended in theology. One of his most notable supporters was the friar, philosopher and theologian *Thomas Aquinas*, considered one of the fathers of the Catholic church and one of the greatest theologians of all time. Thomas Aquinas is known for his gigantic work Summa Theologiæ, in which he made various objections to God, and answered all of them.

Considering also the classical view of omnipotence, they argues that God could accomplish only what is logically possible, thus not violating the principles of classical logic. Proponents of this position argue that just as contradictions can never be part of reality, they can not be considered entities - they are literally nothing. As nothing is the absence of being, the everything has nothing included and therefore being able to do "everything" does not include the realization of contradictions. The concern of the scholastics, before classifying power, is to make sense.

Thomas Aquinas affirms that God's omnipotence is based on the realization of acts in the absolute possible, but this does not include absolute impossibility.

First of all, Aquinas here didn't refer to the possible and impossible in the common sense, but to the metaphysical possible and impossible. It is impossible for us to practice levitation, for example, but it is not to that kind of impossible that Aquinas refers, for this kind of possibility is not a logical impossibility. The reference is to beings who don't fit into any possible world, such as a triangle whose hypotenuse is greater than the sum of the legs, or anything that violates the principles of classical logic such as noncontradiction. It is recommended that you read about the *Possible World* concept, proposed by Gottfried Leibniz.
In other words, it would be possible for God to do anything, including the humanly impossible, as previously said. However, the logical impossible can not be put into power, and consequently can not be done, as St. Thomas explains shortly

## See Also

* Omnipresence
* Omniscience

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wiktionary: The free dictionary. *omnis*, *potens* & *potentia*‎. Available in: «omnis», «potens» & «potentia»