Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T00:10:16.171Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

God's Blindspot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Frederick Kroon
Frederick Kroon
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

God, by definition, is all-powerful, all-good, all-wise, and all-knowing. Therein lies a problem for the theist, of course, for every one of these attributes has been the subject of fierce debate. In this paper I want to return to the debate by introducing a new problem for the idea that anyone could have the kind of perfect knowledge God is supposed to have. What distinguishes my problem from others is that the sort of knowledge it focuses on is self-knowledge, hence knowledge of a particularly intimate kind. My claim is that God cannot have infallible knowledge of at least some of his own perfections, in particular his being all-wise or ideally rational. Such ignorance is not only inconsistent with the usual conception of God's omniscience, given that whatever knowledge God possesses is traditionally thought to be be a priori and infallible, but, more importantly, is inconsistent with the fundamental idea that God at least knows infallibly or incorrigibly that he has what it takes to be God: qualities such as omnibenevolence, omnipotence, and supreme wisdom. In short, my claim is that God must have a deep “blindspot” about his own nature, something which is inconsistent with a traditional picture of that nature.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , Fall 1996 , pp. 721 - 734
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Marilyn 1967 “Is the Existence of God a ‘Hard’ Fact?” Philosophical Review, 76: 492–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, C. Anthony 1983 “The Paradox of the Knower.” The Journal of Philosophy, 80: 338–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishop, John 1993 “Evil and the Concept of God.” Philosophical Papers, 22: 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conee, Earl 1982 “Utilitarianism and Paradox.” Analysis, 42: 55–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conee, Earl 1987 “Evident, but Rationally Unacceptable.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 65: 316–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conee, Earl 1994 “Against an Epistemic Dilemma.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 72: 475–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, John 1983 “Freedom and Foreknowledge.” Philosophical Review, 92: 67–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, Richard 1991 “Evidence and Reasons for Belief.” Analysis, 51: 98–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grim, Patrick 1983 “Some Neglected Problems of Omniscience.” American Philosophical Quarterly, 20: 265–76.Google Scholar
Grim, Patrick 1985 “Against Omniscience: The Case from Essential Indexicals.” Nous, 22: 341–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grim, Patrick 1991 The Incomplete Universe: Totality, Knowledge and Truth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, Frank 1987 Conditionals. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kripke, Saul 1975 “Outline of a Theory of Truth.” The Journal of Philosophy, 72: 690–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroon, Frederick 1983 “Rationality and Paradox.” Analysis, 43: 156–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroon, Frederick 1993 “Rationality and Epistemic Paradox.” Synthese, 94: 377–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, David 1994 “Elusive Knowledge.” University of Melbourne preprint series.Google Scholar
Odegard, Douglas 1993 “Resolving Epistemic Dilemmas.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 71: 161–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pike, Nelson 1965 “Divine Omniscience and Voluntary Action.”Philosophical Review, 14: 27–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pike, Nelson 1984 “Of God and Freedom: A Rejoinder.” Philosophical Review, 93: 599–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plantinga, Alvin 1986 “On Ockham's Way Out.” Faith and Philosophy, 3: 235–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorensen, Roy 1988 Blindspots. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Talliaferro, Charles 1985 “Divine Cognitive Power.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 18: 133–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar