Fact-checked by Grok 2 weeks ago

Omniscience

Omniscience is the attribute of possessing complete, perfect, and exhaustive , typically ascribed to in monotheistic theologies, encompassing all true , actual and possible events, past, present, and future realities, without any false beliefs or limitations. In philosophical terms, it is often defined propositionally as a being knowing every true proposition p p is true, while believing no falsehoods. This concept holds central importance in the and , where it forms one of the core divine perfections alongside and . Rooted in sacred texts across Abrahamic traditions—such as the Bible's assertion in 46:10 that declares "the end from the beginning" and Psalm 147:5 describing His understanding as limitless, or the 's emphasis on as 'Alim (the All-Knowing) who knows the unseen (Quran 6:59)—omniscience underscores and . Medieval theologians like further elaborated it as intuitive and eternal knowledge, grasped in a single, non-discursive act without sequence or change, distinct from human discursive reasoning. Key debates surrounding omniscience center on its compatibility with human and the nature of divine foreknowledge. Philosophers and theologians grapple with whether God's timeless knowledge of future choices precludes genuine freedom, leading to solutions like Boethius's view of God in an "eternal present," Molinism's middle knowledge of counterfactuals, or contemporary open theism's restriction of foreknowledge to what is knowable. These discussions also explore non-propositional dimensions, such as experiential or relational knowing, challenging purely propositional models and incorporating perspectives from that emphasize emotional and care-based knowledge. Overall, omniscience remains a foundational yet contested , influencing understandings of , , and .

Definition and Etymology

Definition

Omniscience is the property of possessing complete or maximal knowledge, encompassing all true propositions about past, present, and future events, thoughts, possibilities, and necessities. This attribute is formally defined in philosophical terms as: for any subject S, S is omniscient if and only if, for every true proposition p, S knows that p. Such knowledge is not merely extensive but exhaustive, including not only factual truths but also an understanding of their interconnections and implications, without limitation by time, space, or contingency. While often grouped with other divine perfections, omniscience is distinct from related attributes such as omnipotence, which denotes infinite power or the ability to actualize any logically possible state of affairs. Omniscience concerns the scope and perfection of knowing what is true, whereas omnipotence involves causal efficacy. Philosophers distinguish several types of omniscience. Essential omniscience holds that complete knowledge is an inherent and necessary aspect of the being's nature, inseparable from its essence. In contrast, acquired omniscience suggests that such knowledge could be attained through processes like perception or learning, though this raises questions about whether it truly qualifies as maximal if not timeless. A further category is middle knowledge, which involves awareness of counterfactuals—what would occur under hypothetical conditions, such as free choices in alternate scenarios—enabling a nuanced understanding of possibilities without determining them. The concept of omniscience emerged in ancient thought as a hallmark of divine or ultimate perfection, evolving from early reflections on maximal being in Greek philosophy to more systematic formulations in medieval perfect being theology. For instance, it gained prominence through Anselm of Canterbury's ontological argument, where God is defined as that than which nothing greater can be conceived, implying necessary omniscience as a supreme attribute. This development marked omniscience as integral to conceptions of an ideal knower in Western philosophy.

Etymology

The term "omniscience" originates from Medieval Latin omniscientia, formed by combining omnis ("all" or "every") with scientia ("knowledge"), denoting the capacity for complete or infinite knowledge of all things. This compound reflects a theological emphasis on divine attributes, where scientia implies not mere awareness but profound, systematic understanding. The adjective omniscient entered English usage around the 1610s, with omniscience as a noun appearing shortly thereafter, initially in theological writings such as those of Puritan divine Thomas Taylor in 1612. Precursors to the concept appear in , where discussions of the divine intellect's perfect —though lacking a direct equivalent term—laid foundational ideas; for instance, described the in the Timaeus as possessing wisdom encompassing the eternal forms, while Aristotle's in the Metaphysics engages in eternal self-contemplation as the highest form of knowing. In later Hellenistic and Neoplatonic traditions, terms like pantognōsia (παντογνωσία, "all-") emerged to articulate similar notions of . Across languages, the term has varied translations that capture its essence in religious and philosophical texts. In Hebrew, it corresponds to phrases like yodea kol ("knower of all") or yedi'at ha-kol (" of "), used in biblical descriptions of divine awareness. In Arabic, Islamic employs al-'alīm ("the All-Knowing") or constructs like al-'ilm al-kullī ("universal "), one of Allah's 99 names emphasizing exhaustive comprehension. In Sanskrit, Hindu scriptures use ("all-knowing"), applied to deities like to signify boundless wisdom beyond human limits. By the , "omniscience" evolved from its primarily theological roots to broader philosophical and secular applications, appearing in epistemological debates about maximal knowledge and in to denote an all-seeing voice that transcends limitations. This shift reflects growing interest in cognitive and universality outside religious frameworks.

Philosophical Perspectives

Ancient and Medieval Views

In , early conceptions of a divine or cosmic possessing comprehensive emerged among the Presocratics. introduced nous (mind or ) as an infinite, unmixed, and self-ruling principle that initiates cosmic motion and separation from the primordial mixture, ruling over all things with supreme power and complete judgment about everything. This nous is present wherever things are, knowing and directing the entire without being affected or mingled with it, suggesting an early proto-omniscience that orders the through perfect awareness. Plato developed this idea further in his cosmology, portraying the in the Timaeus as a benevolent divine craftsman with complete knowledge of the eternal Forms, using them as an unchanging model to impose on chaotic matter and create the as perfectly as possible. The 's intellect grasps the intelligible structure of , ensuring the reflects the ideal patterns of the Forms in its teleological , though limited by the imperfect nature of the receptacle it works upon. Aristotle shifted emphasis to a more abstract divine principle, describing as pure actuality and "thought thinking itself" (noûs noêseôs noêseôs), an eternal, unchanging activity of self-contemplation that knows only necessary truths and its own essence, without engagement with contingent or changing particulars. This implies a perfect but restricted omniscience, focused on immutable objects of thought, as knowledge of the temporal world would introduce passivity or change into the divine intellect, which Aristotle deems impossible. In , these Greek ideas were synthesized with monotheistic frameworks. addressed the tension between divine foreknowledge and human freedom by positing God's omniscience as timeless , where God perceives all events in a single, eternal present rather than sequential foreknowledge, thus knowing future contingents without necessitating them. In his Consolation of Philosophy, argues this atemporal perspective resolves apparent incompatibilities, allowing divine knowledge to encompass all time without implying predetermination. Thomas Aquinas integrated Aristotelian thought with , maintaining that God's omniscience includes knowledge of free human acts through divine causation and eternal vision, where contingent events are known as they are in themselves without altering . In the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas distinguishes the necessity of the divine knower from the of the known, asserting that God's non-discursive comprehends all causes—necessary and free—simultaneously. In Islamic philosophy, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) advanced an essentialist approach, where God knows particulars universally through their complete causes and essences, grasping all existents in a timeless, unchanging manner without direct attention to temporal changes. This view posits that divine knowledge of individuals derives from essential properties and causal chains, maintaining God's immutability while encompassing the multiplicity of creation.

Modern and Contemporary Views

In the Enlightenment period, René Descartes integrated the concept of omniscience into his foundational epistemology through the cogito argument, positing that God's perfect nature, perceived via clear and distinct ideas, guarantees the truth of such perceptions, including divine knowledge of all things. Descartes argued that the idea of God as an infinitely perfect being, encompassing omniscience, is innate and indubitable, serving as the guarantor against deception in human cognition. John Locke, advancing empiricism, challenged Cartesian innate ideas by asserting that all human knowledge derives from sensory experience, thereby questioning claims of direct, innate access to divine omniscience while still affirming God's existence through rational demonstration from empirical ideas. Locke's framework implied limitations on human comprehension of divine knowledge, emphasizing that God's omniscience transcends empirical bounds but cannot be fully grasped without revelation or reason applied to experience. In 20th-century , defended a robust form of divine omniscience through the concept of middle knowledge, which posits that God knows not only all true propositions about what is and what will be but also counterfactuals of creaturely —what agents would do in any possible circumstance. This approach, rooted in Molinist theology, reconciles omniscience with human libertarian by placing middle knowledge logically between God's natural knowledge of possibilities and free knowledge of actualities. proposed a scaled version of omniscience, limiting it to knowledge of all logically possible truths at any given time, thereby avoiding paradoxes arising from future contingent events while preserving divine . Swinburne's model emphasizes that an omniscient being knows everything it is logically possible to know, excluding inherently unknowable future actions, thus rendering omniscience coherent within a temporal framework. Contemporary philosophical discussions often model omniscience using epistemic logic, defining it as the state of knowing all true propositions across possible worlds, where knowledge operators capture and relations. This formal approach addresses the logical omniscience problem—wherein ideal knowers infer all logical consequences—by refining models to include resource-bounded agents, though divine omniscience remains idealized as maximal propositional knowledge without such limits. Feminist critiques have challenged traditional propositional models of omniscience, arguing they embody patriarchal biases by prioritizing detached, totalizing knowledge over relational and embodied epistemologies, likening divine omniscience to invasive that undermines , particularly for marginalized subjects. Scholars like and others in advocate redefining omniscience to include empathetic, contextual knowing, critiquing it as a for hierarchical control that mirrors gendered power structures. In secular contexts, particularly AI ethics, debates extend omniscience analogies to machine intelligence, questioning whether advanced systems could approximate "god-like" knowledge through vast data processing while highlighting inherent limits like algorithmic biases and incompleteness in predictive models. Philosophers argue that AI's pursuit of comprehensive knowledge raises ethical concerns about and , paralleling critiques of divine omniscience but grounded in technological feasibility rather than metaphysics. These discussions underscore that true omniscience remains unattainable for machines, as they lack the holistic understanding and attributed to divine , prompting reflections on human-AI relations in an era of .

Religious Perspectives

Abrahamic Traditions

In , God's omniscience is affirmed through scriptural depictions of divine foreknowledge, as in 46:9-10, where declares, "I am , and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’" This attribute underscores God's transcendence and unity, with the and Prophets portraying Him as searching hearts and knowing secrets, as seen in 17:10: "I the search the heart and test the mind." Medieval philosopher , in his rationalist framework, conceptualized divine omniscience as non-propositional and beyond human analogy, emphasizing that God's knowledge encompasses universals and particulars without implying change or division in the divine essence, thereby preserving God's incorporeality and immutability. In , omniscience finds biblical foundation in passages such as Psalm 147:5, which states, "Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure," and 4:13, affirming that "no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Early Church Father Augustine developed this through the notion of an eternal present, where God perceives all temporal events—past, present, and future—simultaneously in an unchanging act of knowledge, transcending time itself to reconcile divine foreknowledge with human agency. During the , debates intensified around , with viewing God's omniscience as tied to His sovereign decree, where foreknowledge follows divine election without dependence on human will, emphasizing monergistic . In contrast, argued for conditional predestination based on God's prior foreknowledge of free human responses enabled by , thus integrating omniscience with synergistic human responsibility. In , the vividly describes God's omniscience in Surah Al-Baqarah 2:255 (Ayat al-Kursi): "He knows what is ahead and behind them, but no one grasps His except what He wills," portraying it as all-encompassing the heavens and without fatigue or limitation. Theological schools diverged on its implications for human actions: the Mu'tazilites, emphasizing , held that God's omniscience includes free human choices without predetermining them, viewing divine as responsive to human liberty to uphold justice. Conversely, the Ash'arites maintained that God's eternal fully encompasses all events, including human acts, which occur through divine will yet allow for human acquisition, reconciling omniscience with moral . Across , , omniscience manifests as a core divine attribute implying immutability—God's remains eternal and unchanging—and , enabling and providential governance without alteration in the divine nature. This shared emphasis highlights God's unrivaled , where comprehensive of all realities underscores His and role as ultimate judge.

Indian Traditions

In Indian traditions, omniscience is conceptualized not as an absolute divine attribute but as a soteriological attainment linked to from the cycle of karma and rebirth. In , omniscience, termed sarvajña (all-knowing), is a core attribute of , the described in the as the transcendent source of all knowledge and the themselves. For instance, the Chhandogya Upanishad portrays as possessing effortless omniscience, from which the Rig-Veda and other scriptures emanate without study or effort, emphasizing its role as the cause of the world and preserver of cosmic order across cycles of creation. Similarly, the depicts as the revealer of supreme knowledge (Brahma-vidya), distinguishing it from inferior Vedic sciences and underscoring its profound, all-encompassing awareness. Within Hinduism, avatars like Krishna exhibit varying degrees of omniscience, manifesting Brahman's qualities in human form to guide devotees toward dharma and liberation. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna declares himself the source of all spiritual and material worlds, embodying cosmic consciousness and omniscience as he reveals his universal form to Arjuna, stating, "I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me." This partial expression of omniscience serves soteriological purposes, instructing on selfless action (karma yoga) and devotion (bhakti) to overcome ignorance and karmic bondage, rather than implying total factual knowledge at all times. In , the Buddha's omniscience, known as sabbaññu, centers on penetrative insight into dependent origination (paṭiccasamuppāda), the causal chain of suffering and its cessation, rather than exhaustive knowledge of all facts. texts, such as the Majjhima Nikaya (MN 71 and MN 90), describe this as threefold knowledge: recollection of , understanding rebirth according to karma, and discernment of defilements' destruction, rejecting simultaneous omniscience of all phenomena as incompatible with . The Buddha's silence on metaphysical questions, as in the Cūḷamāḷuṅkya Sutta (MN 63), reflects pedagogical focus on experiential truths leading to enlightenment, not speculative totality. traditions, by contrast, elevate the Buddha's omniscience to a more transcendent, cosmic scale, portraying him as a metaphysical entity with supernatural attributes in texts like the , where his knowledge encompasses skillful means (upāyakausalya) for universal salvation, diverging from 's emphasis on human-achieved wisdom. Jainism posits kevala jñāna as perfect, unobstructed omniscience attained by liberated souls (siddhas or jīvas), enabling direct cognition of all substances and modes in the without mediation. This supreme marks the culmination of spiritual progress, freeing the from karmic influx and achieving mokṣa. The Tattvārtha Sūtra outlines a 14-stage progression of virtues (guṇasthānas), from partial to omniscient purity: the first four stages involve right and amid subtle , stages five through seven refine partial omniscience (kevala avagrah), and the final seven culminate in kevala jñāna at the 12th stage, where all karmic veils are shed for infinite perception. This path underscores omniscience as the reward of ethical conduct and , integral to where souls evolve through karmic purification toward eternal bliss. Across these traditions, omniscience is intrinsically bound to enlightenment and the transcendence of karma, representing the soul's or mind's perfection rather than an external divine possession. Unlike Western conceptions of God's unchanging, absolute knowledge, Indian views allow graded realizations— from partial insights in avatars or arhats to full attainment in liberated beings—prioritizing soteriological efficacy over ontological totality.

Other Traditions

In the Bahá'í Faith, God is described as Al-'Alim, the All-Knowing or Omniscient, possessing complete and infinite awareness of all creation and events. This attribute underscores God's role in guiding humanity through progressive revelation, where divine knowledge is progressively disclosed via Manifestations such as Abraham, , , Christ, , and Bahá'u'lláh, adapting to the spiritual capacity of each age. The , the central text revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, affirms this omniscience through phrases such as "He, verily, is the Omniscient, the All-Informed," particularly in contexts prescribing ordinances like those on and . In , , the supreme reality, is portrayed as omniscient, with intimate knowledge of all thoughts, deeds, and the inner workings of creation as described in the . Verses emphasize that perceives every action and , recording deeds for ultimate , as in the line "The True Lord knows and all deeds will be recorded." This omniscience coexists with human responsibility, where individuals exercise under divine (command or will), fostering ethical living without predetermining outcomes. East Asian traditions conceptualize cosmic knowledge differently from personal omniscience. In , () represents an all-encompassing moral and natural order, embodying comprehensive awareness of human affairs and the universe's harmony, serving as the source of ethical mandates without anthropomorphic attributes. Daoism, through , implies an intuitive, non-interventional cosmic awareness realized via (effortless action), where alignment with the Dao grants profound insight into existence's flow, though not exhaustive propositional knowledge of . Indigenous traditions, such as those among peoples, often depict the (or equivalents like in ) as a holistic, relational force permeating all , knowing through interconnected bonds rather than detached observation. This emphasizes participatory , where the 's awareness arises from mutual relations among humans, animals, and the land, fostering communal harmony and ecological stewardship over abstract, all-seeing .

Theological and Philosophical Implications

Omniscience and Free Will

The paradox of divine omniscience and human , often termed theological , posits that if an omniscient being infallibly knows all human actions, those actions must be necessary and thus incompatible with genuine freedom. This tension arises because infallible foreknowledge fixes the : once a divine belief about a future act exists in the , the necessity of the implies that act cannot occur otherwise, eliminating alternate possibilities required for libertarian . Philosopher Nelson Pike formalized this argument in 1965, arguing that God's past beliefs transfer to future events, rendering human choices unfree. One early solution, proposed by in the , reconciles the through divine timelessness: God exists outside of time and perceives all moments simultaneously, so divine "foreknowledge" is not a temporal but an present , avoiding any causal determination of human actions. This view influenced later thinkers, including , who argued in the 13th century that God's knowledge does not impose necessity on contingent events, as transcends temporal sequence. Compatibilist approaches maintain that omniscience and can coexist. , developed by in the 16th century, introduces "middle knowledge," whereby knows all counterfactuals of creaturely freedom—what free agents would do in any possible circumstance—allowing divine foreknowledge without predetermining choices. Similarly, (4th-5th century) viewed as compatible with liberty, asserting that God's foreknowledge encompasses voluntary acts without coercing the will, as human freedom operates within . Incompatibilist critiques reject such reconciliations. , advanced in modern works like Pinnock et al. (1994), holds that knows all possibilities and present realities but not future free acts, as the future remains partly open and indeterminate, preserving libertarian at the cost of exhaustive foreknowledge. , in his 1983 essay, argues that divine foreknowledge logically entails , as the truth of past divine beliefs necessitates future outcomes, making alternate possibilities impossible and thus illusory. Medieval debates highlighted these tensions, with Aquinas emphasizing an intellectualist view where the will follows rational judgment, aligning free choices with divine omniscience through eternal causation. In contrast, John Duns Scotus (13th-14th century) adopted a voluntarist stance, positing the will's independent of the , ensuring in actions despite God's and challenging Aquinas's integration of foreknowledge with . Modern resolutions, such as those in compatibilist Frankfurt-style cases, further explore without alternate possibilities, while ongoing discussions in continue to refine these positions.

Omniscience and Privacy of Consciousness

The philosophical problem of omniscience and the privacy of consciousness centers on whether an omniscient being can fully access subjective conscious experiences, known as —the "what it is like" aspect of phenomena, such as the felt quality of seeing red or feeling pain. Thomas Nagel's seminal argument posits that objective descriptions of physical processes, no matter how complete, fail to capture the subjective character of experience, as illustrated by the bat's echolocation, which remains inaccessible to human understanding despite full scientific knowledge of bats. Extending this to omniscience, philosophers like Patrick Grim argue that first-person (de se) knowledge is inherently private and indexical, such that an omniscient cannot know what a particular individual knows about their own experience without becoming that individual, rendering full omniscience incompatible with distinct conscious subjects. A related challenge arises from Frank Jackson's , adapted to divine cognition in the "Mary's room" : suppose an omniscient possesses all propositional facts about human neurology and physics but lacks direct experiential acquaintance with ; upon "experiencing" for the first time, would new be gained, implying a limit to omniscience? This highlights a potential gap between knowing that something is the case (propositional ) and knowing what it is like (), suggesting that may elude even divine comprehension. Theological responses address this tension by reinterpreting divine knowledge. maintains that God knows all things, including individual and singular events, through His own immutable , which contains the similitudes of analogically rather than univocally or exhaustively in their subjective mode; thus, God comprehends the nature of conscious experiences as effects of His causation without participating in their first-person privacy. In contrast, , as articulated by thinkers like , proposes that God self-limits omniscience to respect creaturely freedom and subjectivity, knowing only "public" or objective facts while allowing the intrinsic privacy of subjective prehensions (momentary experiences) to remain inaccessible, thereby preserving relational dipolarity without contradiction. Modern extensions amplify these concerns through and . In , the privacy of manifests in "undecidable" brain states, where mapping neural activity to encounters Gödel-like incompleteness—certain experiential properties cannot be algorithmically derived from physical data, akin to unprovable truths in formal systems, complicating any exhaustive decoding even for an omniscient observer. Jean-Paul Sartre's further critiques omniscience by portraying as a "nothingness" that is pre-reflectively transparent to itself but radically opaque to external gazes, including a divine one; the "Look" of the Other objectifies the self, but the for-itself's freedom ensures an irreducible subjective interiority that defies total penetration. The core distinction lies between propositional knowledge—all true facts about the world, which omniscience fully encompasses—and experiential or non-propositional , such as the first-person feel of or sensations, which may not require divine to affirm maximal , as argued by Linda Zagzebski's concept of "omnisubjectivity," where God empathetically grasps perspectives without experiential identity. This framework reconciles omniscience with privacy by confining it to comprehensive factual awareness, leaving subjective as privileged domains of finite .

Omniscience and Theodicy

Theodicy addresses the apparent tension between divine omniscience and the existence of , as an all-knowing possesses complete foreknowledge of all and wrongdoing yet permits them to occur without . This foreknowledge raises profound questions about why a benevolent would allow such events, given the capacity to foresee and potentially avert them. Traditional formulations of the problem highlight that omniscience entails not only awareness of but also the divine to actualize a containing it, thereby implicating in its permission. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's influential reconciles this by positing that God's enables the selection of the "best " from infinite conceivable alternatives, where evil is a necessary component for achieving maximal , variety, and . In this framework, apparent evils contribute to greater goods—such as arising from overcoming adversity or the contrast that enhances appreciation of goodness—that could not exist in a world devoid of moral challenges. Leibniz argues that divine foreknowledge ensures this optimal arrangement, as God comprehends all possible outcomes and chooses the one maximizing overall , even if human understanding perceives imbalances. Skeptical theism offers another response, emphasizing human cognitive limitations in grasping the full scope of an omniscient God's justifications for permitting . Philosopher Stephen Wykstra argues that our inability to discern reasons for does not imply their absence, as divine omniscience encompasses reasons far beyond human epistemic access; thus, apparent gratuitous do not undermine the probability of God's . Wykstra's (Condition Of Reasonable Epistemic Access) principle underscores that about inferring divine non-existence from evil is warranted, given the vast disparity between finite human perspectives and infinite divine knowledge. Alternative approaches include John Hick's elaboration of the Irenaean soul-making , which portrays the world as a developmental environment where omniscience guides the process of human maturation from self-centered existence to empathetic, God-responsive persons. Here, foreknowledge allows God to orchestrate challenges that cultivate virtues like and , essential for spiritual growth that a pain-free world could not foster. Complementing this, Alvin Plantinga's free will defense maintains that omniscience does not compel God to cause human choices, enabling the creation of free agents whose potential for moral good outweighs the risk of , with divine knowledge simply apprehending rather than determining outcomes. Critiques of these positions, notably J.L. 's logical , assert that omniscience combined with and perfect goodness renders any instance of evil—especially gratuitous suffering without compensating greater goods—logically incoherent. contends that God's foreknowledge of pointless evils implies a failure to prevent them, contradicting benevolence, as an omnipotent being could actualize a world with freedom but without such unnecessary pain. This argument challenges theodicies by questioning whether claimed greater goods truly justify divine permission of foreseeable horrors.

References

  1. [1]
    [PDF] Defining Omniscience: A Feminist Perspective
    Jul 1, 2010 · In contemporary philosophy of religion, the doctrine of omniscience is typi- cally rendered propositionally, as the claim that God knows all ...
  2. [2]
    Empathy and Divine Omniscience - The Good Book Blog - Biola ...
    Nov 16, 2022 · S is omniscient if and only if S knows that p and does not believe not-p. As an omniscient being God must possess all propositional knowledge.
  3. [3]
    [PDF] SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY THEOLOGY The Doctrine of God DR ...
    SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. THEOLOGY. The Doctrine of God. DR. E. C. BRAGG. Page 2 ... omniscience. He not only knows, but knows all things. In Isaiah 1:18, "Come.
  4. [4]
    On the Foreknowledge of God - BYU Studies
    What remains open, however, is the meaning of “omniscience” and, in particular, the status of foreknowledge of the future as a subset of all knowledge. Does ...
  5. [5]
    Omniscience - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Feb 1, 2010 · Omniscience is the property of having complete or maximal knowledge. Along with omnipotence and perfect goodness, it is usually taken to be one of the central ...Defining Omniscience · Foreknowledge and Human... · Further Difficulties for...
  6. [6]
    Omniscience and Divine Foreknowledge
    Omniscience is an attribute having to do with knowledge; it is the attribute of “having knowledge of everything.” Many philosophers consider omniscience to be ...Beliefs, Sentences... · Non-comparative Analyses of... · Comparative Analyses of...
  7. [7]
    Omnipotence - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    May 21, 2002 · Omnipotence is maximal power. Maximal greatness (or perfection) includes omnipotence. According to traditional Western theism, God is maximally great (or ...
  8. [8]
    Omniscience - Etymology, Origin & Meaning
    Originating from Latin omnis "all" + scientia "knowledge," omniscientia means infinite knowledge or the quality of fully knowing all things.
  9. [9]
    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/omniscient
  10. [10]
    omniscience, n. meanings, etymology and more
    The earliest known use of the noun omniscience is in the early 1600s. OED's earliest evidence for omniscience is from 1612, in the writing of Thomas Taylor, ...<|control11|><|separator|>
  11. [11]
    Yediat Hakkol - God knows all - Hebrew for Christians
    In Hebrew, the theological term "omniscience" is sometimes rendered yediat hakkol: "knowledge of everything." Adonai knows all of the birds and animals in the ...
  12. [12]
    Al-Alim Meaning: The All-Knowing One (99 Names of Allah) - My Islam
    Al-Alim and Al-Aleem take on the grandeur form of being The Knower, The All-Knowing, The Omniscient. This attribute helps us understand how Allah's knowledge is ...
  13. [13]
    Omniscience meaning in Sanskrit - Shabdkosh.com
    The word or phrase Omniscience refers to the state of being omniscient; having infinite knowledge. See Omniscience meaning in Sanskrit, Omniscience definition, ...
  14. [14]
    sarvajña - Sanskrit Dictionary
    sarvajña, mf(ā-)n. all-knowing, omniscient (said of gods and men, especially of ministers and philosophers) etc. View this entry on the original dictionary page ...
  15. [15]
    Anaxagoras | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    According to Anaxagoras, the agent responsible for the rotation and separation of the primordial mixture is Mind or nous: “And when Mind began to cause motion, ...Missing: omniscience | Show results with:omniscience
  16. [16]
    Nous, the Concept of Ultimate Reality and Meaning in Anaxagoras
    3.3 Omniscient by Separating and Aggregating Everything Without Being Affected by. Anything. Nous according to Anaxagoras knows everything yet does not take ...
  17. [17]
    Plato's Timaeus - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Oct 25, 2005 · In the Timaeus Plato presents an elaborately wrought account of the formation of the universe and an explanation of its impressive order and beauty.
  18. [18]
    http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0180
  19. [19]
    Aristotle: Metaphysics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    ### Summary of Aristotle's View of the Divine Intellect (God) and Implications for Knowledge
  20. [20]
    eternity, in Christian thought - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Mar 22, 2018 · “Theism” will here refer to the view that there is a God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, who created the world, and who is ...3. Brief Historical Remarks · 4. Some Views On God And... · 4.1 Divine Timelessness<|control11|><|separator|>
  21. [21]
    Foreknowledge and Free Will - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Jul 6, 2004 · Theological fatalism is the thesis that infallible foreknowledge of a human act makes the act necessary and hence unfree.
  22. [22]
    Future contingency and God's knowledge of particulars in Avicenna
    Jun 28, 2022 · Avicenna argues that God knows particulars by knowing their complete causes, and when contrasted with the human knowledge of particulars, this epistemically ...
  23. [23]
    Full article: Avicennian essentialism
    Jan 13, 2022 · According to Avicenna's theory of mental existence, essences of things equally exist in our minds as in the reality outside our minds. There is ...
  24. [24]
    Descartes' Ontological Argument
    Jun 18, 2001 · I clearly and distinctly perceive that necessary existence is contained in the idea of God. Therefore, God exists. The rule for truth appears ...
  25. [25]
    Descartes' Epistemology - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Dec 3, 1997 · The extraordinary certainty and doubt-resistance of the cogito marks an Archimedean turning point in the meditator's inquiry. However, there are ...
  26. [26]
    John Locke - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Sep 2, 2001 · Thus, Locke subscribes to a version of the empiricist axiom that there is nothing in the intellect that was not previously in the senses—where ...Locke's Political Philosophy · In John Locke's philosophy · Locke's Moral Philosophy
  27. [27]
    Locke: Epistemology | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Locke's empiricism can be seen as a step forward in the development of the modern scientific worldview. Modern science bases its conclusions on empirical ...
  28. [28]
    Middle Knowledge | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Middle knowledge is a form of knowledge first attributed to God by the sixteenth century Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina.Scientia Media · Objections to Middle Knowledge · The Usefulness of Middle...
  29. [29]
    Middle Knowledge, Truth-Makers, and the “Grounding Objection”
    The so-called “grounding objection” is the most commonly raised misgiving which philosophers have to the doctrine of divine middle knowledge.
  30. [30]
    (PDF) Swinburne's views on the temporality and omniscience of God
    Sep 7, 2023 · Swinburne thinks that words should be used in the most perfect sense possible even though they are not always accurate.Missing: scaled | Show results with:scaled
  31. [31]
    [PDF] Untitled - Evangelical Theological Society
    Richard Swinburne puts it, omniscience is "knowledge of everything true which is logically possible to know."4 And since according to this view it is.
  32. [32]
    Epistemic Logic - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Jun 7, 2019 · Epistemic logic is a subfield of philosophical logic concerned with logical approaches to knowledge, belief, and related notions.
  33. [33]
    Defining Omniscience: A Feminist Perspective - ResearchGate
    Aug 9, 2025 · The adequacy of propositional conceptions of omniscience is therefore in question. This paper draws on the work of feminist epistemologists to ...
  34. [34]
    [PDF] AI and the Metaphor of the Divine - PhilPapers
    The discussion about building ethics into AI technology shows a desire to add one more feature to “omniscient and omnipotent,” namely “benevolent.” The metaphor ...
  35. [35]
    AI and Human Futures: What Should Christians Think?
    [64] AI may tempt us to think we can grasp omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence if we unite ourselves with it. But not even an AI-connected global brain ...
  36. [36]
    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+46%3A9-10&version=ESV
  37. [37]
    Omniscience of God - The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia - StudyLight.org
    He is perfect; He is omniscient ("De Eo Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiatur," § 42); He is omnipotent; He is free from evil and, therefore, can not be its source ...
  38. [38]
    Maimonides - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Jan 24, 2006 · Again Maimonides thinks he is justified in saying that Abraham discovered proofs for the existence of a God who is neither a body nor a force in ...Fundamental Orientation · God and the Via Negativa · Creation · Bibliography
  39. [39]
    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+147%3A5%3B+Hebrews+4%3A13&version=ESV
  40. [40]
    God's eternal knowledge according to Augustine (Chapter 2)
    It turns out that God's knowledge from all eternity, and its relation to temporal knowledge and events, is a perfect test case. As Augustine proceeds with his ...
  41. [41]
    (PDF) God's sovereignty in the teachings of Calvin and Arminius
    Aug 7, 2025 · In the first part of this study, we presented a historical review of Calvin's idea of sovereignty and how Arminius and his followers opposed ...
  42. [42]
    Surah Al-Baqarah - 255 - Quran.com
    ### Summary of Surah Al-Baqarah 2:255 (English Translation)
  43. [43]
    (PDF) The Qurānic View of Omniscience and Human Freedom*
    May 20, 2019 · The Mu'tazilites were libertarian whereas the Ash'arites were predestinarian. The present research is an attempt to examine different ...<|separator|>
  44. [44]
    Divine Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Human Freedom (Chapter 20)
    The religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all seem to require belief in God's unlimited power, all-encompassing knowledge, and human choice.
  45. [45]
    [PDF] PDF - University of Illinois Library
    Brahman* and tfte ChhSndogya Upanishad :* Manu, ii. 76 ff. \4.kdram cJtdpy ... transcendent omniscience and omnipotence of that great Being from whom ...
  46. [46]
    [PDF] Lord Krishna as Brahman in the Bhagavadgita - Nepal Journals Online
    In the Bhagavadgita, Lord Krishna is seen as Brahman, the source of cosmic consciousness, the ultimate reality, and the nucleus of the universe.
  47. [47]
    https://doi.org/10.3126/ojes.v11i0.36360
  48. [48]
    [PDF] A Hermeneutical Study of the Ways the Buddha Answers Questions
    Aug 13, 2018 · It shed light on different dialectical modes of the Buddha, such as the novel use of silence, counter-questioning, analytical style, and.
  49. [49]
    [PDF] The Evolution of the Concept of the Buddha within the Pāli Canon ...
    May 12, 2022 · omniscience to the Gotama Buddha in Theravāda tradition does not signify that he is ... “Deification of the Buddha in Theravada Buddhism.” ...
  50. [50]
    (PDF) Omniscience in Indian Philosophy of Religion - Academia.edu
    The concept of omniscience is prominent in both Western and Indian philosophy of religion. A comparison of the different treatments accorded the notion in ...
  51. [51]
    Medieval Theories of Free Will - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Thus, the will is free of determination by the intellect. Scotus agrees with Aquinas that the will depends upon the intellect to identify possible courses of ...
  52. [52]
    https://iep.utm.edu/freewi-m/
  53. [53]
    Qualia: The Knowledge Argument
    Sep 3, 2002 · According to Nagel, the physical facts about an organism and its perceptual systems are “objective facts par excellence – the kind that can be ...Missing: divine | Show results with:divine
  54. [54]
    https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia-knowledge/
  55. [55]
    https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1014.htm#article5
  56. [56]
    Consciousness as a Gödel sentence in the language of science
    Oct 24, 2024 · Which again, looks like our universe, where there is no accepted lawful way to relate brain states to conscious experiences—what it is like to ...
  57. [57]
    https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/consciousness-as-a-godel-sentence
  58. [58]
    https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sartre/#BeingNoth
  59. [59]
    God's Propositional and Non-Propositional Knowledge -
    Jul 10, 2020 · A person S is omniscient iff, for any proposition p, S knows that p and does not believe not-p. As an omniscient being God therefore has ...
  60. [60]
    [PDF] Evil and Omnipotence JL Mackie Mind, New Series, Vol. 64, No. 254 ...
    Jan 1, 2008 · In. Hume's rather half-hearted presentation of the problem of evil, the evils that he stresses are pain and disease. and those who reply to him ...
  61. [61]
    [PDF] A Skeptical Theist View - PhilPapers
    What is now called skeptical theism emerged within the discipline of philosophy in the early 1980s. It arose in response to the new "evidential problem of evil" ...
  62. [62]
    [PDF] God Freedom and Evil
    This book discusses and exemplifies the philosophy of religion, or philos ophical reflection on central themes of religion. Philosophical reflection.<|separator|>