Re: MR: Disc: Saber es poder

[edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com]

Poster: edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com

> >> It is also impossible, if you don't know everything, then you don't
> >> KNOW what you can't do, therefore you're not omnipotent.
>
> Actually, no. It has very easy to have power well in excess of your
> comprehension. You don't have to look very far to find examples, Leifr.
[...]
> >Omniscience is an incidental byproduct of omnipotence. If one is
> >all-powerful, then amongst one's powers is omniscience.
>
> Now, now, Henry. Surely, knowledge and power are separable quantities. Of
> course, if you accept the paradigm that "Knowledge is power", then your
> assertion is actually backward--omnipotence is an incidental byproduct of
> omniscience...oohhh...that would be Leifr's basic assumption.

Non sequitur.  Leifr said that omniscience was _necessary_ for omnipotence,
but he didn't say it was _sufficient_.
"You can't open that box without the key" is NOT the same thing as
"If you have the key, you can open that box."
The box might be buried under a mile of rock.

"Knowledge is power" is the phrase I was groping for.  The Bartlett
home page (http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/bartlett/) claims that
Francis Bacon said that in "Meditationes Sacrae. De Haeresibus." and
went on to say, "Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est."

Mr. Bartlett adds a footnote that reads,

     A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.
          --Proverbs xxiv. 5.

     Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
          --Samuel Johnson: Rasselas, chap. xiii.

I hope this helps.

-- Alfredo
 
 
Alfredo el Bufon
Elvegast, Windmaster's Hill, Atlantia
edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com
______________________________________
So, where the hell was Biggles, when you needed him last Saturday?
And where are all the sportsmen who used to pull you through?
They're all resting down in Cornwall, writing up their memoirs
For a paperback edition of the Boy Scout Manual.
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