Omniscience

Key takeaways

Omniscience belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Omniscience to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Omniscience from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Omniscience is the property of possessing maximal knowledge. In Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, it is often attributed to a divine being or an all-knowing spirit, entity or person. In Jainism, omniscience is an attribute that any individual can eventually attain. In Buddhism, there are differing beliefs about omniscience among different schools.

Etymology The word omniscience derives from the Latin word sciens ("to know" or "conscious") and the prefix omni ("all" or "every"), but also means "all-seeing".

In religion

Buddhism The topic of omniscience has been much debated in various Indian traditions, but no more so than by the Buddhists. After Dharmakirti's excursions into the subject of what constitutes a valid cognition, Śāntarakṣita and his student Kamalaśīla thoroughly investigated the subject in the Tattvasamgraha and its commentary the Panjika. The arguments in the text can be broadly grouped into four sections:

The refutation that cognitions, either perceived, inferred, or otherwise, can be used to refute omniscience. A demonstration of the possibility of omniscience through apprehending the selfless universal nature of all knowables, by examining what it means to be ignorant and the nature of mind and awareness. A demonstration of the total omniscience where all individual characteristics (svalaksana) are available to the omniscient being. The specific demonstration of Shakyamuni Buddha's non-exclusive omniscience, but the knowledge of Shakyamuni Buddha's is really infinite and no other gods or being can match his true omniscience.

Christianity

Some modern Christian theologians argue that God's omniscience is inherent rather than total, and that God chooses to limit his omniscience in order to preserve the free will and dignity of his creatures. John Calvin, among other theologians of the 16th century, comfortable with the definition of God as being omniscient in the total sense, in order for worthy beings' abilities to choose freely, embraced the doctrine of predestination.

Hinduism In the Bhakti tradition of Vaishnavism, where Vishnu is worshipped as the supreme God, Vishnu is attributed with numerous qualities such as omniscience, energy, strength, lordship, vigour, and splendour.

Islam God in Islam is attributed with absolute omniscience. God knows the past, the present, and the future. It is compulsory for a Muslim to believe that God is indeed omniscient as stated in one of the six articles of faith which is:

To believe that God's divine decree and predestination Say: Do you instruct God about your religion? But God knows all that is in the heavens and on the earth; God is Knowing of all things It is believed that humans can only change their predestination (wealth, health, deed etc.) and not divine decree (date of birth, date of death, family etc.), thus allowing free will.

Baha'i Faith Omniscience is an attribute of God, yet it is also an attribute that reveals sciences to humanity: In like manner, the moment the word expressing My attribute "The Omniscient" issueth forth from My mouth, every created thing will, according to its capacity and limitations, be invested with the power to unfold the knowledge of the most marvelous sciences, and will be empowered to manifest them in the course of time at the bidding of Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Knowing.

Jainism

In Jainism, omniscience is considered the highest type of perception. In the words of a Jain scholar, "The perfect manifestation of the innate nature of the self, arising on the complete annihilation of the obstructive veils, is called omniscience." Jainism views infinite knowledge as an inherent capability of every soul. Arihanta is the word used by Jains to refer to those human beings who have conquered all inner passions (like attachment, greed, pride, anger) and possess Kevala Jnana (infinite knowledge). They are said to be of two kinds:

Sāmānya kevali – omniscient beings (Kevalins) who are concerned with their own liberation. Tirthankara kevali – human beings who attain omniscience and then help others to achieve the same.

Omniscience and free will

Whether omniscience, particularly regarding the choices that a human will make, is compatible with free will has been debated by theologians and philosophers. The argument that divine foreknowledge is not compatible with free will is known as theological fatalism. It is argued that if humans are free to choose between alternatives, God could not know what this choice will be. A question arises: if an omniscient entity knows everything, even about its own decisions in the future, does it therefore forbid any free will to that entity? William Lane Craig states that the question subdivides into two:

If God foreknows the occurrence of some event E, does E happen necessarily? If some event E is contingent, how can God foreknow E's occurrence? However, this kind of argument fails to recognize its use of the modal fallacy. It is possible to show that the first premise of arguments like these is fallacious.

Omniscience and the privacy of conscious experience Some philosophers, such as Patrick Grim, Linda Zagzebski, Stephan Torre, and William Mander have discussed the issue of whether the apparent exclusively first-person nature of conscious experience is compatible with God's omniscience. There is a strong sense in which conscious experience is private, meaning that no outside observer can gain knowledge of what it is like to be me as me. If a subject cannot know what it is like to be another subject in an objective manner, the question is whether that limitation applies to God as well. If it does, then God cannot be said to be omniscient since there is then a form of knowledge that God lacks access to. The philosopher Patrick Grim most notably raised this issue. Linda Zagzebski argued against this by introducing the notion of perfect empathy, a proposed relation that God can have to subjects that would allow God to have perfect knowledge of their conscious experience. William Mander argued that God can only have such knowledge if our experiences are part of God's broader experience. Stephan Torre claimed that God can have such knowledge if self-knowledge involves the ascription of properties, either to oneself or to others.

See also Epistemology Omnibenevolence Omniscient point-of-view, in writing, is to know everything that can be known about a character. Omnipotence Omnipresence Pantomath Self-awareness

References

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Omniscience

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Omniscience claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Omniscience before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Omniscience ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Omniscience

In research: Omniscience appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Omniscience in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Omniscience is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Conceptions of God, Knowledge, Superlatives in religion, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Omniscience outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Omniscience in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Omniscience means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Omniscience out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Omniscience in simple terms?

Omniscience is the property of possessing maximal knowledge. In Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions, it is often attributed to a divine being or an all-knowing spirit, entity or person.

Why does Omniscience matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Omniscience?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Omniscience.