LessonsObligation Beyond Capacity: Possibility, Ability, and Moral JudgmentQuiz

Four questions organize the problem of obligation beyond capacity:
1. Is the requested act coherent in itself?
2. Does this particular addressee possess the relevant human ability?
3. Are we asking about conceptual permissibility or actual occurrence of a command?
4. Does nonoccurrence arise from the act’s essence or from external facts such as infallible foreknowledge or report?

Answering them separately distinguishes intrinsic contradiction, human incapacity, intrinsic possibility, and impossibility arising from another condition. The meanings of rational good and bad clarify why different theologians reached different conclusions.

The following subject, tawlīd, asks how effects following a human deed should be attributed.

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Synthesis of the problem of unperformable duties

Obligation Beyond Capacity: Possibility, Ability, and Moral Judgment

Four questions organize the problem of obligation beyond capacity:
1. Is the requested act coherent in itself?
2. Does this particular addressee possess the relevant human ability?
3. Are we asking about conceptual permissibility or actual occurrence of a command?
4. Does nonoccurrence arise from the act’s essence or from external facts such as infallible foreknowledge or report?

Answering them separately distinguishes intrinsic contradiction, human incapacity, intrinsic possibility, and impossibility arising from another condition. The meanings of rational good and bad clarify why different theologians reached different conclusions.

The following subject, tawlīd, asks how effects following a human deed should be attributed.