Editing Omnipotence paradox (section)

== Language and omnipotence ==
The philosopher [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] is frequently interpreted as arguing that language is not up to the task of describing the kind of power an omnipotent being would have. In his ''[[Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus]]'', he stays generally within the realm of [[logical positivism]] until claim 6.4—but at 6.41 and following, he argues that [[ethics]] and several other issues are "transcendental" subjects that we cannot examine with language. Wittgenstein also mentions the will, life after death, and God—arguing that, "When the answer cannot be put into words, neither can the question be put into words".<ref>Wittgenstein, Ludwig. proposition 6.5</ref>

Wittgenstein's work expresses the omnipotence paradox as a problem in [[semantics]]—the study of how we give symbols meaning. (The retort "That's only semantics," is a way of saying that a statement only concerns the definitions of words, instead of anything important in the physical world.) According to the ''Tractatus,'' then, even attempting to formulate the omnipotence paradox is futile, since language cannot refer to the entities the paradox considers. The final proposition of the ''Tractatus'' gives Wittgenstein's dictum for these circumstances: "What we cannot speak of, we must pass over in silence".<ref>Wittgenstein, Ludwig. proposition 7</ref>

Wittgenstein's approach to these problems is influential among other 20th century religious thinkers such as [[D. Z. Phillips]].<ref name="phillips">[[D. Z. Phillips]] "Philosophy, Theology and the Reality of God" in Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings. William Rowe and William Wainwright eds. 3rd ed. 1998 Oxford University Press</ref> In his later years, however, Wittgenstein wrote works often interpreted as conflicting with his positions in the ''Tractatus'',<ref name="hacker">Hacker, P.M.S. Wittgenstein's Place in Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy. 1996 Blackwell</ref> and indeed the later Wittgenstein is mainly seen as the leading critic of the early Wittgenstein.