Omnisubjectivity

Linda Trinkaus Zagebski explains and defends the idea that the God of the monotheistic religions does not only know all objective facts, but he also perfectly grasps the conscious states of all conscious beings from their own point of view. She calls that property omnisubjectivity. God not only knows that you are in pain, for instance, but is present in your pain, grasping your pain the way you grasp it. The same point applies to every feeling, every belief, every thought, every desire you have. It also applies to the conscious states of animals. She argues that this attribute is entailed by attributes like omniscience and omnipresence, and is presupposed in common practices of prayer. Zagzebski proposes three models of omnisubjectivity, with special attention to the empathy model, where God's grasp of our conscious states is analogous to the way we empathize with someone else's thought or feeling. She shows how the attribute of omnisubjectivity has implications of the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, and argues that it means that subjectivity and intersubjectivity are deep in the universe, deeper than the universe objectively described.