Where the morality of good and bad depends entirely on the will or commands of God, the divine command theory of morality is one of the most highly controversial and defended theories in history. Also referred to as theological voluntarism its concept varies according to the particular religion and views of the individual command theorist, but ultimately revolves around the same common claim which morality and moral obligations depend on the command of some deity, according to the forum "Divine Command Theory in the Passage of History.". (pp. 307-328)
Not only does Divine Command Theory provide a metaphysical basis for morality, but it also gives us a good answer to the question, why should we be moral? Should we be moral because “An act is
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Being that the theory is based on the Divine Command of the God(s), any act as long as it is pious it can be moral; For instance, if the deity or God(s) were to say rape can be good or killing another human can be good, then it ultimately would. All that essentially matters is if the deity commands it, then it is as such because it is pious. According to the article (Divine Moral Goodness, Supererogation and the Euthyphro Dilemma), When making moral truths they are unalterable and necessary, ultimately defeating itself and cannot make sense of God's moral goodness, which then seems hard to see how God's commands could be morally good when god himself cannot be subject to moral obligations. This troubles many of the the divine command theorist, but Alston another …show more content…
The man eventually starved to death in the ditch and this troubled Euthyphro, he believed the murder was impious no matter the circumstances and believed it was his duty to prosecute his father for the killing. When discussing the incident, Plato questions if Euthyphro knowledge of religion on determining if things are pious or impious, who responds with; “Prosecuting a wrongdoer is pious, whether it is your friend, or your parents, or a stranger” (pp. 308). This spouts Socrates suggestion of a philosophical flaw to this divine command theory, which is now known as the Euthyphro question, while Euthyphro was an extremist and very pious, it left little room for convincing a touchy topic. Socrates tried to get across the question of an action is wrong or impious because God forbids it or does God forbid it because it is wrong or
During the dialogue, Euthyphro defines, “Piety means prosecuting the unjust individual who has committed murder or sacrilege, or any other such crime, as I am doing now, whether he is your father or mother or whoever he is.” Given this Euthyphro overarching principles can be summarized as divine law requires to prosecute the offender no matter who she or he is. Also, the ideology should be what befits humans as well. Socrates is fine with how Euthyphro accounts the factual evidence of his father’s misguided acts. What Socrates takes problem is how Euthyphro uses greek mythology to highlight that taking action against your parents is the correct direction of action. Due to the fact that mythology isn’t confirmed to be true in any sense, socrates feels as though this is extremely inappropriate. Euthyphro actions should be based on divine law with results in him being impious. Socrates ultimate principles can be summarized as respect for parents should be the ultimate law combined with whatever does not befit the gods shouldn’t befit everyone else. Insert another
In the Euthyphro, Socrates is making his way into the courthouse; however, prior to entering he had a discussion with a young priest of Athens, Euthyphro. This dialogue relates religion and justice to one another and the manner in which they correlate. Euthyphro feels as though justice necessitates religion and Socrates feels the opposite, religion necessitates justice. Euthyphro claims that religion is everything, justice, habits, traditions, customs, cultures, etc. all are derived from religion. Socrates went on to question what exactly would be the definition of pious. Euthyphro offered Socrates three definitions of pious and in all three Socrates was able to successfully find fault...
Keeping true to Socratic/Platonic methodology, questions are raised in the Euthyphro by conversation; specifically “What is holiness?” After some useless deliberation, the discussion between Socrates and Euthyphro ends inconclusively. Euthyphro varying definitions of piety include “What I do is pious to the gods,” and, “What is pleasing to the gods is pious.” Socrates proves these definitions to be insufficient, which leads us to the Apology.
The first objection that Socrates stated was that Euthyphro’s first definition of piety was not a definition because it did not express a general idea of the word piety. Soon after the first try at defining the word piety, Euthyphro said that “what is dear to all the gods.” In disagreement, Socrates let out his second objection, which was that some gods could disagree. Then, Euthyphro said that piety was “what is dear to all the gods.” As his final objection, Socrates states “should something be pious just because it is dear to the gods or is it dear to the gods because it is pious?” In short, is an action considered morally right by God because it is morally good, or is it morally good because God orders it? Even though this important point impacts the Divine Command Theory mainly, it also works against the theory of Cultural Relativism. The theory’s problems start arising when you start to think “why do our actions become moral if society or our culture approves of them?” There is also nothing in the theory of Cultural Relativism that explains why normal behavior in a society is considered the moral behavior instead of the other way around. Thus, morality is decided on a random basis there is nothing that says what makes normal behavior moral. The Divine Command Theory and Cultural Relativism both share this weakness that discredits
Dating all the way back to ancient Greece, Plato raised a challenge by merely asking, “Is it right because God commands it, or does God command it because it’s right?” Nowadays, this simple yet complex question poses a problem to modern day Christians. When understanding this question, you are forced to believe you only have one of two choices to accept. Those being either it is right because God commands it or God commands it because it is right. If it is right because God commands it then anything, specifically evil, could be right. On the other hand, if God commands it because it is right then the standard of goodness is no longer. Both options are hostile to Christianity. However, after further investigation, there is a third option: God’s very nature is the standard of goodness. By closely examining Plato’s Euthyphro Dilemma, it’s clear that a theist should undoubtedly accept the third option, being that of God’s nature is the standard of goodness.
The story that is found in Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro proposes a dilemma that has since been a very controversial subject. When Socrates encounters Euthyphyo, he is on his way to trail to face charges against his own father. His father had been accused o...
These were serious charges and if found guilty Socrates would be put to death. Socrates was searching for a way to save himself and the chance meeting with Euthyphro at the court would give Socrates a glimmer of hope of escaping a death sentence. Euthyphro was in court to present charges of murder against his father and made the observation of, “how little they know what the gods think about piety and impiety” (Euth., p. 12). When Socrates heard this statement, he believed he could face Meletus in court to tell the court the meaning of piety, prove that the charges against him were false, and thus he would have to be found not guilty. Socrates uses his Socratic method of discovering the definition or meaning of this fundamental human
In order to understand divine command theory we must first understand the nature of God and Morality. So we will start by taking a look at what makes an action moral. Once we understand what makes an action moral, we can then try to understand the author's’ viewpoint on the divine command theory of ethics. Understanding the viewpoint will allow us to dissect the author’s viewpoints and come up with counter-arguments that the author must then contend with.
To accept rejected divine command theory I would have to restrict God’s all- powerful nature slightly by acknowledging that God did not specifically create the standard for right and wrong. However, the standard of right and wrong, bad or good can be viewed as a “necessary truth” allowing the theist to argue that God can be “goodness”. The textbook does a decent job of stating it as “God is the ultimate realization of moral goodness and stands as the paradigm of moral goodness.” (pg. 32)
“Euthyphro” is a story by Plato that tells of an encounter between Socrates, his mentor, and a man named Euthyphro. They exchange a dialogue over a period time while they await they’re on trials, as Socrates is being prosecuted by a man named Meletus and Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father for manslaughter. Socrates believes that Euthyphro is crazy basically for doing such a thing but is denied this accusation when Euthyphro claims that what he is doing, is a pious act. Peaking Socrates’ interest , he asks Euthyphro to define what makes something pious.
In the story Euthyphro by Plato, Socrates and Euthyphro discuss the meaning of piety as it relates to Socrates’ controversial trial and Euthyphro’s controversial conviction. The paradoxical definition of piety remains unanswered by the end of the conversation but reveals a larger, and more valuable truth concerning the dynamic between the two characters and the significance of their roles as a defendant versus a prosecutor. In this paper, I will refute Euthyphro’s definition of piety by showing that it is arbitrary, open to multiple consensuses, leaves no reason for morality, alludes that God’s goodness is tautological and provides no reasons for God. Furthermore, I will argue that Euthyphro’s inability to firmly define piety strengthens the notion that Socrates is innocent. Euthyphro provides multiple definitions
The first version of DCT, on page 40 of MP, Barcalow, claims that “God’s command makes things morally wrong or right.” This means that any action is only deemed
Divine Command Morality believes that our moral principles are grounded in the commands of God. They would say that torturing the terrorist would be wrong because it goes against the commands of God. God tells people in his word that they are to love one another and to love their enemies. If they were to torture the terrorist, they would not be showing love to the terrorist.
The Theory of Natural Law, defined in three aspects, there being a natural order in the world, everything having a purpose and how things are and how things ought to be. This theory also states that humans can distinguish between what is right or wrong through human reason/moral knowledge. On the other hand, the Divine Command Theory is a view of morality and believes that what’s right or wrong is set by God’s moral commands. God’s commands tell us what is morally obligatory, permitted and wrong.
When considering morality, worthy to note first is that similar to Christian ethics, morality also embodies a specifically Christian distinction. Studying a master theologian such as St. Thomas Aquinas and gathering modern perspectives from James Keenan, S. J. and David Cloutier serve to build a foundation of the high goal of Christian morality. Morality is a primary goal of the faith community, because it is the vehicle for reaching human fulfillment and happiness. Therefore, great value can be placed on foundations of Christian morality such as the breakdown of law from Aquinas, the cultivation of virtues, the role of conscience in achieving morality, and the subject of sin described by Keenan.