Divine Command Theory: The Euthyphro Dilemma

When discussing the Euthyphro Dilemma, one must first understand what Divine command theory is. Divine command theory, as we discussed in class, is the theory that proposes the status of an action being considered morally good as being dependent on whether or not God commanded it. Basically, anything we quote or extract from God’s words, either being from the bible or repeated, is the foundation for what should be considered morally good. Therefore, if an individual was to strive to be moral, he must follow the commands that God decrees. However, Divine command theory is challenged when looking at the Euthyphro Dilemma. The dilemma consists of two “horns.” The first, according to our class discussion, asks whether or not the Gods love the pious because it is pious? Or the second horn, questioning rather that pious is pious merely because the Gods love it? To explain why this is a dilemma, we need to discuss both parts individually.

To break it down and understand this a little bit better, in class instead of discussing pious we used other examples. The first being a young child crossing the street, but before doing so he recalled something his parents told him about safety and looking both ways. Applying the Euthyphro Dilemma to this scenario, the first horn considers whether it is safe to look both ways merely because it IS safe. By choosing this first horn, the brings into question whether or not the child’s parents had any authority or not deciding whether crossing the street was safe to begin with. This indicates a sense of impotence, as Prof. Thibodeau discussed. The second part of the question states that looking both ways before crossing the street is safe specifically because the child’s parents said so. This horn illustrates that the power and capability of deciding something is safe is completely dependent on what the parents state as being