1A: Divine Command Flashcards
What are teleological ethical theories?
focuses on a purpose - the purpose is understood to be good in itself
Why are teleological theories sometimes called consequentialist?
they generally judge actions by consequences: often implies that acts aren’t inherently right or wrong but must be judged relative to their situation
Explain with examples why teleological and deontological are not exact synonyms
Because some ethical theories are teleological but aren’t consequentialist
What is the key feature of deontological ethical theories?
rules to follow which are inherently right or wrong: situation/consequences don’t change
What is meant by absolutist ethics?
based on the assumption that there are ethical absolutes. ethical absolute is a command that is true for all time, in all places, and in all situations
Theonomy
both it and religion depend upon a common source for their principles and values. the ‘common source’ is understood to be god. literally means “god’s laws”
Objective
factual and uninfluenced by opinion
Deontological
ethical theories that say goodness is about obeying rules and doing your duty
DCT in a nutshell
- actions are right or wrong dependent on whether or not they correspond to God’s commands
- it is our duty to obey rules commanded by god; any acts commanded by god are necessarily good and right. any acts forbidden by god are necessarily bad or wrong
- deontological, absolutist and theonomous; claims morality is objective and there is such thing as ‘moral truth’
Why is DCT deontological?
it focuses on the nature of an act as good or bad in itself, regardless of its consequences, which sees good and bad as objective
Can the 10 commandments ever be broken?
Yes - eg ‘You shall not murder’ and ‘You shall not steal’ can be broken in some circumstances
God as the origin and regulator of morality
- DCTs believe what is moral is determined by what God commands. therefore morality is ultimately completely dependent on God’s commands.
- Generally those who accept DCT look to sacred texts to discover God’s commands
- ie in Jewish tradition, God’s moral commands can be found in the Bible: ie the Decalogue tells us what is morally wrong because God commanded it
Right and wrong as objective truths based on God’s will
- If what God commands determines what is moral, then that means right and wrong are objective truths
- This means morality is not influenced by people’s personal feelings, opinions or reasoning about what is right or wrong (eg it doesn’t matter what humanity thinks about stealing, it is wrong because God has commanded it that way)
- Therefore God’s will alone decides what is right and wrong, and human feelings about morality have no authority: God has total authority
- William Ockham: “With Him a thing becomes right solely because He wants to”
Moral goodness is achieved by complying with divine commands
- If a person wishes to be moral, the only way to do this is to follow God’s commands (eg moral obligation consists purely in being obedient to God’s commands)
- Religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam offer reasons why God’s commands should be obeyed. Eg Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden for not following God’s command
- The idea that moral goodness is achieved by following divine commands is strongly supported in the OT book of Deuteronomy which states “the Lord your God will be merciful if you listen and keep to all his commands”
Divine command as a requirement of God’s omnipotence
- An omnipotent God by definition must have complete power over everything, including morality
- If God did not have complete power over morality this would suggest God is not omnipotent, this is because if God did not control morality, ‘something else’ must control what is right and wrong. This would make ‘something else’ more powerful than God, destroying God’s omnipotence
- Therefore, God has to control morality or he wouldn’t be omnipotent
Divine Command as an objective meta-physical foundation for morality
- Meta-physical means ‘beyond the physical’ and relates to concepts that are not material but still have an objective existence eg they exist outside of human minds
- The divine attributes are metaphysical
- Omnibenevolence relates to ‘all living’ and also implied the divine being is the supreme good and source of goodness
- The understanding seen by the Bible writers
- The origin of morality is not from human beings but from within the nature and activity of God
- So according to DCT, the definition of ‘good’ and ‘right’ is simply ‘commanded by God’ and the definition of ‘bad’ and ‘wrong’ is simply ‘forbidden by God’
What does it mean to describe God as the ‘origin’ and ‘regulator’ of morality?
Morality is ultimately completely dependent upon the commands of God
What do we means by ‘objective, moral truth’?
Morality is not influenced by people’s personal feelings or opinions or reasoning about what is right or wing. It is decided solely by God
Name a scholar from the Middle Ages who took the view that something is right simply because God decides it is
William Ockham
According to DCT, how can a person be ‘good’?
complying with God’s commandments
Genesis 22
God tells Abraham to offer his son Issac as a sacrifice
Robert Adams’ Modified DCT
- addresses Euthyphro dilemma by saying it is logically possible for God to command cruelty because he is omnipotent but it would be unthinkable for God to condemn things like murder because of his omnibenevolent nature
- He proposes an action is morally wrong if and only if it defies the commands of a loving God: if cruelty were commanded, he would not be loving
According to Adams, was Abraham morally right or wrong to follow God’s command here?
He was morally wrong because the action was usually wrong (murder) and defies an omnibenevolent God
The Euthyphro Dilemma
- proposed by Plato
- it presents two logical questions: 1. Is something good because God commands it? or 2. Does God command something because it’s good) - either option challenges divine attributes
- Option one preserves omnipotence because it means God has power over morality, but challenges omnibenevolence because it reduces morality to nothing more than God’s whims and raises problems of Abhorrent Commands
- Option two challenges omnipotence because it implies there’s a source of morality external to God and God just complies with it