Religion & Morality Flashcards
to understand the criticisms made of the relationship between morality and religion and be able to analyse and evaluate them, with particular reference to scholars who have proposed criticisms or counter-arguments
What is the name of the theory that morality derives from a theoretical or real person who knows everything necessary to provide the right moral assessment?
Ideal Observer Theory
What is the name of the theory that morality is derived from God and what God wills?
Divine Command Theory
What is the name of the theory that morality is derived from the judgments that a neutral and fully informed (perhaps hypothetical) observer would make?
Ideal Observer Theory
What is the main criticism of the Divine Command Theory called?
Euthyphro Dilemma
What criticism of the Divine Command Theory does Michael Austin make?
People could do the right thing (i.e. do what God wills) because they want God to favour them, not because the action is right. Austin argued that moral actions should be preformed because morality is valuable not in order to avoid punishment or gain favour. This is a criticism of the moral motivation which would result from the Divine Command Theory.
Who first proposed the Euthyphro Dilemma?
Plato. He put it into the mouth of Socrates is his philosophical dialogue Euthyphro
What is the Euthyphro Dilemma?
Either God wills something because it is good or it is good because God wills it.
What is Richard Norman’s critique of values being derived from God?
Norman argues that our values are human values and only they make sense for us because of the kinds of being we are and come from what we find makes our lives meaningful.
What is Walter Sinnot-Armstrong’s critique of morality derived from God?
Sinnot-Armstrong argues that morality is not based on God, it is based on harm to people, that what it wrong to hit someone is that the person gets hurt, not that god tells you not. This he is a consequentialist.
What is wrong with the 2nd horn of the Euthyphro Dilemma? Why can’t something be good because God wills it?
then God’s will is prior to the thing’s goodness and it only becomes good as a result of God willing it. This means God could will anything to be good, even e.g. cruelty for the sake of other’s pleasures; which makes goodness too arbitrary.
What is wrong with the 1st horn of the Euthyphro Dilemma? Why can’t God will something because it is good?
then the good is prior to God’s will i.e. something is first of all good and then it is because it is good that God wills it. This means what God wills is determined or directed by the actions goodness. This infringes on God’s omnipotence, making God subject to an independent moral standard. This conflicts with the idea that God, being omnipotent, does not have any limits on what s/he commands or wills.
What is the type of theory which argues God’s existence can be logically concluded from the existence of morality?
Moral Argument
What is Aquinas’ Fourth Way for proving God’s existence i.e. his Moral Argument?
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