God's Love is Irrelevant to the Euthyphro Problem

One prominent response, based on the work of Robert Adams, Edward Wierenga, and others, to the Euthyphro objection to the divine command theory is to point out that God is essentially omnibenevolent. The commands of an essentially loving being will not be arbitrary since they are grounded in his nat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sophia
Main Author: Thibodeau, Jason (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Netherlands [2019]
In: Sophia
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
NBC Doctrine of God
NCA Ethics
Further subjects:B Divine Command Theory
B Euthyphro dilemma
B Theistic ethics
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:One prominent response, based on the work of Robert Adams, Edward Wierenga, and others, to the Euthyphro objection to the divine command theory is to point out that God is essentially omnibenevolent. The commands of an essentially loving being will not be arbitrary since they are grounded in his nature, nor is it possible for a loving God to issue horrendous commands such as the gratuitous torture of infants. This paper argues that this response is inadequate. The divine command theory attributes to God the power to make an action morally obligatory. Given the reasonable assumption that any omnipotent being has the same powers as God, contemplating the commands of a malevolent deity is enough to cast doubt on the claim that any being, loving or otherwise, has the power to make an action morally obligatory just by commanding it.
ISSN:1873-930X
Contains:Enthalten in: Sophia
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11841-017-0615-8