Divine Command Theory and Moral Supervenience

Philosophia Christi 18 (1):65-78 (2016)
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Abstract

Mark Murphy argues that the property identity version of divine command theory, coupled with the doctrine that God has freedom in commanding, violates the supervenience of the moral on the nonmoral. In other words, they permit two situations exactly alike in nonmoral facts to differ in moral facts. I give three arguments to show that a divine command theorist of this sort can consistently affirm moral supervenience. Each argument contends that there are always nonmoral differences between worlds with different divine commands. If there are such nonmoral differences, then there’s no conflict between divine command theory and moral supervenience.

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Author's Profile

Blake McAllister
Hillsdale College

Citations of this work

God and the grounding of morality.David James Redmond - 2018 - Dissertation, University of Iowa

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References found in this work

Divine Motivation Theory.Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski - 2004 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
A Trilemma for Divine Command Theory.Mark C. Murphy - 2002 - Faith and Philosophy 19 (1):22-31.
Reply to Almeida.Mark C. Murphy - 2004 - Religious Studies 40 (3):335-339.

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