Another Step in Divine Command Dialectics

Faith and Philosophy 26 (4):432-439 (2009)
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Abstract

Consider the following three-step dialectics. (1) Even if God (consistently) commanded torture of the innocent, it would still be wrong. Therefore Divine Command Metaethics (DCM) is false. (2) No: for it is impossible for God to command torture of the innocent. (3) Even if it is impossible, there is a non-trivially true per impossibile counterfactual that even if God (consistently) com­manded torture of the innocent, it would still be wrong, and this counterfac­tual is incompatible with DCM. I shall argue that the last step of this dialectics is flawed because it would rule out every substantive metaethical theory.

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07397046

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10.5840/faithphil200926439

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Alexander R. Pruss
Baylor University

Citations of this work

Theological voluntarism.Mark Murphy - forthcoming - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
God and the ontological foundation of morality.Wes Morriston - 2012 - Religious Studies 48 (1):15 - 34.
Divine Commands Are Unnecessary for Moral Obligation.Erik Wielenberg - 2022 - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 21 (1).

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