Question - In an essay (no less than 5-7 paragraphs)
Explain the problems presented in Plato's rebuttal of the Divine Command theory.
The Problem With Divine Command Theory
Some claim that an understanding of right and wrong depends upon the will of God. What makes something morally right? God promotes it. And what makes something morally wrong? God forbids it. This is called Divine Command Theory.
This position was effectively refuted by Plato almost five hundred years before Christ. His refutation is found in the Euthyphro, and goes as follows:
Take some actions we ordinarily consider good: Bringing murderers to justice, feeding the poor...etc. A Divine Command Theorist claims that these are good because God wills or commands them. Now, some clarification is required: Are these actions good because God wills them? Or does God will them because they are good? Let's take one at a time.
1) Something is good because God wills it.
If God's will is what makes something good, then the content of goodness must be entirely arbitrary. In a possible world, God could have willed the rape and torture of infants, and the Divine Command Theorist would have to accept them as good.
"Now wait a minute!" screams the Divine Command Theorist, "God would never will the rape and torture of infants!" "But why not?" we may ask. The answer is that the rape and torture of infants is so inherently horrible that we cannot even imagine God willing them. And right here is where Divine Command Theory fails. For in stating that some actions are so terrible that God would never will them, we are admitting a standard of morality independent of God!
This is a very subtle point, and the reader might benefit from considering it from another angle. So, here it is again: The Divine Command Theorist states that God's will is what makes something good. Now, to refer to an action's inherent rightness or wrongness (that saving innocent lives is always good, or beating helpless animals is always evil) is to no longer rely upon God for our understanding of right and wrong. This is the point.
And there is an added problem. The Divine Command Theorist cannot coherently state the following phrases: "God is good" or "God is great." And for this reason: If our definition of good or great is "whatever God wills," then the phrase "God is good" becomes: "God is whatever God wills." This is simply vacuous.
2) God wills it because it is good.
If God wills something because it is good, then we are already conceding the goodness of something prior to God's willing it. Thus, God is irrelevant.
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