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Divine will/divine command moral theories and the problem of arbitrariness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2012

THOMAS L. CARSON
THOMAS L. CARSON*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60626, USA e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

A well-known objection to divine will/divine command moral theories is that they commit us to the view that God's will is arbitrary. I argue that several versions of divine will/divine command moral theories, including two of Robert Adams's versions of the DCT and my own divine preference theory, can be successfully defended against this objection. I argue that, even if God's preferences are somewhat arbitrary, we have reasons to conform our wills to them. It is not a fatal objection to divine will/divine command moral theories if they imply that God's will/God's commands is/are arbitrary, to some extent.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 445 - 468
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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