Swinburne on the Euthyphro Dilemma. Can Supervenience Save Him?

• Authors: Simini Rahimi
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Modern philosophers normally either reject the „divine command theory” of ethics and argue that moral duties are independent of any commands, or make it dependent on God's commands but like Robert Adams modify their theory and identify moral duties in terms of the commands of a loving God. Adams regards this theory as metaphysically necessary. That is, if it is true, it is true in all possible worlds. But Swinburne's (1981) position is unprecedented insofar as he regards moral truths as analytically necessary. In this paper Swinburne's argument will be discussed and I will reveal some of the difficulties involved in categorising general moral principles (if there are such principles) as logical (analytical/necessary) truths.

Keywords

EN

divine command theory; ethics; Euthyphro dilemma; moral duties; supervenience; Swinburne Richard

• Publisher: Akademia Ignatianum w Krakowie
• Journal: Forum Philosophicum
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 17-29

Dates

published

2008

Contributors

author

Simini Rahimi

• Heythrop College, University of London

References

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• Swinburne, Richard. “Analyticity, Necessity and Apriority.” Mind 334 (1975): 225–243.
• Swinburne, Richard. “Duty and the Will of God.” In Divine Commands and Morality, edited by Paul Helm, 120–134. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
• Swinburne, Richard. The Coherence of Theism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

Identifiers

DOI

10.5840/forphil20081312

URI

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=33116052&lang=pl&site=ehost-live

URI

http://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=forphil&id=forphil_2008_0013_0001_0017_0029