Does Ordinary Morality Imply Atheism? A Reply to Maitzen

• Authors: Rob Lovering
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Stephen Maitzen has recently argued that ordinary morality implies atheism. In the following, I argue that the soundness of Maitzen's argument depends on a principle that is implausible, what I call the recipient's Benefit Principle: All else being equal, if an act a produces a net benefit for the individual on the receiving end of a, then one cannot have a moral obligation to prevent a. Specifically, the recipient's Benefit Principle (RBP) must be true if premise (2) of Maitzen's argument is to be true. But, RBP is likely false, as it generates counterintuitive implications as well as conflicts with another principle both plausible and seemingly adopted by most of us, what I call the Preventing Immorality Principle: All else being equal, if an act A is seriously immoral, then one has a moral obligation to prevent A.

Keywords

EN

Atheism; ethics; immorality; Maitzen, Stephen

• Publisher: Akademia Ignatianum w Krakowie
• Journal: Forum Philosophicum
• Year: 2011
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 83-98

Dates

published

2011

Contributors

author

Rob Lovering

• Santa Clara University

References

• Darwall, Stephen. Philosophical Ethics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998.
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• Maitzen, Stephen. “On Gellman’s Attempted Rescue,” European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 2, no. 1 (2010): 193–198.
• Maitzen, Stephen. “Ordinary Morality Implies Atheism.” European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 1, no. 2 (2009): 107–126.
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• Zamichow, Nora. “Strohmeyer Friend Saw Him Molest Girl, Classmates Say.” Los Angeles Times, September 16, 1998. http://articles.latimes.com/1998/sep/16/news/mn-23165.
• Zamichow, Nora. “The Fractured Life of Jeremy Strohmeyer.” Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1998. http://articles.latimes.com/1998/jul/19/news/mn-5552/16.

Identifiers

DOI

10.5840/forphil20111625

URI

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=70556898&lang=pl&site=ehost-live

URI

http://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=forphil&id=forphil_2011_0016_0002_0083_0098