Divine Command Theory and Natural Law
Divine Command Theory and Natural Law
Divine Command Theory and Natural Law
1. God exists and is the omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent creator of the world.
Problems:
What of atheists?
What of those that existed before such a conception of God?
1. In designing the world, God formulated certain laws that specify how we should
behave (The Natural Law), as well as giving us a nature.
2. We can know the Natural Law (and thus, what is morally right), by our intellectual
abilities, e.g., sensation and reason. We need not believe in God or have knowledge
of God to know morality.
Aquinas’ Laws
Forms of Law: Eternal (governs everything in the universe), Divine (spiritual goals),
Natural (moral), Human (legal systems)
Natural Law:
General Principles
Particular Applications
The Argument
4. Acts have moral qualities only if some intelligent being creates a set of rules which
determines those qualities.
5. Acts have moral qualities (Emotivism is false).
6. Therefore, some intelligent being created a set of rules which determines those qualities.
7. If the creating intelligent being is not the culture, the agent, or the person judging the act,
then it must be God who creates the rules.
8. The moral rules are not determined by Cultures (CR is false).
9. The moral rules are not determined by the agent (IR is false).
10. The moral rules are not determined by the person judging the act (SS is false).
11. Therefore, it is God who creates the moral rules for determining moral qualities.
1
Contrast with material, formal and final causes. These are Aristotle’s four causes. The material being the actual
material out of which the effect is made. The formal cause being the form of the effect. The final cause being its
purpose. See Aristotle’s Metaphysics.
DCT/NLT and Moral Skepticism
Criticisms of DCT/NLT
Natural Laws for Aquinas tell us to do what we were created for, to follow our telos, or
purpose.
If not, then just because we have a natural purpose, why is it wrong to ignore it?
Question: Is right conduct right (a) because God commands it, or (b) does God
command it because it is right?
1. If God exists and it the omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent creator of the world,
then this is the best of all possible worlds.
2. If this is the best of all possible worlds, then it does not contain any gratuitous evil.
3. The world does contain gratuitous evil.
4. Therefore, it is not the case that God exists and is the omniscient, omnipotent,
omnibenevolent creator of the world.
Good argument?
Consider the Jodie and Mary case from Rachels, EMP 1.3. What should we say about this case?