THE DIVINE COMMAND THEORY

 This is the oldest and mostly held ethical theory in the world.
 The belief that what’s moral and what’s immoral is commanded by the divine
whether it’s the Judeo-Christian God or some other deity, or group of gods
 Since the belief that God is the creator of everything, the theory emphasizes that
he is in charge of creating a divine rule book, a sort of owner’s manual for
morality.
 One of the benefits of the divine command theory is its simplicity where people
consult their deity regarding on what is moral or not.

Therefore, there are a whole lot of things that most people think are totally fine, but are
actually forbidden by certain rule books which includes the bible. And this raises a few
questions.

For Example:
 Many observant Jews follow the rule about not wearing wool mixed with linen
(Deuteronomy 22:11), but Christians don't. Most of them probably don't even
know that that rule exists. And yet they consider other rules from the Old
Testament - like the Ten Commandments - to still be binding.

 For that matter, why does First Timothy prohibit women from having braids, but
not men? And if tattoos, smack-talk, and gold chains are forbidden, then,
technically speaking, is all of modern culture a violation of God's word?

THE DILEMMA IN GOD’S COMMAND

 Divine command theory addresses many of our biggest question about right and
wrong. However, it also represents a true dilemma.
Plato- One of the most devastating critiques of the theory which philosophers still
grapple with today.
 He wrote an entire book about his problems with the divine command theory,
a dialogue called Euthyphro.
 The dialogue was set outside of the Athenian courthouse as the two man sit,
awaiting their respective trials
The dialogue consists of two characters

A. Socrates- Preparing to defend himself against the charges that ultimately lead to his
death. He was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and not having the rights
kinds of beliefs about gods.

B. Euthyphro- Socrates’ main interlocutor-of-the day.

 A divine command theorist, who is getting ready to bring murder charges
against his very own father in which he was certain that it is the right thing to
do because he believes the gods have commanded it.

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Socrates is shocked to hear about Euthyphro prosecuting his own father leading them
into a spirited conversation about morality and how we know what’s moral and what’s
not.
 He isn’t sure about Euthyphro’s belief regarding god commanding him to
prosecute his father. And he asks a question that many believe still hasn’t
been adequately answered. It’s now known as the Euthyphro problem.

THE EUTHYPHRO PROBLEM

The question Socrates asks can be framed something like this:

1) Are right actions right because God commands them?

2) Are right actions commanded by God because they are right?

 Through these questions, Socrates has presented us with a true dilemma.

 Philosophers have actually likened a dilemma to holding an angry bull by the

horns. The two unpleasant options are known as horns.

A. Choosing the first horn of Socrates’ dilemma.

 This means that a person accept that God’s command alone is simply what
makes something right.
 Anything God commands is right and these includes honoring your parents, not
stealing or lying.

HOWEVER, if God determines the rightness and wrongness of everything, then the entire
concept of goodness and value becomes vacuous because, it means that saying
"God commands what is good," is really just saying, "God commands what he
commands." The idea of what's "good" doesn't really mean anything anymore.
B. Choosing the second horn of Socrates’ dilemma
 It means that God isn't omnipotent. Because there's at least one thing – value –
that doesn't stem from God. Instead, someone or something else has created it,
and God just uses it.
 This view also means that something outside of God in some sense binds him and
his commands.
NATURAL LAW THEORY

 What is moral or immoral is in accordance with the basic goods.

● Thomas Aquinas theorized that God made us pre-loaded with the tools we need
to know what’s Good.
● The most influential, and the longest standing theory.
● Based on the idea that God wants us to want things – specifically, good things.
● Created after the divine command theory

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BASIC GOODS
God instilled all of his creatures with an intuitive desire for the things that he designed to
be best for them.
The things that we’re designed to seek are known as the "basic goods," and there are
five of them:
1. Pursue Good, Avoid Evil (Note: humans do this instinctively thanks to reason given
by god)
● self-preservation – the drive to sustain life
● God built all creatures with a survival instinct avoid dangerous situations like
swimming with hungry sharks, and when we find ourselves in danger, we don’t
have to stop and ponder the options before getting ourselves to safety.
2. Preserve Human Life
● to make more life – in other words, to reproduce.
3. Reproduction- Educate one’s offspring
● we need to educate those kids we just made
Example:
● For humans, that’s going to mean stuff like school and lessons in morality.
● Non-human animals need to teach their babies how to hunt and avoid
predators
4. Avoid Offense
● From Aristotle’s book, Aquinas also said that humans are naturally social animals,
so it’s part of our basic good to live in a community with others
5. Shun Ignorance
● We’re natural knowers.
● We’re inquisitive, and we want to be right.
● Knowledge promotes survival, and ignorance can mean starving to death or
ending up as someone else’s dinner
AQUINAS said,
We don’t need the Bible, or religion class, or church in order to understand the natural
law. Instead, our instinct shows us the basic goods, and reason allows us to derive the
natural law from them. Right acts, therefore, are simply those that are in accordance
with the natural law.

Positive and Negative Injunctions

 For each negative law, or prohibition, there’s usually a corresponding positive

one – a positive injunction.
 Natural laws are derived from the basic goods.

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 Table 1.0
PROHIBITIONS THE BASIC GOODS POSITIVE INJUNCTION
Do not kill Self-Preservation Promote Life (feeding the
hungry, caring for the
sick, making healthy
choices for self.)
Don’t prevent Reproduction Do Procreate
reproduction (Catholic
church has opposed to
birth control)

Objections
Natural Law Theory raises plenty of questions:

Example:
If God created us to seek the good, and if we’re built with the ability to recognize and
seek it, then why do people violate the natural law all the time?!

Why is the world so full of people-killing and offending others and folks who do
everything but seek God?

AQUINAS HAS TWO ANSWERS:

1. Ignorance
 We seek what we think is good, but we’re wrong, because we’re just ignorant.
Example:
We thought we were promoting our health, but we were actually hurting it.

2. Emotions
 From Aristotle, Aquinas said, even though we’re rational, we’re also emotional
creatures.

Sometimes, we see what we should do, but emotion overpowers our reason, and we
fail to do the things we know we should.

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