Discussion Questions
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1. Do you know the Ten Commandments? Can
you follow all of them? Why or why not?
2. What is the key message in Jesus’ Sermon on
the Mount?
3. What is Euthyphro about?
4. What difference does it make whether the
pious is loved by the gods because it is pious, or
pious because it is loved?
The Ten Commandments
Actually, there are 613 commandments.
What were Jesus’ ethics?
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The Greatest and
Second Greatest
Commandments
(Matthew 22:37-40)
The inner
transformation of the
law of love
Examples
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Murder
Adultery
Lex Talionis
Love your neighbor
Euthyphro: What is Piety?
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Or, how can an ethical/religious concept be
defined?
Def.#1: “Piety is doing as I am doing, that is to
say, prosecuting any one who is guilty of
murder, sacrilege, or of similar crime …” (5e)
Def.#2: “Piety, then, is that which is dear to the
gods, and impiety is that which is not dear to
them. ” (7a)
Def.#3: “But I will amend the definition so far as
to say that what all the gods hate is impious,
and what they love pious or holy” (9d)
The Euthyphro Problem
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” The point which I should first wish to understand
is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods
because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of
the gods.” (10a)
Is the good commanded by God because it is good,
or is it good because it is commanded by God?
What’s the difference?
” For one is of a kind to be loved cause it is loved,
and the other is loved because it is of a kind to be
loved.” (11a)
The Euthyphro problem raises the question of the
source of value.
Divine Command Theory
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If something is holy or good because of God’s
approval or love or command, then
1. divinity is omnipotent and creates moral
values (implication that without divinity no right
and wrong)
2. moral values are arbitrary, i.e., they depend
on God’s will and preferences (Which God? How
can we know God’s will?)
3. Rachels also states that this “conception of
morality is mysterious” (51), and
4. that it “provides the wrong reasons for moral
principles” (52).
What is God’s view…
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… of abortion?
… of homosexuality?
Consider Genesis 19: 1-11
What is the sin of Sodom?
Ethics requires interpretation, reasoning, and
thinking for oneself (which is, after all, a biblical
ideal).
Remember Abraham!
Natural Law Theory
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If God loves or commands something
because it is pious or good, then
1. values of right and wrong are absolute
and lie outside of God’s command
2. values determined by Natural Law of
Reason that even God must conform to
(implication is God’s not omnipotent and
morality is accessible to human reason)
Problems with
The Natural Law Theory
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1. What is “natural” is not always good
(e.g., disease, hurricanes, etc.).
2. An “is” cannot be derived from an
“ought.” This is Hume’s famous view.
3. The modern scientific view rejects
Aristotelian teleology (i.e., the view that
everything in nature has a purpose).
What is the relationship between fear
and reverence and how does it apply to
defining piety?
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Reverence is a part of fear, but fear is the
more extended concept (just as number is
more extended than odd), so…
Def.#4: “Piety or holiness, Socrates,
appears to me to be that part of justice
which attends to the gods, as there is the
other part of justice which attends to
men.” (13a)
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But what does it mean to attend to the
gods (as horsemen attend to horses, and
huntsmen attend to dogs)?
It means to benefit them or make them
better, but surely we can’t do this to the
gods.
Euthyphro then says it’s a kind of service,
but Socrates asks what the product of this
service is…what do the gods produce?
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Def.#5: piety is a science of praying and
sacrificing” (14c), “an art which gods and
men have of doing business with one
another” (14e)
But what’s the point of prayer (asking
from the gods), since they must already
know what we want?
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And what the point of sacrificing (giving to
the gods), since they already have
everything they need?
Euthyphro admits that the gods don’t
need anything, but he says that sacrifices
please the gods.
Wait a minute…!
What are we to conclude from this
dialogue?
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Piety (and perhaps any other ethical or religious
concept) cannot be defined; it remains an open
question.
Perhaps we can conclude that how we should
behave towards the gods is not worth speculating
about at all.
The pious (good or right) life cannot be known by
reason and communicated.
Can it be “known” another way?
Are we to conclude that religious duty is a matter of
subjective inwardness?
A Method for Defining a Concept
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A definition is not an example.
A definition involves the
substance/essence/eidos of a thing, not
an affection or attribute.
A definition should be both general and
specific (genus species).
“God and Moral Autonomy”
by James Rachels
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What does it mean to worship
God?
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Beliefs
Conduct
Self-image
Distinction between the
“ceremonial form” and “the
point of the ritual”
What is the point?
“commitment to the role of
God’s child”… “that dominates
one’s whole way of life” (p. 25)
The Moral Autonomy Argument
(p. 28)
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1. If any being is God, he must be a fitting
object of worship.
2. No being could possibly be a fitting
object of worship, since worship requires
the abandonment of one’s role as an
autonomous moral agent.
3. Therefore, there cannot be any being
who is God.
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The general point seems to be that
obedience to God takes us “beyond
morality”; we “opt out of moral thinking
altogether” and abandon our role as moral
agents.
Is this argument viable?
Why worship God?