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A Discussion on Moral Laws and God's Role in Them, Quizzes of Introduction to Philosophy

The relationship between moral laws, god, and the role of a moral lawgiver. It includes discussions on objections to the argument and alternative perspectives. The text also touches upon the concepts of love, justice, and a good life.

Typology: Quizzes

2014/2015

Uploaded on 10/18/2015

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TERM 1
o An act is morally wrong if and only if God
forbids that act.
DEFINITION 1
morally wrong
TERM 2
morally obligatory
DEFINITION 2
o An act is morally obligatory if and only if God commands
that act.
TERM 3
morally permissible
DEFINITION 3
o An act is morally permissible if and only if it is not the case
that God forbids that act.
TERM 4
premise 1
DEFINITION 4
All laws presuppose a lawgiver, a legislative body of some
sort that creates or determines the laws.
TERM 5
premise 2
DEFINITION 5
There are moral laws.Not everything can be morally right.
pf3
pf4
pf5

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o An act is morally wrong if and only if God

forbids that act.

morally wrong

TERM 2

morally obligatory

DEFINITION 2

o An act is morally obligatory if and only if God commands

that act.

TERM 3

morally permissible

DEFINITION 3

o An act is morally permissible if and only if it is not the case

that God forbids that act.

TERM 4

premise 1

DEFINITION 4

All laws presuppose a lawgiver, a legislative body of some

sort that creates or determines the laws.

TERM 5

premise 2

DEFINITION 5

There are moral laws.Not everything can be morally right.

conclusion 1

Therefore, there is a moral lawgiver, a legislative body of

some sort that creates or determines the moral laws.

TERM 7

premise 3

DEFINITION 7

God best fulfills the role of moral lawgiver.* After all, God is

the creator of all things. He is all knowing.

TERM 8

premise 4

DEFINITION 8

DCT is the most plausible, straightforward way of expressing

Gods law giving role.

TERM 9

premise 5

DEFINITION 9

If conclusion 1, premise 3, and premise 4 are true, DCT is

true.

TERM 10

Critically discuss the objection to premise 1 of

the above argument that focuses upon laws

that seem to be necessary truths.

DEFINITION 10

o Why think this is true? Some laws seem to be

necessary truths (math,logic), and so are not created

at all. Not created, no creator. And so no lawgiver (at

least for those laws).* Can 2+2 equal something other

than 4?* Necessary truths seem to be eternal truths,

uncreated* Therefore: Premise 1 is false which means

everything is false

Explain how a good life seems to be

characterized by having ones basic needs

satisfied.

* A good life, a life that is rightly characterized as flourishing, is a

life where ones basic needs are satisfied.o Plausibly, its more than

that, but its at least that. If love seeks to promote flourishing of

the beloved, it can do no better than by starting with the

acquisition of adequate food, drink, shelter, health care resources,

security, relationships, and education. A life without those basic

goodsa life marked by chronic and ongoing hunger, thirst,

exposure, disease, vulnerability, social isolation, and stunted

intellectually developmentis not a good life.

TERM 17

Explain how a good life seems to be

characterized by moral development,

maturation, and transformation.

DEFINITION 17

  • A good life, a life that is rightly characterized as flourishing, is a life where one experiences moral development, maturation, and transformation.* The vicious life, a life where one harbors, cultivates, and acts from vicious attitudes and dispositions (like greed, lust, envy, sloth, arrogance, gluttony, and anger) is not a good life, and thats so no matter how much wealth one manages to accumulate or power and control one successfully attains.o You do not have the good life if you live by these characteristicso If we reflect for just a moment upon what we really want for those we love, wed see that we wouldnt want for them the life of the wildly wealthy and powerful despot.o Money and power can accomplish a great deal, but they cant make the vicious lifea greedy, lustful, envious, slothful, arrogant gluttonous, and angry lifea simultaneously good life. TERM 18

Explain how a good life seems to be

characterized by the ability to exercise ones

will, to select for oneself without undue

interference various goals, projects, values,

and visions.

DEFINITION 18

* This may be seen as a derivative of the previous point in the sense that

moral development, maturation, and transformation seems to imply

agency and autonomy. One does not experience genuine moral

development, maturation, and transformation if one doesnt have some

fair measure of freedom. If we think about the sorts of things that we

typically regard as obstacles to freedom, like mind control at the hands of

a manipulative and charismatic leader or group, or coercion and

compulsion from an oppressive and tyrannical ruler or regime, well likely

grant that we dont wish these things upon our beloved.o Affects peoples

autonomy* You have to accept it.

TERM 19

Explain how love seems to entail seeking to

provide the beloved with ample opportunity

to flourish.

DEFINITION 19

* It would make very little sense to suppose that one can

seek to promote the flourishing of the beloved while

simultaneously refraining from seeking to provide the

beloved with ample opportunity to flourish.

TERM 20

Explain how love seems to be connected with

justice.

DEFINITION 20

  • Another way of saying that love seeks to provide the beloved with ample opportunity to flourish is to say that love seeks to secure justice for the beloved. Thats because a central aspect of a robust, full-bodied concept of justice is that it seeks to provide ample opportunity to all to flourish.* We regard as unjust a society that is constructed or structured in such a way that it systematically denies any of its members ample opportunities to flourish. Think of Jim Crow United States or apartheid era South Africa as just two clear examples of unjust societies. These societies were constructed or structured in such a way that they systematically denied many of their members ample opportunities to flourish. A failure to secure justice just is a failure to love. Or, as Cornel West put it so very eloquently: Justice is what love looks like in public.* People who are denied to flourish, they are denied injustice

Present, explain, and critically discuss the

four reasons we considered for thinking that

our love ethic is to take universal

scopenobody is to be excluded from our

loving consideration.

  • There are seemingly good explicitly theological/religious reasons for adopting a universal love ethic.* It seems that virtually any characteristic/feature one picks out for excluding individuals from ones love is open to serious objections. Consider excluding others on the basis of properties such as race, sex, age, religious creed, ethnicity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, nationality, physical proximity, socioeconomic class, rational capacity, or physical impairments.o Why should it be universal?o Why should we treat them as morally relevant?o James Rachels view on impartiality and how that effects our moral codeo Love may be a burden in when you are supposed to love your enemies.* Attempted justifications for exclusion based on personal like/dislike or perceived moral deficiencies seem to fail, too.o You have to have self-love even though you may believe you have bad qualities and moral flaws* Love is a fitting response to the intrinsic worth/dignity of an individual, and the most plausible candidates for the ground of intrinsic worth/dignity seem to be theo Love is similar to respecto Respect comes from loveo Respect them for who they are for their personal characteristics.o Because you are made in the image of God you are Gods child TERM 22

Present, explain, and critically discuss the

test we considered for our actions in cases

where it seems inevitable that somebody will

be on the losing end of a decision.

DEFINITION 22

  • According to a love ethic, in all cases we are to treat others in a loving manner. Recall that this means (at least) the following:o We are to seek to promote the flourishing of others by seeking to promote (a) the satisfaction of their basic needs, (b) their moral development, (c) their enhanced autonomy and agency and unfettered pursuit of their interests, and their opportunities to flourish (i.e., secure justice for others).* But in a wide variety of real world cases, and for a wide variety of reasons (e.g., scarcity of resources), there will be those who seem to be on the losing end of a decision, and this result is unavoidable. Even so, in those cases:o One way of telling whether the principle you use is loving is to see whether you could use it in explaining your behavior to the person* Who lost out in the conflict? Could you convince him that you loved him in spite of the fact that you treated him as you did? Frances HowardSnyder