Criticism of the classical Divine Command Ethics : A comparative study of Wainwright's objection with the objections of Muslim rationalist theologians

Javadi, Mohsen

doi:10.22091/jptr.2022.8895.2817

Criticism of the classical Divine Command Ethics : A comparative study of Wainwright's objection with the objections of Muslim rationalist theologians

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Mohsen Javadi

Professor, Philosophy of Ethics Department,, university of Qom

10.22091/jptr.2022.8895.2817

Abstract

This article first explains the classical version of the Divine command ethics in both Christian and Islamic traditions, and then by pointing out its coherency, at least in appearance, with Divine sovereignty and absolute power, it tries to show why this idea is not accepted by a significant number of the Christian and Muslim theologians. William Wainwright answers this question by using Ralph Cudworth’s objections to Divine command ethics. In total, he considers seven objections and criticisms as the main reasons for Christian theologians’ turning away from the theory. By presenting these seven objections, which are mainly taken from Ralph Cudworth’s book, we try to find similar examples in the Islamic tradition and compare them with Wainwrights’ arguments. Some of these objections can be seen in both Christian and Islamic traditions of moral rationalism. But some of them, despite the similarity in content, have different formulations. Also, some objections are specific to Christian or Islamic theology. Last but not least, there are intra-religious objections based on revelations in Islam and Christianity against the theory of Divine command, which is not the subject of my discussion in this article.

Highlights

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Keywords

Main Subjects

Ethics

References