An Adamsian Theory of Moral Obligations but without Divine Commands

نوع مقاله : مقاله علمی پژوهشی

نویسنده

Resident Researcher, School of Analytic Philosophy, Institute of Research in Fundamental Sciences, Tehran, Iran

چکیده

Theological Voluntarism is the view according to which certain moral properties or statuses have to be explained in terms of God’s commands, will, or other voluntary states of God. In his God and Moral Law, Mark Murphy criticizes theological voluntarism in general and Adams’ divine command theory of the nature of moral obligations in particular. Furthermore, he puts forward the first sketches for a theory of moral obligation that is not voluntaristic. In this paper I will first introduce Murphy’s proposed theory and will show that it is implausible. Then, drawing on Adams’ views of the nature of goodness and virtue, articulated in Finite and Infinite Goods and A theory of Virtue, I will try to put forward the first sketches of a viable theory of moral obligations that does not appeal to divine commands in explaining moral obligations and explains them in terms of goodness/badness. An important feature of morality that voluntarists appeal to for motivating their view and criticizing views that explain obligations in terms of goodness is the existence of supererogatory actions, i.e., actions that are good but not required. I will focus on this feature of morality and try to show how a theory of moral obligation that explains the obligations in terms of goodness can accommodate this feature.

کلیدواژه‌ها

عنوان مقاله [English]

An Adamsian Theory of Moral Obligations but without Divine Commands

نویسنده [English]

  • Seyyed Abbas Kazemi Oskooei
Resident Researcher, School of Analytic Philosophy, Institute of Research in Fundamental Sciences, Tehran, Iran
چکیده [English]

Theological Voluntarism is the view according to which certain moral properties or statuses have to be explained in terms of God’s commands, will, or other voluntary states of God. In his God and Moral Law, Mark Murphy criticizes theological voluntarism in general and Adams’ divine command theory of the nature of moral obligations in particular. Furthermore, he puts forward the first sketches for a theory of moral obligation that is not voluntaristic. In this paper I will first introduce Murphy’s proposed theory and will show that it is implausible. Then, drawing on Adams’ views of the nature of goodness and virtue, articulated in Finite and Infinite Goods and A theory of Virtue, I will try to put forward the first sketches of a viable theory of moral obligations that does not appeal to divine commands in explaining moral obligations and explains them in terms of goodness/badness. An important feature of morality that voluntarists appeal to for motivating their view and criticizing views that explain obligations in terms of goodness is the existence of supererogatory actions, i.e., actions that are good but not required. I will focus on this feature of morality and try to show how a theory of moral obligation that explains the obligations in terms of goodness can accommodate this feature.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Moral Obligation
  • Goodness
  • Value
  • Theological Voluntarism
  • Virtue
  • Supererogation
  • Robert Adams
  • Mark Murphy

مراجع

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https://doi.org/10.2307/2026294
Adams, R. M. (1999). Finite and infinite goods. Oxford University Press.
Adams, R. M. (2006). A theory of virtue: Excellence in being for the good. Clarendon Press.
Archer, A. (2016). Supererogation, sacrifice, and the limits of duty. The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 54(3), 333-354. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12176
Archer, A. (2020). Supererogation and consequentialism. In D. Portmore, (Ed.), The Oxfordhandbook ofconsequentialism (pp. 269-288). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190905323.013.17
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https://doi.org/10.1017/S1358246115000284
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https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199662951.003.0005
Heyd, D. (2019). Supererogation. The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. (E.N. Zalta, Ed.),  
URL=<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/supererogation/>.
MacNamara, C. (2013). Taking demands out of blame. In D. J. Coates & N. Tognazzini (Eds.), Blame: its nature and norms (pp. 141-161). Oxford University Press.         
https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199860821.003.0008
Murphy, M. (2011). God and moral law: On the theistic explanation of morality. Oxford University Press.
Sandel, M. (1998). Liberalism and the limits of justice, 2nded. Cambridge University Press.
Scanlon, T. M. (1998). What we owe to each other. Harvard University Press.
Urmson, J. O. (1988). Hare on intuitive moral thinking. In D. Seanor & N. Fotion (Eds.), Hare and critics: essays on ‘moral thinking’ (pp. 161-169). Oxford University Press.
Zimmerman, M. J. (1996). The concept of moral obligation. Cambridge University Press.
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پژوهش‌های فلسفی -کلامی
دوره 25، شماره 1
فروردین 1402
صفحه 101-119

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