Although it was originally applied to the ancient Greek pantheon, the dilemma has implications for modern monotheistic religions. Gottfried Leibniz asked whether the good and just "is good and just because God wills it or whether God wills it because it is good and just".[1] Ever since Plato's original discussion, this question has presented a problem for some theists, though others have thought it a false dilemma, and it continues to be an object of theological and philosophical discussion today.
The dilemma[edit]
Socrates and Euthyphro discuss the nature of piety in Plato's Euthyphro. Euthyphro proposes (6e) that the pious (τὸ ὅσιον) is the same thing as that which is loved by the gods (τὸ θεοφιλές), but Socrates finds a problem with this proposal: the gods may disagree among themselves (7e). Euthyphro then revises his definition, so that piety is only that which is loved by all of the gods unanimously (9e).
At this point the dilemma surfaces. Socrates asks whether the gods love the pious because it is the pious, or whether the pious is pious only because it is loved by the gods (10a). Socrates and Euthyphro both contemplate the first option: surely the gods love the pious because it is the pious. But this means, Socrates argues, that we are forced to reject the second option: the fact that the gods love something cannot explain why the pious is the pious (10d). Socrates points out that if both options were true, they together would yield a vicious circle, with the gods loving the pious because it is the pious, and the pious being the pious because the gods love it. And this in turn means, Socrates argues, that the pious is not the same as the god-beloved, for what makes the pious the pious is not what makes the god-beloved the god-beloved. After all, what makes the god-beloved the god-beloved is the fact that the gods love it, whereas what makes the pious the pious is something else (9d-11a). Thus Euthyphro's theory does not give us the very nature of the pious, but at most a quality of the pious (11ab).
: If there are moral standards independent of God's will, then "[t]here is something over which God is not sovereign. God is bound by the laws of morality instead of being their establisher. Moreover, God depends for his goodness on the extent to which he conforms to an independent moral standard. Thus, God is not absolutely independent."[20] 18th-century philosopher Richard Price, who takes the first horn and thus sees morality as "necessary and immutable", sets out the objection as follows: "It may seem that this is setting up something distinct from God, which is independent of him, and equally eternal and necessary."[21]
Sovereignty
: These moral standards would limit God's power: not even God could oppose them by commanding what is evil and thereby making it good. This point was influential in Islamic theology: "In relation to God, objective values appeared as a limiting factor to His power to do as He wills... Ash'ari got rid of the whole problem by denying the existence of objective values which might act as a standard for God's action."[22] Similar concerns drove the medieval voluntarists Duns Scotus and William of Ockham.[23] As contemporary philosopher Richard Swinburne puts the point, this horn "seems to place a restriction on God's power if he cannot make any action which he chooses obligatory... [and also] it seems to limit what God can command us to do. God, if he is to be God, cannot command us to do what, independently of his will, is wrong."[24]
Omnipotence
: Moreover, these moral standards would limit God's freedom of will: God could not command anything opposed to them, and perhaps would have no choice but to command in accordance with them.[25] As Mark Murphy puts the point, "if moral requirements existed prior to God's willing them, requirements that an impeccable God could not violate, God's liberty would be compromised."[26]
Freedom of the will
: If there are moral standards independent of God, then morality would retain its authority even if God did not exist. This conclusion was explicitly (and notoriously) drawn by early modern political theorist Hugo Grotius: "What we have been saying [about the natural law] would have a degree of validity even if we should concede that which cannot be conceded without the utmost wickedness, that there is no God, or that the affairs of men are of no concern to him"[27] On such a view, God is no longer a "law-giver" but at most a "law-transmitter" who plays no vital role in the foundations of morality.[28] Nontheists have capitalized on this point, largely as a way of disarming moral arguments for God's existence: if morality does not depend on God in the first place, such arguments stumble at the starting gate.[29]
Morality without God
In popular culture[edit]
In the song "No Church in the Wild" from the album Watch the Throne, rapper Jay Z references the dilemma with the line, "Is pious pious 'cause God loves pious? Socrates asked whose bias do y'all seek."[140]
In American legal thinking[edit]
Yale Law School Professor Myres S. McDougal, formerly a classicist, later a scholar of property law, posed the question, "Do we protect it because it's a property right, or is it a property right because we protect it?"[141] The dilemma has also been restated in legal terms by Geoffrey Hodgson, who asked: "Does a state make a law because it is a customary rule, or does law become a customary rule because it is approved by the state?"[142]
– An argument that justifies the conclusion via an appeal to authorityPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
Appeal to authority
– View of God without parts or features
Divine simplicity
– Type of dilemma in philosophy
Ethical dilemma
– Differentiation between right and wrong
Morality
– Ideas concerning right and wrong actions that exist in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles
Ethics in the Bible
– Meta-ethical theory of morality
Divine command theory
– Class of ethical theories
Deontology
(1973). "A Modified Divine Command Theory of Ethical Wrongness". In Gene Outka; John P. Reeder (eds.). Religion and Morality: A Collection of Essays. Anchor.
Adams, Robert Merrihew
Adams, Robert Merrihew (1979). "Divine Command Metaethics Modified Again". Journal of Religious Ethics. 7 (1): 66–79.
Adams, Robert Merrihew (1999). Finite and Infinite Goods: A Framework for Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-515371-2.
ISBN
Alston, William P. (1990). "Some suggestions for divine command theorists". In Michael Beaty (ed.). Christian Theism and the Problems of Philosophy. University of Notre Dame Press. pp. 303–26.
Alston, William P. (2002). "What Euthyphro should have said". In William Lane Craig (ed.). Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide. Rutgers University Press. 978-0813531212.
ISBN
Aquinas, Thomas (1265–1274). .
Summa Theologica
Calvin, John (1536). .
Institutes of the Christian Religion
Chandler, John (1985). "Divine command theories and the appeal to love". American Philosophical Quarterly. 22 (3): 231–239. 20014101.
JSTOR
Cudworth, Ralph (1731). . London : Printed for James and John Knapton ...
A Treatise concerning eternal and immutable morality
Descartes, René (1985). John Cottingham; Dugald Murdoch; Robert Stoothoff (eds.). The Philosophical Writings of Descartes.
Doomen, Jasper (2011). "Religion's Appeal". Philosophy and Theology. 23 (1): 133–148. :10.5840/philtheol20112316.
doi
Frank, Richard M. (1994). Al-Ghazali and the Asharite School. Duke University Press. 978-0822314271.
ISBN
Gale, Richard M. (1999). The Divided Self of William James. Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-64269-9.
ISBN
Gill, Michael (1999). "The Religious Rationalism of Benjamin Whichcote". Journal of the History of Philosophy. 37 (2): 271–300. :10.1353/hph.2008.0832. S2CID 54190387.
doi
Gill, Michael (2011). British Moralists on Human Nature and the Birth of Secular Ethics. Cambridge University Press. 978-0521184403.
ISBN
Grotius, Hugo (2005) [1625]. Richard Tuck (ed.). The Rights of War and Peace. Liberty Fund. 9780865974364.
ISBN
Hobbes, Thomas. .
Leviathan
Hoffman, Joshua; Rosenkrantz, Gary S. (2002). The Divine Attributes. :10.1002/9780470693438. ISBN 978-1892941008. S2CID 55213987.
doi
Hourani, George (1960). (PDF). Muslim World. 50 (4): 269–278. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.1960.tb01091.x. hdl:2027.42/74937.
"Two Theories of Value in Medieval Islam"
Hourani, George (1962). "Averroes on Good and Evil". Studia Islamica. 16 (16): 13–40. :10.2307/1595117. JSTOR 1595117.
doi
Hume, David (1739). . CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1479321728.
A Treatise of Human Nature
Hutcheson, Francis (1738). . London : Printed for D. Midwinter, A. Bettersworth, and C. Hitch ...
An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue; In Two Treatises
Irwin, Terence (2006). "Socrates and Euthyphro: The argument and its revival". In Lindsay Judson; V. Karasmanēs (eds.). Remembering Socrates: Philosophical Essays. Oxford University Press.
James, William (1891). . International Journal of Ethics. 1 (3): 330–354. doi:10.1086/intejethi.1.3.2375309. JSTOR 2375309.
"The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life"
Janik, Allan; (1973). Wittgenstein's Vienna. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-21725-9.
Toulmin, Stephen
Klagge, James C. (1984). "An alleged difficulty concerning moral properties". Mind. 93 (371): 370–380. :10.1093/mind/xciii.371.370. JSTOR 2254416.
doi
Kretzmann, Norman (1999). "Abraham, Isaac, and Euthyphro: God and the basis of morality". In Eleonore Stump; Michael J. Murray (eds.). Philosophy of Religion: The Big Questions. Oxford: Blackwell. 978-0-631-20604-0.
ISBN
Leibniz, Gottfried (1686). .
Discourse on Metaphysics
Leibniz, Gottfried (1989) [1702(?)]. . In Leroy Loemker (ed.). Leibniz: Philosophical Papers and Letters. Dordrecht: Kluwer. pp. 561–573. ISBN 978-9027706935.
"Reflections on the Common Concept of Justice"
Leibniz, Gottfried (1706). "Opinion on the Principles of Pufendorf". In Riley (ed.). Leibniz: Political Writings. Cambridge University Press. pp. 64–75.
Leibniz, Gottfried (1710). .
Théodicée
Lewis, C. S. (1967) [1943]. "The Poison of Subjectivism". .
Christian Reflections
Luther, Martin (1525). .
On the Bondage of the Will
Mawson, T. J. (2008). "The Euthyphro Dilemma". Think. 7 (20): 25–33. :10.1017/S1477175608000171. S2CID 170806539.
doi
Moore, G. E. (1903). .
Principia Ethica
Moore, G. E. (1912). .
Ethics
Morriston, Wes (2001). "Must there be a standard of moral goodness apart from God". Philosophia Christi. 2. 3 (1): 127–138. :10.5840/pc2001318.
doi
Murphy, Mark (2012). "Theological Voluntarism". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). . The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2012 ed.).
Theological Voluntarism
Murray, Michael J.; Rea, Michael (2008). An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge. 978-0521619554.
ISBN
Osborne, Thomas M. Jr. (2005). "Ockham as a divine-command theorist". Religious Studies. 41 (1): 1–22. :10.1017/S0034412504007218. JSTOR 20008568. S2CID 170351380.
doi
Pieper, Josef (2001). The Concept of Sin. Translated by Edward T. Oakes. South Bend, Indiana: St Augustine's Press. 978-1-890318-07-9.
ISBN
Pink, Thomas (2005). "Action, Will and Law in Late Scholasticism". Action, Will, and Law in Late Scholasticism. The New Synthese Historical Library. Vol. 57. pp. 31–50. :10.1007/1-4020-3001-0_3. ISBN 978-1-4020-3000-0.
{{cite book}}:|journal=ignored (help)
doi
Price, Richard (1769). . London: Printed for T. Cadell.
A Review of the Principal Questions of Morals
Quinn, Philip (2007). "Theological Voluntarism". In David Copp (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory. :10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195325911.003.0003.
doi
Rogers, Katherin A. (2000). "Divine Goodness". Perfect Being Theology. Edinburgh University Press. 978-0-7486-1012-9.
ISBN
Sacks, Jonathan (2005). . New York: Schocken Books. ISBN 978-0-8052-1196-2.
To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility
Sagi, Avi; Statman, Daniel (1995). Religion and Morality. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 978-90-5183-838-1.
ISBN
Singer, Peter (1993). (3d ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-43971-8.
Practical Ethics
Shaw, Joseph (2002). "Divine commands at the foundations of morality". Canadian Journal of Philosophy. 32 (3): 419–439. :10.1080/00455091.2002.10716525. JSTOR 40232157. S2CID 170616382.
doi
Snaith, Norman H. (1983) [1944]. The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament. London: Epworth Press. 978-0-7162-0392-6.
ISBN
Suárez, Francisco (1872). . ex typis Fibrenianis.
Tractatus de legibus ac deo legislatore: in decem libros distributus
Swinburne, Richard (1974). "Duty and the Will of God". Canadian Journal of Philosophy. 4 (2): 213–227. :10.1080/00455091.1974.10716933. JSTOR 40230500. S2CID 159730360.
doi
Swinburne, Richard (2008). "God and morality". Think. 7 (20): 7–15. :10.1017/S1477175608000158. S2CID 170918784.
doi
Wierenga, Edward (1983). "A defensible divine command theory". Noûs. 17 (3): 387–407. :10.2307/2215256. JSTOR 2215256.
doi
Williams, Thomas (2013). "John Duns Scotus". In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). . The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2013 ed.).
John Duns Scotus
Jan Aertsen Medieval philosophy and the transcendentals: the case of Thomas Aquinas (2004: New York, Brill) 90-04-10585-9
ISBN
[ed.] Divine Commands and Morality (1981: Oxford, Oxford University Press) ISBN 0-19-875049-8
Paul Helm
Plato Euthyphro (any edition; the Penguin version can be found in The Last Days of Socrates 0-14-044037-2)