Published: Theological Utilitarianism, Supervenience, and Intrinsic Value
My paper, “Theological Utilitarianism, Supervenience, and Intrinsic Value” has been published in a special issue of Religions, devoted to the topic God and Ethics. The abstract is as follows: Erik...
View ArticleThinking Matters Talk: Does Morality Need God? Part Three:
This year the New Zealand apologetics organization Thinking Matters ran a “Confident Christianity Conference” in Auckland. I was asked to speak at this conference on the topic. Does Morality Need God?...
View ArticleThinking Matters Talk: Does Morality Need God? Part One
This year the New Zealand apologetics organization Thinking Matters, ran a “Confident Christianity Conference” in Auckland. I was asked to speak at this conference on the topic. Does Morality Need...
View ArticleDoes the Incommensurability of Prudential and Impartial rationality avoid the...
In my last post, I mentioned an argument made by Stephen Layman. Layman asks us to consider the case of Ms Poore; Ms. Poore has lived many years in grinding poverty. She is not starving, but has only...
View ArticleDivine Command Theory and the Euthyphro Dilemma: Part III
This is a talk I gave to the Philosophy Club at Glendale Community College in Phoenix, Arizona, this weekend. The talk was followed by a long discussion with some faculty, students at the college, and...
View ArticleDivine Command Theory and the Euthyphro Dilemma: Part I
This is a talk I gave to the Philosophy Club at Glendale Community College in Phoenix, Arizona, this weekend. The talk was followed by a long discussion with some faculty, students at the college, and...
View ArticleWhat is the Question?: John Gay’s “Dissertation Concerning the Fundamental...
In recent posts I have been looking at the rhetorical question: “if there is no God, why be good?” In my last post, I suggested one way to understand this question was in terms of Henry Sidgwick’s...
View ArticleWhat is the Question?: Henry Sidgwick’s Dualism of Practical Reason
In a previous post, I criticised Richard Dawkins’s discussion of the question: if there is no God, why be good? One criticism I raised was that Dawkins seemed to misunderstand the challenge this...
View ArticlePublished in Sophia “Why the Horrendous deeds objection is still a bad argument”
My paper, “Why the Horrendous deeds objection is still a bad argument” has now been published by Sophia here. The abstract is as follows: A common objection to divine command meta-ethics (‘DCM’) is...
View ArticleDawkin’s dilemma: How not to answer the question “Why Be Moral?”
In his bestselling book, the God Delusion, Richard Dawkin’s responds to the question: “If there is no God, Why be good?” Posed like that, the question sounds positively ignoble. When a religious...
View ArticleProblems in Value Theory An Introduction to Contemporary Debates: My Chapter...
Yesterday, I was informed that the book Problems in Value Theory An Introduction to Contemporary Debates has finally been published. The book is now available both on amazon on Bloomsbury’s website....
View ArticleDivine Command Theory: answering classic and contemporary objections
Last week Jordan Hampton from Crash Course Apologetics interviewed me about chapters 12-13 of my book Did God Really Command Genocide. In this is the section of the book, I discuss divine command...
View ArticleThe Psychopath Objection to Divine Command Theory: Another Response to Erik...
In my last post, I expounded the Psychopath objection to divine command meta-ethics (DCM) that has recently been defended by Erik Wielenberg. To recap. Wielenberg suggests that my response to his...
View ArticleThe Psychopath Objection to Divine Command Theory: Another Response to Erik...
Recently, Erik Wielenberg has developed a novel objection to divine command meta-ethics (DCM). DCM “has the implausible implication that psychopaths have no moral obligations and hence their evil...
View ArticleGod and Moral Grounding Power
A common objection to divine command theories of ethics (DCT) is that they make morality arbitrary. There are several ways this objection can be cashed out. The most common is what is called the...
View Article“Robust Ethics and the Autonomy Thesis” Now Online
Recently, Philosophia Christi published Matt’s article “Robust Ethics and the Autonomy Thesis: A reply to Erik Wielenberg”. This article consisted of some critical commentary and responses to Erik...
View Article“Robust Ethics and the Autonomy Thesis” published in Philosophia Christi
Matt’s article, “Robust Ethics and the Autonomy Thesis: A reply to Erik Wielenberg” has been published in the winter issue ( Vol 19 Num. 2 – Winter 2017) of Philosophia Christi. An overview of the...
View ArticleDivine Command Theory and Utilitarianism forgotten bedfellows? Paley’s...
In my last post, I explained the position of Theological Utilitarianism as expounded in William Paley’s The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy. I pointed out The Principles was first...
View ArticleErik Wielenberg and the Autonomy thesis: part four Intrinsic goodness
In my last two posts, I argued that Erik Wielenberg fails to show that Godless Normative Robust Realism (GRNR) avoids some of the standard objections to the autonomy thesis. This brings me to...
View ArticleErik Wielenberg and the Autonomy Thesis: Part Two Standard Objections to the...
The autonomy thesis contends that there can be moral requirements to φ regardless of whether God commands, desires, or wills that people φ. In his monograph, Robust Ethics: The Metaphysics and...
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