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Richard Carrier and the “Infantile” objection to God’s command’s
In his article, “Why Traditional Theism Cannot Provide an Adequate Foundation for Morality”, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong argued that a “Divine command theory makes morality childish.”[1] In my response to...
View ArticleVideo: The Smith-Flannagan Debate “Morality Does Not Need God”
On Wednesday 21st May at the University of Waikato retired Philosophy and Political science lecturer Dr Ron Smith and Dr Matthew Flannagan (of this blog) debated the resolution “Morality Does not need...
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Is it Immoral to Believe in God? Matt responds to Michael Ruse
The Christian Research Journal have published an online copy of an article I wrote for their journal last year: In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, the distinguished philosopher of science...
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Erik Wielenberg and the Autonomy Thesis: part one Wielenberg’s criticism of...
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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Erik 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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Erik 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...
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Divine 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...
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“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...
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“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...
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God 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...
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The 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...
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The 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 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...
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Problems 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....
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Dawkin’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 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...
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What 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...
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What 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...
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Divine 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...
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Divine 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...
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