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    The doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS) provides a soluti... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
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    The doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS) provides a solution to the Euthyphro dilemma.

    Divine Attributes
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

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    Reasons For

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    • 1.The Euthyphro dilemma asks: does God command the good because it is good, or is the good good because God commands it?
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    • 2.If God commands the good because it is good, then God's willing is subject to an external standard logically antecedent to God, which undermines divine sovereignty.
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    • 3.If the good is good because God commands it, then the content of morality would be arbitrary because it is subject to God's free will.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.DDS requires that God's essence and existence are identical, but this collapses the distinction between what God is and that God is, making divine necessary existence unintelligible.
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    • 2.If God just *is* goodness itself, then 'God is good' becomes a tautology that strips moral predication of its normative force, leaving the Euthyphro dilemma unresolved rather than dissolved.
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    • 3.Aquinas's own interpreter Scotus argued that formal distinctions in God are required for coherent predication, meaning simplicity strict enough to dissolve Euthyphro is too strict for theology.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.The DDS solution presupposes that God cannot will otherwise than the good, but divine omnipotence as standardly construed entails God could have willed differently, reintroducing arbitrariness.
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    • 2.If God's willing is necessary and not free, as strict DDS demands, then divine commands lack the deontic authority required to ground moral obligation, as Wainwright and Quinn have argued.
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    Topics

    Divine Attributes

    Related

    Aquinas's own interpreter Scotus argued that formal distinctions in God are requ...DDS requires that God's essence and existence are identical, but this collapses ...If God commands the good because it is good, then God's willing is subject to an...If God just *is* goodness itself, then 'God is good' becomes a tautology that st...
    +7 moreShow less
    If God's willing is necessary and not free, as strict DDS demands, then divine c...If God, being simple, just is his willing, then he cannot will anything other th...If the good is good because God commands it, then the content of morality would ...On DDS, if God is goodness itself in its prime instance, then he is not subject ...The DDS solution presupposes that God cannot will otherwise than the good, but d...The Euthyphro dilemma asks: does God command the good because it is good, or is ...Therefore the Euthyphro dilemma presents a false alternative under DDS.

    Similar

    The divine simplicity is the ground of the divine necessity.84%DDS (the doctrine of divine simplicity) affirms God's absolute transce...84%The doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS) implies that God is utterly su...82%One reasonable response to the contradiction is to deny divine simplic...81%

    Source

    AI-extracted3/3 agreementValid
    SEP: divine-simplicity
    View source passageHide passage
    A third motivation for DDS lies in the fact that it provides a solution to the ancient Euthyphro dilemma first presented by Plato in his eponymous dialog. Does God command the good because it is good, and forbid the bad because it is bad, or is the good good and the bad bad because God commands/forbids it? If the former, God’s willing would be subject to an external standard logically antecedent to God to the detriment of the divine sovereignty. If the latter, the content of morality would be arbitrary because subject to God’s free will. On DDS, however, the dilemma is a false alternative. If ...
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The extracted argument faithfully captures the structure and content of the source passage, and the premises logically support the conclusion by showing that DDS dissolves both horns of the Euthyphro dilemma—God is the standard of goodness (addressing horn one) and cannot will otherwise than the good (addressing horn two)—thus rendering the dilemma a false alternative.

    Confidence: High confidence. The argument is explicitly laid out in the text.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit