God and Morality. This module investigates whether God must, or even can, provide a foundation for morality.

Transcription

1 God and Morality Credit value: 10 Module level: Module tutor: 2 nd Year Undergraduate The Reverend Dr David Efird Module overview: This module investigates whether God must, or even can, provide a foundation for morality. Module learning outcomes: By the end of this module, students should be able to assess whether features of morality provide evidence for the existence of God, divine command theories of meta-ethics, assess whether features of religious faith are in tension with requirements of morality. Module content: By attending to a debate between William Lane Craig and Paul Kurtz on whether goodness without God is good enough, this module investigates whether God must, or even can, provide a foundation for morality. In this investigation, the module considers whether features of morality provide evidence for the existence of God, whether the commands of God could ground morality, and whether features of religious faith are in tension with requirements of morality. Assessment: Assessment task word essay Formative or Summative (F/S) F Timing of the assessment Friday of Week 6 of the Spring Term Essay Plan F Monday of Week 8 of the Spring Term 2500-word essay S Monday of Week 1 of the Summer Term Length of examination (where appropriate) N/A N/A N/A 100% Contribution to the module mark (summative only)

2 Formative assessment The formative assessment (procedural work) for this module consists in: a formative essay words due on Friday of Week 6, and an essay plan of your summative essay Monday of Week 8. The formative essay should be a critical evaluation of one of the papers you will use for your summative essay. The essay should have the following form: Title: Summary: A Critical Evaluation of (e.g. C. Stephen Layman s Argument that If Morality is Rationally Authoritative, God Exists) words giving a neutral summary of an argument from the paper. For example, if C. Stephen Layman had words to summarize his argument that if morality is rationally authoritative, God exists, this is what he would say. Evaluation: words giving a critical evaluation of the argument The topic of your formative essay can be the same as the topic of your summative essay. Indeed, I encourage you to choose the same topic so that you can get some practice with it and feedback on your attempt. Your essay plan consists of the proposed structure of your summative essay (not a plan for your formative essay). That is, the essay plan should be a plan for the essay to be submitted as the summative assessment for the module. You can find some good advice on writing a good essay plan here: Summative assessment The summative assessment for this module is a 2500-word essay. Sample essay topics include: 1. If theism is true, does morality have a sound foundation? 2. If theism is not true, does morality lack a sound foundation? 3. If morality is rationally authoritative, does it follow that God exist? 4. Does the Euthyphro dilemma show that morality does not depend on God? 5. How should I resolve this dilemma: (i) if God commands me to do something, it is not morally wrong for me to do it, (ii) God has commanded me to torture innocent babies, and (iii) it is morally wrong for me to torture innocent babies? 6. If God doesn t exist, is everything morally permitted? 7. If we ought to be morally good consistently with our own and others happiness, does God exist? 8. Does divine command theory make morality childish? 9. Is morality unknowable on divine command theory? 10. Can prudence ground morality? 2

3 11. Can a theist lead a fully admirable moral life? 12. Does theism entail normative egoism? 13. Are there necessary moral truths independent of the will of God? There are many more, though. I encourage you to speak with me in my office hours about what you would like to write about. Reading list: The required reading for this module is taken from Robert K. Garcia and Nathan L. King (eds), Is Goodness without God Good Enough? (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009) abbreviated as GK below. In addition, there are a number of recommended and background readings listed in the schedule below. 3

4 Schedule Week 2 Seminar 1: The Debate Paul Kurtz and William Lane Craig, The Kurtz/Craig Debate: Is Goodness without God Good Enough?, in Chris Heathwood, Could Morality Have a Source?, Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy 6 (2012), available online at Wes Morriston, God and the Ontological Foundation of Morality, Religious Studies 48 (2012): Recommended viewing: William Lane Craig and Louise Antony, Is God necessary for morality? Video of a debate at the University of Massachusetts on 10 April, 2008 ( William Lane Craig and Shelly Kagan, Is God necessary for morality? Video of a debate at Columbia University on 24 February, 2009 ( 2005), ch. 4. [In Key Texts] Week 3 Seminar 2: Layman s argument from the overridingness of morality C. Stephen Layman, A Moral Argument for the Existence of God, in Sarah Stroud, Moral Overridingness and Moral Theory, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 79 (1998): C. Stephen Layman, God and the Moral Order, Faith and Philosophy 19 (2002): Peter Byrne, God and the Moral Order: A Reply to Layman, Faith and Philosophy 23 (2006): C. Stephen Layman, God and the Moral Order: Replies to Objections Faith and Philosophy 23 (2006):

5 Peter Byrne, Moral Arguments for the Existence of God, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: ), ch. 3. [In Key Texts] Week 4 Seminar 3: Antony s argument from perfect piety Louise Antony, Atheism as Perfect Piety, in Wes Morriston, What If God Commanded Something Terrible? A Worry for Divine-Command Meta-Ethics, Religious Studies 45 (2009): T. J. Mawson, The Euthyphro Dilemma, Think 7 (2008): Christian Miller, Euthyphro Dilemma, Blackwell International Encyclopedia of Ethics (forthcoming), available online at Mark Murphy, Theological Voluntarism, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: ), chs. 5-8 and 10. Seminar 4: Hare s Kantian arguments Week 5 John Hare, Is Moral Goodness without Belief in God Rationally Stable?, in GK. John Hare, Ethics and Religion: Two Kantian Arguments, Philosophical Investigations 34 (2011): Peter Byrne, Moral Arguments for the Existence of God, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: ), chs [In Key Texts] 5

6 Week 6 Seminar 5: Sinnott-Armstrong s argument against theism providing the foundation of morality Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Why Traditional Theism Cannot Provide an Adequate Foundation for Morality, in William Lane Craig and Walter Sinnott Armstrong, God? A Debate Between a Christian and an Atheist (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp , 32-6, and [In Key Texts] Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Morality Without God? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). [In Key Texts] Mark C. Murphy review of Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Morality Without God? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), ), chs. 5-8 and 10. [In Key Texts] Week 7 Seminar 6: Murphy on the explanation of moral value Mark C. Murphy, Thesim, Atheism, and the Explanation of Moral Value, in Robert Merrihew Adams, Finite and Infinite Goods (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), ch. 10. [In Key Texts] Seminar 7: Hubin on altruism Week 8 Donald C. Hubin, Empty and Ultimately Meaningless Gestures?, in Erik J. Wielenberg, Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), ch. 3. [In Key Texts] 6

7 Week 9 Seminar 8: Swinburne on the foundation of morality Richard Swinburne, What Difference Does God Make to Morality?, in Richard Swinburne, Duty and the Will of God, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 4 (1974): T. J. Mawson, God s Creation of Morality, Religious Studies 38 (2002): Seminar 9: Week 10 William Lane Craig, The Most Gruesome of Guests, in GK. [In Key Texts] Paul Kurtz, Ethics without God: Theism versus Secular Humanism, in Wes Morriston, Review of Is goodness without god good enough? A debate on faith, secularism, and ethics, International Journal of Philosophy of Religion 70 (2011):