The Moral Argument

by Copan, Paul; Linville, Mark D.

• ISBN13: 9781441184610
• ISBN10: 1441184619
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-01-29
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

The Moral Argument offers a wide-ranging defense of the necessary connection between God and objective moral values, moral duties, proper function, and human rights. It presents several versions of the moral argument for God's existence; a survey of the history of the argument, including the more recent work of Robert Adams, John Hare, John Rist, and others; an assessment of competing meta-ethical views that attempt to ground or explain ethics; a defense of moral knowledge; and an assessment of the Euthyphro Dilemma (and related objections) for any theistic conception of moral values. The book will examineand find wanting various non-theistic alternatives to ground or explain morality. Although natural theological arguments have gained new strength within the past forty years or so, there has yet to be written a comprehensive book on the moral argument that covers the range of available arguments. This volume brings together the best of the available arguments under one cover.

Author Biography

Paul Copan is Professor and the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University, FL, USA. He is the co-editor (with Paul Moser) of The Rationality of Theism (with Chad Meister), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion, and Philosophy of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Issues, and co-author (with William Craig) of Creation Out of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical, and Scientific Exploration.

Mark D. Linville is an independent philosopher based in Atlanta, USA. His articles have appeared in the American Philosophical Quarterly, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Religious Studies, Faith and Philosophy and Philosophia Christi. He is a contributor to the Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology ( 2009) and Four Views of God and Morality (forthcoming, 2012).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction / Part One: A History of an Argument / 2. Classical Versions of the Moral Argument3. Recent Work on the Moral Argument / Part Two: Metaethical Considerations / 4. A Defense of Moral Realism / 5. Moral Epistemology / Part Three: The Moral Argument Defended / 6. An Argument from Evolutionary Naturalism / 7. An Argument from Personal Dignity / 8. An Argument from Moral Agency / 9. An Argument from Proper Function / 10. An Argument from Explanatory Contexts / 11. An Argument from Naturalists / 12. An Argument from Evil / Part Four: The Coherence of Theistic Ethics /13. God and Morality / Conclusion: Divine Goodness, Evidence, and Human Freedom / Bibliography /Index