What Does Theism Add to Ethical Naturalism?

Recent literature seems to have opened up space for naturalistic theistic metaethics in a contemporary context, as proponents of divine command theories have tended to be restricted to either supernatural or theistic non-natural theories within existing taxonomies of normative theory. While perhaps encouraging for theists, would theism add anything substantive to theories of ethical naturalism? In this paper, I examine this question. I argue that theistic naturalism appears to incur certain objections as well as provide a plausible and explanatory constraint on content for theories of ethical naturalism. As a result, a corresponding challenge to non-theistic variants is raised.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Department dc:contributor.department

Philosophy

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Burkette, Jerry W. Jr.

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Wodak, Daniel
• McPherson, Tristram C.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Trogdon, Kelly Griffith
• Rockwood, Nathan J.

• Normative Realism
• Ethical Naturalism
• Theism
• Metaethics
• Metaphysical Grounding
• Divine Command Theory
• Non-naturalism
• Supernaturalism

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/83836

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/83836