Divine Command Theory In Socrates's Euthyphro Dilemma

For this paper I will be discussing Socrates’s Euthyphro Dilemma. Socrates offers this argument, in the form of a dilemma, to defend the view that the following premises disprove the Divine Command Theory (DCT) when accepting either: (a) is an action morally right simply because God commands it, or (b) is God commanding these actions because he recognizes that they are right (Peterson Class Slides). If Socrates’s argument is sound, it would prove that DCT— the idea of being morally right is being commanded by God and being morally wrong is being forbidden by God— is false. This is significant because several philosophers accept DCT. The theory is a way of thinking about morality in a religious sense; but the Euthyphro argument has even caused …show more content…
Rachels proposes this quote as an objection to DCT, “do the gods command it because it is right?” (51). This quote portrays that God is deducing something to be morally right based on something else, apart from himself. A sophisticated euthyphist would say that because God recognizes something to be right and it is no longer up to him to command actions. The source that God deduced the command from is what determines the action to be morally right or wrong—not God. Philosophical educator Crash Course, stresses that if the rules of morality are taken from something other than God, then why can others not just find that source and figure out morality for themselves (Crash Course). God no longer needs to command actions if the knowledge of it is available outside of him. This eliminates God from DCT, leaving their view without a commander. DCT is thus false because it is no longer up to God to command moral actions and DCT strictly states the opposite. Although DCT is flawed, Divine Command Theorist could possibly object the Euthyphro Dilemma in efforts to prove their