Faith and Philosophy

Volume 6, Issue 1, January 1989

In Search of “Good Positive Reasons” For an Ethics of Divine Commands
A Catalogue of Arguments

Recent proponents of a divine command ethics have chiefly defended the theory by refuting objections rather than by offering “positive reasons” to support it. We here offer a catalogue of such positive arguments drawn from historical discussions of the theory. We present arguments which focus on various properties of the divine nature and on the unique status of God, as well as arguments which are analogical in character. Finally, we describe a particularform of the theory to which these arguments point, and indicate how they counteract a standard criticism of it. Throughout we pick up on previous work of Philip Quinn.