more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 4009

[filed under theme 28. God / A. Divine Nature / 6. Divine Morality / d. God decrees morality ]

Full Idea

Late medieval nominalism defended the sovereignty of God as incompatible with there being an order in nature which by itself defined good and bad.

Clarification

'Nominalists' were opponents of Plato's theory of Forms

Gist of Idea

Nominalists defended the sovereignty of God against the idea of natural existing good and evil

Source

Charles Taylor (Sources of the Self [1989], §3.3)

Book Ref

Taylor,Charles: 'Sources of the Self' [CUP 1992], p.82

A Reaction

Part of their attack on Platonism. But what made them place such a high value on the sovereignty of God?

The 16 ideas with the same theme [God as the authority behind morality]:

8004 In 'The Laws', to obey the law is to be obey god [Plato, by MacIntyre]
3042 Stoics teach that law is identical with right reason, which is the will of Zeus [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
5965 The source of all justice is Zeus and the universal nature [Chrysippus]
2651 God doesn't obey the laws of nature; they are subject to the law of God [Cicero]
8010 William of Ockham is the main spokesman for God's commands being the source of morality [William of Ockham]
3637 Ideas in God's mind only have value if he makes it so [Descartes]
6223 If the will and pleasure of God controls justice, then anything wicked or unjust would become good if God commanded it [Cudworth]
6226 The requirement that God must be obeyed must precede any authority of God's commands [Cudworth]
12570 The finite and dependent should obey the supreme and infinite [Locke]
6249 If goodness is constituted by God's will, it is a tautology to say God's will is good [Hutcheson]
7577 Abraham was willing to suspend ethics, for a higher idea [Kierkegaard]
7162 Morality can only be upheld by belief in God and a 'hereafter' [Nietzsche]
4502 Morality cannot survive when the God who sanctions it is missing [Nietzsche]
3845 Without God there is no intelligibility or value [Sartre]
4009 Nominalists defended the sovereignty of God against the idea of natural existing good and evil [Taylor,C]
20703 How could God have obligations? What law could possibly impose them? [Davies,B]