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Full Idea
If the arbitrary will and pleasure of God is the first and only rule of good and justice, it follows that nothing can be so grossly wicked or unjust but if it were commanded by this omnipotent Deity, it must forthwith become holy, just and righteous.
Gist of Idea
If the will and pleasure of God controls justice, then anything wicked or unjust would become good if God commanded it
Source
Ralph Cudworth (On Eternal and Immutable Morality [1688], Ch.I.I.5)
Book Ref
'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 1', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.106
A Reaction
This is the strong (Platonic) answer to the Euthyphro Question (Idea 336). One answer is that God would not command in such a way - but why not? We may say that God and goodness merge into one, but we are interested in ultimate authority.
Related Idea
Idea 336 Is what is pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because they love it? (the 'Euthyphro Question') [Plato]
| 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] |
| 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] |