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Example research essay topic: Bertrand Russell Moral Principles - 1,062 words

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Socrates and Euthyphro had a pretty educating dialogue during very ancient times. Euthyphro was concerned about the issue that he had to judge his own father for a murder that he committed. Socrates and Euthyphro try to figure out what is actually good and what is not. This theme goes along their whole conversation. Socrates asked his companion to identify the notion of piety and unity. For thousands of years many philosophers and theologians have tied moral principles to the existence of God.

There is some rationale for this approach. Moral principles seem to be absolute and eternal, and to gain this status they must rest on the nature of God, which is also absolute and eternal. Also, moral behavior is required of everyone, and one way of reinforcing the importance of moral behavior is to note that God mandates moral principles. In a famous passage from his dialog The Euthyphro, Plato exposes a dilemma with linking morality with God. We know this issue as the Euthyphro dilemma. After a pretty long conversation Socrates raises the core question that they need to answer together using their informational research: We shall know better, my good friend, in a little while.

The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods. The two options in question are whether (1) God endorses a previously existing standard of morality that is external to him, or (2) God independently creates the standards of morality. The two options appear to be mutually exclusive, and, in the dialog, Socrates tries to explain this point to Euthyphro. Euthyphro did not understand the meaning of the question at the first glance. Euthyphro later on realized the meaning, which Socrates input in his words. He said that goodness or piety in the case is loved because it is holy, not that it is holy, because it is loved.

Socrates asks his question the third time, and Euthyphro has a hard time to express what he wants to say. It is a very complicated situation. Then Socrates introduces his notion of some kind of form of the goodness. According to my opinion in our case the real form of goodness in justice itself. And it is pretty clear expressed in the notion of attention, raised by Socrates. In like manner holiness or piety is the art of attending to the gods, he asserts.

He also states that piety and goodness is an art of men and gods doing business together. The dilemma Euthyphro faced is this: Is a thing good simply because the gods say it is? Or do the gods say a thing is good because of some other quality it has? If so, what is that quality that is meant by the author? The problem stumped Euthyphro. In more recent times, Plato's approach has been used as an assault on the coherence of Christianity. 20 th century British philosopher and atheist, Bertrand Russell, formulated the problem this way in his polemic against the faith, Why I Am Not a Christian.

Plato's challenge forces us to consider an important detail in any discussion on the nature of morality: grounding. The word ground originally meant the lowest part, base, or bottom of anything. In philosophy it refers to the foundation or logical basis of a claim. Euthyphro's task was to identify the logical grounding of piety or virtue. What base does morality stand on? . Our point: Relativists who make any claim to knowledge have no basis for their assertion.

They are standing not on solid ground, but on thin air. A law is only as legitimate as the authority upon which it rests. The U. S.

government cant pass laws governing Canadians. Our federal laws apply only to the people of this country. Individuals can't make up laws that apply to their neighbors. They dont have that authority.

The founders of our country argued that even governments are subject to a higher law. Certain truths are transcendent, they argued, grounded not in human institutions but in God Himself. This appeal to higher Law was their rational justification for the morality of the American Revolution. The problem of grounding morality is a difficult one for atheists who claim one can have ethics without God. Certainly, an atheist can act in a manner some people consider moral, but its hard to know what the term ultimately refers to. It generally means to comply with an objective standard of good, a Law given by legitimate authority.

However, without a transcendent Lawmaker (God), there can be no transcendent Law, and no corresponding obligation to be good. Here we may investigate some solutions for the improving the understanding of the moral issue. The general strategy used to defeat a dilemma is to show that its a false one. There are not two options, but three. The Christian rejects the first option, that morality is an arbitrary function of Gods power. And he rejects the second option, that God is responsible to a higher law.

There is no Law over God. The third option is that an objective standard exists (this avoids the first horn of the dilemma). However, the standard is not external to God, but internal (avoiding the second horn). Morality is grounded in the immutable character of God, who is perfectly good. His commands are not whims, but rooted in His holiness.

Could God simply decree that torturing babies was moral? No, the Christian answers, God would never do that. Its not a matter of command. Its a matter of character.

So the Christian answer avoids the dilemma entirely. Morality is not anterior to God- logically prior to Him- as Bertrand Russell suggests, but rooted in His nature. As Scott Rae puts it, Morality is not grounded ultimately in Gods commands, but in His character, which then expresses itself in His commands. In other words, whatever a good God command will always be good. Plato's famous dilemma concerning the nature of goodness is still being raised today as a serious challenge to Christianity. Is an act right because God says its so, or does God say its so because it is right?

Plato's dialog Euthyphro was the first writing that raised such question. Later on other philosophers started to investigate the assertion.


Free research essays on topics related to: euthyphro, bertrand russell, moral behavior, moral principles, objective standard

Research essay sample on Bertrand Russell Moral Principles

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