Religious Ethical System

Religious ethics

The study of how religious beliefs and traditions guide moral behavior.

Reciprocity

Treat others as you would want to be treated.

Stewardship

The responsibility to care for the Earth and its resources.

Human worth

The idea that people deserve dignity, respect, and compassion.

Theocracy

A system of government based on religious authority or religious law.

Agent apocalypticism

The belief that a group has a role in bringing about a divinely planned transformation of the world.

Divine Command Theory (DCT)

The theory that morality is determined by God's commands.

Euthyphro dilemma

The question of whether something is good because God commands it or God commands it because it is already good.

Omnipotence

The attribute of being all-powerful.

Omniscience

The attribute of being all-knowing.

Omnibenevolence

The attribute of being all-good.

First horn of the Euthyphro dilemma

If God commands things because they are right, morality exists independently of God's commands, potentially limiting God's omnipotence.

Second horn of the Euthyphro dilemma

If things are right only because God commands them, morality may be arbitrary, challenging God's omnibenevolence.

Moral arbitrariness

A moral rule that has no principled reason or independent standard behind it.

Plato's Euthyphro

A dialogue in which Socrates questions whether divine approval defines holiness or recognizes it.

Natural Law Theory (NLT)

A theory that morality can be discovered through reason by understanding human purpose and the order of nature.

Thomas Aquinas

A medieval philosopher and theologian associated with Natural Law Theory.

Telos

The purpose, goal, or function of something.

Teleology

An approach that explains things in terms of their purpose or goal.

Eternal Law

God's eternal rational plan and purpose for everything.

Natural Law

The part of Eternal Law that humans can understand through reason.

Human Law

Specific rules established by governments and societies.

Divine Law

Moral guidance revealed by God, such as the Ten Commandments.

Primary precepts

General moral principles that reason can recognize and that apply universally in Aquinas's theory.

Secondary precepts

Specific rules created to apply general moral principles to everyday situations.

First primary precept

Good should be pursued and done, and evil should be avoided.

Preserving human life

A primary precept in Aquinas's Natural Law Theory.

Living in society

A primary precept that recognizes the importance of social life.

Real goods

Actions or rules that genuinely align with Natural Law.

Apparent goods

Things that seem good but conflict with Natural Law.

Moral relativism

The view that moral truth or justification depends on a framework or context rather than one universal standard.

A priori

Knowledge or reasoning independent of experience.

A posteriori

Knowledge gained through experience or observation.

External act

The outward action a person performs.

Internal act

The intention or motive behind an action.

Doctrine of Double Effect (DDE)

The theory that an act with good and bad effects can be morally acceptable if four conditions are met.

DDE condition 1

The act itself must be good or morally acceptable.

DDE condition 2

The good effect must not be achieved through the bad effect.

DDE condition 3

The person's intention must be good; the bad effect must not be intended.

DDE condition 4

There must be a sufficiently serious reason for accepting the bad effect.

Foreseen consequence

An outcome a person knows may or will happen, even if it is not the person's intended goal.

Intended consequence

An outcome a person aims to bring about through their action.

Descriptive claim

A statement about what is, what happens, or how people behave.

Prescriptive claim

A statement about what someone should or should not do.

Natural does not mean morally good

The fact that something occurs naturally does not automatically make it morally right.

Aquinas and DCT

Aquinas rejects DCT because God's commands reveal moral truths rather than create them.

Aquinas and human purpose

Aquinas argues that humans fulfill their purpose by acting according to reason.

Criticism: human telos

A challenge asking whether humans really have one universal purpose or function.

Criticism: moral disagreement

Rational people can reflect carefully and still disagree about what is morally right.

Criticism: intention in DDE

It can be difficult to distinguish accepting a foreseen harmful result from intending that result.

Main difference between DCT and NLT

DCT says morality is determined by God's commands; NLT says reason can discover moral principles that God's commands help reveal.