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THE MORAL ARGUMENT

The moral argument is one of five classical arguments for the existence of God, inferred from empirical evidence of the psychological phenomenon of human morality – as Kant wrote,

“two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing awe, the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”

It can either be argued using the logic that an objective moral law cannot be explained without reference to God (analogical with laws of the state), or from evidence of conscience as a form of religious experience.

Kant (1724-1804) – analyses Aquinas’ 4th way. Other arguments for God fail; He is beyond the limits of our intellect and experience. However “God is a postulate of practical reason.”

Reason leads us to follow the CI (follow universalisable maxims for the sake of duty), the most important duty is to aim for the Summum Bonum (where virtue and happiness are united), as moral behaviour is only rational if justice will be done. “Ought implies can” so the Summum Bonum must be attainable, but it isn’t attainable in this life (there are many morally exemplary people who are not happy), so there must be an afterlife, and there must be a benevolent and omnipotent God to provide it. If our morality is to have any meaning, God must exist (“it is morally necessary to assume the existence of God”). With no God, there is no inclination to do good.

However Davies “belief in an objective moral law need not even suggest the existence of God” e.g. a pantheon of angels, ‘moral carrot’ morality needn’t be just, maybe no objective moral law.

Owen – draws an analogy with laws of state, “it is impossible to think of a command without also thinking of a commander.” Shame, responsibility and guilt would not make sense if we were not aware of a higher power judging our behaviour, “for it is, directly or indirectly, a betrayal of God’s love.” Understands that faith is only relevant from experience. However Hume – problems with analogy e.g. created by a group of people, and Laird – laws of the state aren’t always just.

Rashdall (1858-1924) – we experience absolute moral claims on us, these can’t exist if morality is purely a human creation; there must be an objective standard, God. “An absolute moral ideal can only exist in a mind from which all morality is derived.”

However morality isn’t necessarily objective – Protagoras “man is the measure of all things,” e.g. nihilism, relativism, emotivism, Wittgenstein’s language games, although this means ethics is no more substantial than, say, eating an ice cream. Nothing to say that e.g. genocide is wrong.

Hick (b.1922) – (1) we feel a moral compulsion/conscience, which can either be explained by sociology etc. or by God being the grounding of all moral values. (2) There is a moral claim over me to work towards the highest good, which must have a transhuman source, God. “To recognise moral claims as taking precedence over all other interests is implicitly to believe in a reality of some other kind that is superior to oneself.”

Trethowan – rejects logic, Owen’s moral law could be explained by anthropology or psychology. Morality is a religious experience. When we make a moral decision, a sense of obligation (like Kant) dictates our choice. This obligation is the conviction that each person has intrinsic value, which comes from God. “We have value because we receive it from a source of value. That is what I mean by God.” An atheist’s morality comes from God, but they ignore it.

However, God must be perfectly good for us to want to obey his moral laws – evil poses a problem for the moral argument. Also Euthyphro Dilemma (Plato) “Is something good because God commands it, or does God command it because it is good?” (Russell) – could mean God created morality on a whim.

Conscience

“the spark of conscience, with which we discern that we sin” St. Jerome

Butler (1692-1752) – “our natural guide, assigned to us by the author of our nature.” It is the “superior principle of reflection” (emotions, reason and then conscience). Comes from God, but not the voice of God. It tells us what to do and gives the obligation to follow it. Has ultimate authority without introspection. “Intuitive and authoritative.” Takes us from self-love to beneficence.

Newman (1801-1890) – “if, as is the case, we feel responsibility, are frightened at transgressing the voice of conscience, this implies there is one to whom we are responsible.” Conscience is the literal voice of God within us. Innate but experience is necessary for its growth. 1st part = moral sense, 2nd part = sense of duty which enforces it, most important part.

Since everyone participates in the objective morality despite our individual personalities, it points beyond itself to some greater reality. “Counterfeit conscience” is shaped by society, an excuse for following our own personal choices.

Morality can’t always lead us to religion. Religion and morality can’t always be separated, which comes first? Since we are all moral but not all religious, it could be argued that morality came first. Some argue that religion interferes with morality e.g. Russell “it is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but if so, it will be necessary to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion” or vice versa, morality interfering with religion e.g. Kierkegaard – Abraham told by God to sacrifice Isaac (DCT). Phillips “the religious concept of duty cannot be understood if it is treated as a moral concept.” Also there is more to morality than simply following a God-given law, for example Joseph Fletcher’s Situation Ethics, have to evaluate each situation for ourselves.

Augustine (354-430) – conscience is innate, but you can’t act on it correctly without the grace of God, because human nature is corrupted. Abelard developed Augustine – actions are neither good nor bad, sin only comes with bad intentions i.e. deliberately disobeying God.

Aquinas (1224-1275) – conscience is a rational process, but God gave us the ability to reason.

Synderesis = do good and avoid evil, conscientia = “reason making right decisions.” It isn’t the voice of God, reason can make the wrong decision when we mistake a real good for an apparent good, this is where evil comes from. Conscience shouldn’t override other ethical considerations.

Morality can be explained without reference to God

Solveychik – secular explanation for objective morality. A common knowledge about truth has been defined over millions of years; we obtain our conscience through language – “same source of common knowledge of the truth.”

Macnamara - “it is not so much that I have a conscience, as that I am a conscience,” it is the revelation of our entire upbringing etc. and everything about us.

Fletcher – we don’t actually ‘have’ a conscience, it is just a word to describe the reasoning process. Hobbes – we have morality to avoid the state of nature, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

Pavlov – social conditioning in what we do morally e.g. disgust at rape (however we aren’t animals, we can override our conditioning).

Skinner – how we behave becomes habitual, rejected the idea of moral autonomy.

Piaget – morals are the result of cognitive development before the age of ten.

Freud – religion is a “universal obsessional neurosis.” Morality (superego) comes from the tension between our basic desires (id) and our ‘reality principle’ (ego). When we can’t satisfy superego we have “an unconscious sense of guilt,” not because God is judging us. God is ‘wish fulfilment’ from the fear of death and our desire for a father figure (however Owen argues that the father figure is a projection of God rather than the other way round.)

Fromm – authority congratulates or rejects us according to how we behave, we internalise these laws and aren’t evaluating for ourselves. Humanist conscience is “the reaction of ourselves to ourselves” which is the real us.

Jung – “collective unconscious,” explains why we all have similar morality; however we can’t move from this psychological explanation to a proof of God.

Nietzsche – “morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.” People follow religion and morality in order to fit in, but this isn’t a good thing.

Comment

These notes are aimed at people studying for OCR A2 Philosophy.

Originally written by rejey on TSR Forums.