Critical Epistemological Analysis of Robert Adams’ Revised Theory of the Divine Command

Document Type : Original Article

Author

assistant professor of Tehran university

10.48308/kj.2024.233242.1193

Abstract

According to the theory of divine order, there is no goodness or moral obligation without God’s command, and God’s commands are the main source of moral truths and explain them. In this case, God and, of course, revelation and scriptures play a fundamental role in realizing the essence of goodness and obligation, as well as understanding propositions focused on good and bad, should and shouldn’t. Based on his theory of divine order, Adams also states that God plays a fundamental and necessary role in creating certain moral phenomena. In this research, we will seek to
reject Adams’ theory of the divine order based on the epistemological challenge of that theory. It becomes clear that all the theories of divine affairs, even the Ash‛arite approach in Islamic thought, are vulnerable to this challenge, since in all those theories, there is this epistemic condition that the existence of moral obligation depends on the fact that the divine command is known to the moral agent. In this article, Adams’ theory is first analyzed from an epistemological point of view, and then the epistemological challenges of this theory are explained and verified.  

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References

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History

  • Receive Date: 26 September 2023
  • Revise Date: 10 November 2023
  • Accept Date: 17 February 2024

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