Many ethical systems hold that there are obligations to love and value all human beings. This essay assumes the existence of such universal obligations, and argues that a divine command meta-ethical theory provides a better account of these obligations than secular meta-ethical theories, such as the evolutionary biology and contractual meta-ethical accounts that are favored by many psychologists. God's command to humans to love their neighbors as themselves not only explains the existence of such obligations, but also gives a plausible account of the psychological motivation for acting in accord with such a duty.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdamsR. (1999). Finite and infinite goods.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
2.
American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist, 57, 1060–1073.
3.
AnnasJ. (1993). The morality of happiness.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
4.
Aristotle (1941). Nicomachean ethics.In The Basic Works of Aristotle (W. D. Ross, Trans.). New York: Random House.
5.
ArnhartL. (1998). Darwinian natural right: The biological ethics of human nature.Albany: State University of New York Press.
6.
Confucius. (2003). Analects (E. Slingerland, Trans.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
7.
DarwinC. (1981). The descent of man (Vol. 1). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1824)
8.
DawkinsR. (1976). The selfish gene.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
9.
EvansC. S. (2004). Kierkegaard's ethic of love: Divine commands and moral obligations.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
10.
GauthierD. (1986). Morals by agreement.Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
11.
HardinG. (1977). The limits of altruism.Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
12.
HareR. M. (1981). Moral thinking.Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
13.
HarmanG. (2000). Moral relativism defended. In HarmanG., Explaining value and other essays in moral philosophy (pp. 3–19). Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
14.
HobbesT. (1996). Leviathan (R. Tuck, Ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1651)
15.
KantI. (1993). Grounding for the metaphysic of morals (J. W. Ellington, Trans; 3rd. ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. (Original work published 1785)
16.
MillJ. S. (1998). Utilitarianism (R. Crisp, Ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1861)
17.
Plato. (1963). Euthyphro (L. Cooper, Trans.). In Plato: The Collected Dialogues (E. Hamilton and H. Cairns, Eds.; pp. 169–185). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
18.
QuinnP. (1990, Fall). The recent revival of divine command ethics. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 50, (suppl.).
19.
RawlsJ. (1971). A theory of justice.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
20.
RobertsR. C. (2003). Emotions: An essay in aid of moral psychology.Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
21.
WallachM., & WallachL. (1983). Psychology's sanction for selfishness: The error of egoism in theory and therapy.San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
