RT Article
T1 Morality, Inescapable Rational Authority, and a God's Wishes
JF Journal of religious ethics
VO 43
IS 3
SP 454
OP 474
A1 Harrison, Gerald K.
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2015
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1580188656
AB It is a supposed conceptual truth about moral norms that we have reason to comply with them even if we desire not to. This combination of rational authority and inescapability is thought to be incompatible with instrumentalism about practical reason. This essay argues that there are ways in which norms with inescapable rational authority can exist alongside instrumentalism about practical reason. One way involves positing an afterlife and a powerful supernatural agency—so, a kind of god—who has total control over our welfare in that afterlife. I go on to argue that the attitudes of this god would also provide something answering to our impressions of moral desert.
K1 categorical reasons
K1 Divine Command Theory
K1 inescapable rational authority
K1 Metaethics
DO 10.1111/jore.12105