(March 13, 2015 at 1:24 pm)Esquilax Wrote:(March 13, 2015 at 12:49 pm)SteveII Wrote: "Is what is morally good commanded by God because it is morally good, or is it morally good because it is commanded by God?"
The Euthyphro dilemma is a false dilemma because there is a third option. When you are talking about the nature of God you are talking about his essential properties (the greatest conceivable being). God neither conforms to nor invents the moral order. Rather His very nature is the standard for good.
You might notice that I tweaked the wording a little to specifically refer to god's nature, because when you appeal to god's nature you aren't actually answering the Euthyphro Dilemma at all, nor are you introducing a third option; you're just pushing the problem back one level.
Why is god's nature good? Is it good because god has deemed his nature to be so? Or is it good because it is a nature that conforms to some external notion of goodness?
Weird that I have to repeat myself like that. For that matter, how did you determine that god was good? If you're just going off of god saying that he's good, or that god gives you the understanding that he's good, then your reasoning is entirely circular.
God's nature is The Good (as the greatest conceivable being) and those properties simply determine what goodness is. So if God = The Good, to restate the dilemma would “Is The Good, good because it creates The Good or because it recognizes The Good?” Well, neither one – The Good is good because it is The Good. It does not make sense to ask this further--to keep pushing it back.
