RE: What is 'objective' value?
January 11, 2016 at 4:56 pm
(This post was last modified: January 11, 2016 at 5:37 pm by Angrboda.)
(January 11, 2016 at 3:35 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:(January 11, 2016 at 3:16 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: And what would that mean, for intention to be an inherent part of reality? Even if God values human life, that's just one more agent's project. No, this doesn't get around the problem.
Only if you consider God just another kind of particular being among other particular beings, a common assumption by skeptics. In the case of the God of Classical theism, or "The Good", it serves as the objective standard of that which is most to be desired. In Aristotle, this is called Happiness. In Western theology, this is called Blessedness. In other words, the value of human life lies in its potential to strive for and manifest the greatest good of which it is capable in comparison to the greatest possible Good.
You're getting farther and farther away from the intentionality required of value. Saying that God is not merely an agent, but something else in addition, doesn't provide any ground for value. We could go over Euthyphro's dilemma again, but all that will result in is a bunch of metaphysically flavored word salad. Value requires teleology. Period. You can just assert that there is teleology to reality, but without any support, that's a bare assertion that I will simply reject. So which half of this new dilemma do you care to attack: that value requires an agent, or that God being a special kind of agent doesn't establish value?
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