An Ethics without God That Is Compatible with Darwinian Evolution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3216981 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James P Sterba (0000-0002-4651-7334) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 781 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-27 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel15070781 |
| OpenAlex | W4400077334 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 7 |
Building on my recent argument that an all-good, all-powerful God is logically incompatible with all the evil in the world, I explore what grounding ethics can have without the God of traditional theism. While theists have argued that ethics is grounded either in God's commands and/or in his nature, I show that no such adequate grounding exists, even if my argument-showing that the God of traditional theism is logically incompatible with all the evil in the world-were shown to be unsuccessful, and I further show that such a grounding is impossible, given that my argument is successful. I then go on to provide an account of the norms on which an ethics without God can be appropriately grounded and show how an ethics, so grounded, can be appropriately related to our biological and cultural past, present, and future, as understood through Darwinian evolutionary theory. In this way, I hope to undercut a recent attempt to use Darwinian evolutionary theory to debunk ethics
Biology · Darwinism · Epistemology · Evolutionary biology · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Theology and Philosophy of Evil · Philosophy
Is Ethics Without God Possible? A Sufi Metaphysical Perspective
How the Trinitarian God of Christianity Provides the Best Explanation for Objective Morality
Why Ethics Requires a God and Is Safer from Evolutionary Debunking Threats as a Result
Sterba’s Argument from Evil and Objections to Divine Command Theory
Sterba on Divine Commands and Fairness
The Relevance of God to Metaethics
Is Ethics Possible Without God
God, Ethics, and Evolution
Ethical Norms Are Based on Consensus, and Ethics Compatible with Darwinian Evolution Is Necessary for Consensus
A View on the Possibility of an Ethics Without God
Goodness and Godness in Cosmic Agapism
Can Ethics Exist Without God? A Thomistic Critique of James Sterba's Axiomatic Morality
Objective Moral Facts Exist in All Possible Universes
| Citations per year | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |