The Ideal Observer and God: The Persistence of Theism

The Ideal Observer and God: The Persistence of Theism

Tags:

• Anselmian theism, divine command theory, ethical theory, ideal observer theory, moral realism, philosophy of religion, teleology.

Notes:

• Adams, D. A Restaurant at the End of the Universe. London: Pan Books, 1984.

  Anderson, Pamela. “What’s Wrong with the God’s Eye point of View; A Constructive Critique of the Ideal Observer Theory.” Faith and Philosophical Analysis. Edited by H. Harris and C.J. Insole. London: Routledge, 2005, chapter six.

  Case, Spencer. “The Moorean Argument” in Is Morality Real? A Debate. London: Routledge, 2024, 63-84.

  Cicero. Cited by Alan Donagan. The Theory of Morality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997, 2.

  Cottingham, John. The Spiritual Dimension; Religion, Philosophy, and Human Value. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

  Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man. Published in 1871. Available in multiple editions.

  Donagan, Alan. The Theory of Morality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.

  Firth, Roderick. “Ethical Absolutism and the Ideal Observer”. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 12, 1951, 317-395.

  Huemer, Michael. Ethical Intuitionism. New York: Palgrave, 2005.

  Hume, David. A Treatise on Human Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

  Kekes, John. Pluralism in Philosophy: Changing the Subject. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.

  Leslie, John. Existence and Value. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield.

  Nusbaum, M. Love’s Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

  Quinn, Philip. Divine Commands and Moral Requirements. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.

  Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

  Taliaferro, Charles. “The Divine Command Theory of Ethics and the Ideal Observer.” Sophia, vol. 22, 1983, 3-8.

  Taliaferro, Charles. “The Environmental Ethics of the Ideal Observer.” Environmental Ethics 10:3, 1988, 233-250.

  Taliaferro, Charles. Contemporary Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997, chapter seven.

  Taliaferro, Charles. “The Ideal Aesthetic Observer.” British Journal of Aesthetics 30, 1990, 1-1.

  Taliaferro, Charles. The Golden Chords; A short book on the secular and the Sacred. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012.

  Taliaferro, Charles. The Cascade Companion to Evil. Eugene OR: Cascade Press, 2020.

  Wielenberg, Erik. Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.