Ethics Based on Religion: Reviewing and Studding the Moral Thought of Philip Quinn

In the divine command theories, ethics is normally based on religion and the causalreading of this theory emphasizes on the existential dependence of ethics upon religion. According to this interpretation, moral properties are existentially dependent on divine commandments. Quinn formulates his moral thought in two phases: in the first one, divine command and moral obligation are regarded as being coextensive and symmetrical. Coextension of and correlation between divine commands and moral obligations is the main feature of this viewpoint. In the second phase, he proceeds to reconstruct his divine command theory in the shape of the causal theory with the aid of cumulative arguments. Rather than equivalence, Quinn offers in his account of the casual theory that our moral obligations are determined by divine commands, meaning divine commands are the necessary and sufficient causal condition for the realization of our moral obligations. After facing with some true objections to this account, he offers a new and modified formulation of the causal theory by resorting to God's acts of will and contends that the new one is the most defensible account among others.