“It is generally agreed that whatever God wills is good and just. But there remains the question whether it is good and just because God wills it or whether God wills it because it is good and just; in other words, whether justice and goodness are arbitrary or whether they belong to the necessary and eternal truths about the nature of things.”
~Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz version, according to Wikipedia
Intro:
I admit I don´t know where to start here. Hm… Compare it to an old dark art that works as follows: You ask a legit question but you only present two possible answers and make them seem like they are the only possibilities. But both are false, since there is in reality a third (or more) option aswell. Hence, if you try to answer the question using only the first two options, you see a paradox. (And this is only if you think that the question is legit. In our case, note for instance that “justice”, “goodness” and so on are vague concepts.)
The answer section:
I will not write an essay about this, but perhaps if you feel that it is necessary, we can discuss my answer more later on. My answer is that God´s actions in this world is what is good and just.
Notes:
1) Good AND just. Think about it in terms of modal logic. And I adress God´s “actions”, not his “will” (see note 3).
2) Now if we discard terms like “good” and “just” or replace them (try reducing the concept of justice to begin with), do we still have this problem?
3) Note again that we also talk about God´s will. Since God is a god, his “will” is a somewhat problematic concept, probably alot more problematic than will in general! I haven´t made a serious effort to analyze this though.
As Peter Singer said, if God defines goodness, then when you say God is good you’re just saying God approves of God. That leaves goodness (and God) undefined.
The Euthyphro dilemma is interesting.
~Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz version, according to Wikipedia
Intro:
I admit I don´t know where to start here. Hm… Compare it to an old dark art that works as follows: You ask a legit question but you only present two possible answers and make them seem like they are the only possibilities. But both are false, since there is in reality a third (or more) option aswell. Hence, if you try to answer the question using only the first two options, you see a paradox. (And this is only if you think that the question is legit. In our case, note for instance that “justice”, “goodness” and so on are vague concepts.)
The answer section:
I will not write an essay about this, but perhaps if you feel that it is necessary, we can discuss my answer more later on. My answer is that God´s actions in this world is what is good and just.
Notes: 1) Good AND just. Think about it in terms of modal logic. And I adress God´s “actions”, not his “will” (see note 3). 2) Now if we discard terms like “good” and “just” or replace them (try reducing the concept of justice to begin with), do we still have this problem? 3) Note again that we also talk about God´s will. Since God is a god, his “will” is a somewhat problematic concept, probably alot more problematic than will in general! I haven´t made a serious effort to analyze this though.
As Peter Singer said, if God defines goodness, then when you say God is good you’re just saying God approves of God. That leaves goodness (and God) undefined.
Defining god wasn´t what you asked for here. You wanted to adress The Euthyphro dilemma.