Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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Erik Wielenberg, professor of philosophy at DePauw University, discusses godless normative realism, his attempt to craft an objective morality without appeal to God. We also debate divine command theory, the attempt to do the precise opposite: ground ethics in God's nature, and in His commands.

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00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:25 Godless Normative Realism (GNR)
00:06:24 The Metaphysics of GNR
00:15:33 Intrinsic goods and evils
00:20:22 Moral obligations
00:23:00 Is GNR Platonic?
00:27:00 The 'making' relation
00:42:26 The Epistemology of GNR
00:56:20 Divine Command Theory (DCT)
00:58:18 The error with the Euthyphro Dilemma
01:03:47 Objection 1 - Ignores morally relevant features
01:13:00 Objection 2 - Non-believers have no obligations
01:33:28 Objection 3 - No explanation for morally wrong acts