Euthyphro dilemma

A dilemma about whether actions are good because God commands them or God commands them because they are good. It challenges accounts of morality grounded in divine authority.

Divine command theory: The view that moral obligations depend on the commands of God. The dilemma directly tests whether divine commands can ground moral obligation.
Euthyphro: A character in Plato's dialogue who prosecutes his father for impiety. His exchange with Socrates gives the dilemma its name and initial form.
Moral subjectivism: The view that moral judgments depend on individual attitudes or responses. It locates moral authority in attitudes rather than in divine commands or independent facts.
Ethics: The philosophical study of right and wrong, virtue, and the good life. The dilemma is a foundational challenge within philosophical ethics.
Moral realism: The view that moral claims can be objectively true or false. The second horn suggests moral truths may hold independently of God's commands.
Plato: An ancient Greek philosopher whose dialogues explore ethics, politics, and metaphysics. Plato authored the dialogue in which the dilemma appears.
Ethical naturalism: The view that moral properties or facts are reducible to, or grounded in, natural properties. It offers a non-theological account of moral facts that avoids both horns.
Metaethics: The study of the nature, meaning, and foundations of moral claims. Its central issue is what makes moral truths true and obligations binding.
Divine nature theory: The view that moral goodness is grounded in God's nature rather than arbitrary commands. It offers a response to the dilemma by locating goodness in God's character.
Euthyphro (dialogue): A Platonic dialogue in which Socrates questions Euthyphro about piety. The dilemma emerges as Socrates asks whether the pious is loved by the gods because it is pious.

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