Questions open and closed: lessons from metaethics for identity arguments for the existence of god

Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy:1-18 (2017)
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Abstract

Identity arguments for the existence of god offer an intriguing blend of conceptual and existential claims. As it happens, this sort of blend has been probed for more than a century in metaethics, ever since G.E. Moore formulated the Open Question Argument against metaethical naturalism. Moore envisaged naturalism as offering identity claims between good and natural properties. His central worry was that such identity claims should render certain questions closed and hence meaningless. However, he contended that speakers competent with the respective concepts would find these questions meaningful, thereby indicating the failure of the identity claim in question, and of all such identity claims. The history of this issue in metaethics provides an important perspective on the prospects of devising cogent, rhetorically successful versions of identity arguments for the existence of god. Both the conceptual and existential premises of such arguments involve conceptual nuances that metaethicists have studied. Overall, the history of the Open Question Argument provides reason to think that rationally compelling versions of identity arguments for the existence of god are very unlikely to be constructed.

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Andrew Sneddon
University of Ottawa

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References found in this work

Principia Ethica.Evander Bradley McGilvary - 1904 - Philosophical Review 13 (3):351.
Language, Truth and Logic.[author unknown] - 1937 - Erkenntnis 7 (1):123-125.
The naturalistic fallacy.W. K. Frankena - 1939 - Mind 48 (192):464-477.
G. E. Moore.Barry Stroud - 1992 - Philosophical Review 101 (4):875.

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