Lance Yeung 134498 PH 104 JJ

Do the gods tell us to do things because they are good, or are they good because the gods
tell us to do them?
Platos answer to the question is the former gods tell us to do things because they
are good to do. His answer is based on good things or actions having an inherent essence and
whether or not gods love the pious, it is still pious. If piety is defined as what is loved by the
gods, it is problematic because different gods may love or hate different things which may or
may not be examples of piety. We speak of an essence versus an attribute. Being loved or
hated by the gods is an attribute of piety but it doesnt affect its essence in any way. Plato
affirms this view from the statement of Socrates It is being loved them, because it is pious,
but it is not pious because it is being loved. Being loved is only a consequence, or result of
the essence of pious which will always come first in defining its form. Thus, we use our
rationality to find the truth which has its own essence, independent of the gods feelings for it.
My reading of Xenophanes answer to the question is the latter good things are
considered good because the gods tell us to do them. First, his fragments 7.8, 7.10, 7.11
point out an absolutely powerful, and omniscient God who transcends all of reality and is
present all throughout. Everything came forth from this superlative God. This one God
defines what is good for the universe and gives standards or else everything will just be
subjective. If we put God and reason on a match, then God would win because he can do
what he wants to do since he is perfect and complete. We are far below his level and his
thinking is different from us. How I would get my access from the revealed knowledge of
something being good to valuing it as absolute good is by practice as shown by 7.19. The
notion of the absolute case is not known by man and so it has to be granted from the outside
and I can only understand it if I do it. 7.22 presents another point to the argument where our
notion of good may just be a fig, it may be diluted, compared to the absolute good which is
complete and perfect like the honey of God. In this view, we are passive recipients of the
revelation of good by an all-knowing God.
My answer to the question is that gods tell us to do things because they are good to
do. Coming from a Buddhist-Catholic, Chinese-Filipino family, I believe that there are
actions or things which exist as being truly good and we learn about them not through
revelation but through experience, research, and investigation. My observance from the
multicultural, multireligious background that I was brought up in, is that the content and
message of their doctrines, cultural practices, and traditions are universally aligned on a
fundamental level even if these are coming from various cultures and religions. Using our
rationality and dialogue, we can learn about truly good acts as seen by the intersection of
values in different cultures by actively engaging in meaningful discourses in search of the
truth. Human nature has the ability to think and relate with other people and fend not only for
ourselves but also thinking about what is good to do for others and this enables us to try to
put ourselves in others situations to allow us to find out what is the true and absolute good.
This movement begins from what I know to be good, and through an ongoing search, we find
out more. As humans, we do not know from the beginning what were supposed to do, we
were not instructed by a greater being to do this and that, but in time through our experiences,
searching, study, investigation, and maturity, we discover better and better. This is the active
research type of answer to the question.