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Morality, Religion, and Cosmic Justice
Author(s) -
Oderberg David S.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
philosophical investigations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.172
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1467-9205
pISSN - 0190-0536
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9205.2011.01439.x
Subject(s) - morality , argument (complex analysis) , economic justice , punishment (psychology) , cosmic cancer database , set (abstract data type) , criminology , epistemology , environmental ethics , philosophy , law , sociology , law and economics , social psychology , psychology , political science , physics , astronomy , computer science , chemistry , biochemistry , programming language
I argue for a connection between morality and religion on the basis of a need for cosmic justice – a comprehensive system of rewards and punishments for good and bad behaviour, respectively. I set out the Argument for Cosmic Justice, discussing the nature of reward and punishment and how they differ from mere benefit and loss. A world without cosmic justice would be absurd and unacceptable to anyone who takes morality seriously in the way identified by George Mavrodes. I also consider a number of objections to the argument.