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Can a worship-worthy agent command others to worship it?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2020

FREDERICK CHOO Open the ORCID record for FREDERICK CHOO [Opens in a new window]
FREDERICK CHOO*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Nanyang Technological University, 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639818, Singapore
*
e-mail: fcwy1@hotmail.com
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Abstract

This article examines two arguments that a worship-worthy agent cannot command worship. The first argument is based on the idea that any agent who commands worship is egotistical, and hence not worship-worthy. The second argument is based on Campbell Brown and Yujin Nagasawa's (2005) idea that people cannot comply with the command to worship because if people are offering genuine worship, they cannot be motivated by a command to do so. One might then argue that a worship-worthy agent would have no reason to issue a command to worship. I argue that both these arguments fail.

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Type
Religious Studies Postgraduate Essay Prize
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 79 - 95
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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