Aquinas' Natural Law

Question 1

Natural law

Answer 1

A deontological (judges the morality of an action based on rules) and absolutist theory (actions are intrinsically right or wrong).
Aristotle- everything in the world has a purpose.

Question 2

Aquinas and natural law

Answer 2

Aquinas based his ideas on Aristotle, but he argued that Aristotle missed one key point, where does our purpose come from? He believed that God created everything with a particular purpose and function. For Aquinas, the ultimate purpose of a human is to reach God in heaven, a good action is one that fulfills this purpose.

Question 3

4 types of law

Answer 3

Aquinas says that there are 4 types of law governing all of the world: Eternal laws- humans can’t expect to understand all of these as we are too limited, however we can work out using reason the purpose of things and understand eternal laws (natural law), as natural law is limited so chooses to reveal some of his laws through the bible (divine law). Humans can use natural law and divine law to work out more rules, this is known as human law.

Question 4

5 primary precepts

Answer 4

Aquinas argued for 5 key purposes for humans on earth, these being primary precepts:
Worship god
Ordered society
Reproduce
Learn and seek knowledge
Defend the innocent

Question 5

Secondary precepts

Answer 5

Secondary precepts add on to the primary precepts to make them more specific rules. Secondary precepts could be worked out using reason to see whether an action followed our purpose.

Question 6

Examples of secondary precepts

Answer 6

Contraception is wrong because it goes against God’s natural purpose to reproduce.

Question 7

Real goods

Answer 7

A real good is one that is connected to our purpose and aims towards the primary precepts. eg. someone misses school to go to their favourite concert, going to school would be the real good.

Question 8

Apparent goods

Answer 8

An apparent good is one that does not follow the primary precepts. eg, missing school to go to their favourite band.

Question 9

Interior acts

Answer 9

Our intentions, it must still follow the primary precepts. For example, it is wrong to give money to charity (exterior) in order to impress someone (interior).

Question 10

Exterior acts

Answer 10

What we actually do.

Question 11

Principle of double effect

Answer 11

This states that is is acceptable to do an action which breaks the precepts, if this is an unintended side effect of another good action. Eg it is acceptable to remove a pregnant woman’s uterus if she has uterine cancer, the unintended side effect is an abortion.

Question 12

The 4 cardinal virtues

Answer 12

1. Prudence.
2. Temperance.
3. Justice.
4. Fortitude.
   These personality traits would help the precepts become naturally.

Question 13

The 3 theological virtues

Answer 13

1. Faith
2. Hope
3. Charity.
   Help to reach ultimate purpose of reaching God.

Question 14

Natural law and christianity

Answer 14

Natural law is the catholic approach. Some protestants reject NL because it’s based on human reason, they believe God’s purpose can only be known through revelation.

Question 15

Strengths of natural law

Answer 15

Offers universal rules, can say whether something is right or wrong without looking at consequences. Avoids bias, has been used by Catholics for centuries. It promotes human rights.

Question 16

Weaknesses of natural law

Answer 16

Aquinas’ natural law relies on belief in God. If we don’t believe in God then we can reject the idea of God given order and purpose for everything. This leaves no foundation for natural law.
It ignores consequences, it disagrees with the bible, not everything has a purpose.