Ethics : Natural Moral Law Flashcards
FOR : What is Aquinas’ argument for Natural Moral Law? — Primary Precepts and Secondary Precepts
Aquinas would argue that the Primary Precepts are a clear set of guidelines to help us reach our telos, in other words known as ‘human flourishing’. The Five Primary Precepts are as follows : Worship God, Live in an Ordered Society , Reproduce , Learning and Defend Life. Aquinas would argue that these clearly state what we should and shouldn’t do in our lives. The Secondary Precepts further emphasise the importance of Primary Precepts as they derive from the. Secondary precepts govern how we should act in specific situations, depending on our own judgment. Aquinas says you must apply practical wisdom, which is an ability to work out what is good and what will lead to human perfection. For example: the preservation of life (a primary precept) would help us decide that the act of abortion is wrong (a secondary precept). Although the Primary Precepts are fixed but Secondary are not, for many it is easier to apply Secondary precepts as they allow slight flexibility.
FOR : What is Aquinas’ argument in support of Natural Moral Law? — Real and Apparent Goods
Aquinas would argue that Natural Moral Law provides us with everything we need to know in order to act ethically correct, so long we understand the contrast in certain terms. We must avoid becoming confused about the difference between real and apparent goods. Real goods are those which help us develop better characteristics and become closer to God (e.g charity). Apparent goods are vices or sins which may bring someone further away from God (e.g adulatory). Similarly, we should be aware of the contrast between interior and exterior acts. Interior acts are genuine acts of kindness with the right intention (interior), whereas Exterior acts can be the exact same but are made exterior when the wrong intention is applied. For example: giving to charity because you want to help others is a true interior act, but if the intention was to be admired by others, this isn’t two morality thus an exterior act. Aquinas argues that when we understand the contrast between all these acts, we can avoid making mistakes through good reasoning.
FOR : Why does Aquinas argue that Natural Moral Law is suitable for making ethical decisions? — The Doctrine of Double Effect
Aquinas is an absolutist since he believes the Primary precepts are true for everyone. However, he also accepts that there are times when we have moral dilemmas and even if we apply our reason there are some situation we cannot do good without bad consequences. This is where the Doctrine of Double effect comes in, where it says that it is always wrong to do a bad act intention in order to bring about good but it is sometimes okay to do a good act knowing it will bring about some bad consequences. This is all down to the idea that Natural Moral Law is Deontological. But, the bad consequences must be unintended side effects to the good act. For example: Aquinas would argue that killing in self defence is justified so long the killing was intended but an unavoidable action to save your own life. However, in order to determine whether an action is permissible, it must fit into the four conditions Aquinas came up with. 1. The nature of the Act, 2. The means-end condition (the bad effect must not be the means by which the good effect is achieved), 3. The right intention and 4. Proportionality condition. All four of these conditions must be met in order to determine if a usually un permissible action can be determined permissible.
AGAINST : What issues form with Natural Moral law? — Vagueness leads to Conflicting ideas
Natural Moral Law may bd criticised due to its lack of details. Since it does not state every and any scenario it doesn’t allow us to be precisely certain in specific scenarios. For example : if we are to say life should be preserved but then we are faced with a scenario whee one life can only be preserved by taking another, we are not told what to do in this situation. This could lead to conflicting ideas where two people may have different views on how to act. Therefore Natural Moral Law may be criticised for its lack of flexibility, perhaps meaning the deontological approach cannot fully reflect the answers in very complex ethical scenarios.
AGAINST : What issues come from the ethical idea of Natural Moral Law? — issues with Proportionalism
It could be rejected that Proportionalism is a valid method of determining Natural moral Law to be fair as it has been condemned by the Catholic Church. Many parts of the Bible deny that some actions are always intrinsically evil even in contextual situations. For example Rape and torture should never be permitted even in a scenario where it is believed they are valid. The idea of intrinsic good and evil have to be taken seriously. Furthermore, proportionalism calculates the value and dis value in an act which is consequentialism. How can we know if we are making accurate predictions about the value and dis value. It is contradictory as what may seem right in one persons moral may be completely different in another’s.
FOR: What reason does Aquinas Argue that Natural Moral Law is the best ethical decision maker? — Proportionalism
Aquinas would argue that the Proportionalism approach is logical as it takes into account that humans aren’t perfect. It is based on common sense, for example, it seems to be common sense to lie in order to save a life and to steal food in order to survive. Proportionalism takes into account that certain moral rules can never be brocken unless there is a proportional reason to justify it. This proportionate reason is based on context or the situation. Similarly, the Proportionalism principle is a wide one, used outside of Natural Moral law. Therefore Aquinas would argue that the concept of Proportionalism makes Natural Moral Law a fair way of ethical decision making as it takes into account Human error.
INTRODUCTION : Introduce Natural Moral Law.
> NML was first developed by Aristotle where he focussed on using reason to understand what makes a good person.
Later, Thomas Aquinas built on his thought and developed NML.
The main principle of NML is the Synderisis rule “Good is to be done and persuade and evil is to be avoided”
Aquinas was an absolutist who believed that the intention within an action was the most important — deontological view, therefore NML was a deontological approach to ethics
