Key terms for theme 2ABC aquinas' natural law Flashcards
legalistic
- one must obey religious laws or rules in order to gain eternal life
- links to deontology
reason
- a gift given by god when he made humans in his image
-enables humans to identify their creative purpose and follow it (according to aquinas)
recta ratio
- right reason
- our conscience making right decisions in accordance with natural law
telos
- goal, purpose
-the highest good which is sought, aim - for aquinas this is eternal life with god in heaven
natural law theory
- ethical theory based on the concept of a final cause or purpose
- a body of universal moral truths deduced from reason and experience, a view associated with Aristotle and developed by aquinas
thomas aquinas
- dominican priest (1224 - 1274)
- most influential philosopher and theologian of roman catholic church
- developed natural law
beatific vision
- ultimate telos of humans, eternal life with god in heaven
- aquinas term
summa theologica
- aquinas’ key text in which he wrote about natural law
synderesis rule
- do good and avoid evil
- sums up aquinas’ natural law
four levels of law
- aquians’ description of the different levels at which gods created purpose for life operates and relates to human life
- highest ———->lowest
eternal, divine, natural, human
eternal law
- the aspects of gods created order and purpose which are known only to god
- humans can not reason them out and they have not been revealed to human beings
- divine omniscience
divine law
- aspects of divine order and purpose which have been revealed to human beings by god.
- for aquinas (christian) revealed in bible
natural law
- aspects of divine order and purpose which are knowable to humans by reason
human law
- rules and laws created within human society which must uphold divine order and purpose
primary precepts
- aquinas’ summary of the five key purposes for which humans were created
- key functions of humans, fufilling the functions is how we achieve our telos
-primary precepts with acronyms WORLD - precepts are absolute, and aquinas said we can know these precepts through reason
secondary precepts
- individual rulings made in human societies, should help humans to uphold the primary precepts
- they are derived from the primary precepts
- e.g. primary precept=preserve innocent life, would lead to abortion being wrong, so the secondary would be “do not abort”
cardinal virtues
- according to aquinas there are 4 cardinal virtues identified by reason, PRUDENCE, JUSICE, TEMPERANCE, FORTITUDE
- believed to form the fundamental basis of a moral life, terms used by Aristotle and aquinas
revealed virtues
-three virtues of FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY revealed through scripture
- cannot be obtained through human effort, can only recieve them by being infused through divine grace into the person
- also called theological virtues - directed by god
interior acts
our intention - aim when we perform an action
exterior acts
act itself - physical action we perform
real goods
an action that will help a person achieve their purpose
apparent goods
- a sin - an action that may seem good if we lack virtue and have reasoned wrongly
- these mistakes will lead people away from their purpose
double effects
- two effects
aspect of natural law, allows us to judge intentions over actions if the action has two outcomes, one which upholds the primary precept and one which doesn’t - the outcome which doesn’t uphold it must be the intended (interior act)
-e.g. perform surgery on a pregnant woman with cancer, removing womb =good interior and exterior act as it was done to save life, even if is an unintended side effect the baby dies.
What does WORLD stand for ?
Worship god
Ordered society
Reproduction
Learning and education of children
Defend and protect the innocent
