Natural Law Flashcards
What is natural law?
Theory that God designed a moral law into human nature that we are naturally inclined to certain moral behaviours
Who developed NL as a form of religious ethics?
Aquinas
What religion follows natural law?
Catholicism
Is NL deontological or teleological?
Deontological
What are the 4 tiers of law?
Eternal
Divine
Natural
Human
What’s a pneumatic for the tiers of law?
Elephants don’t nibble humans
What’s Eternal law?
Known as the mind of God
His benevolent nature to know what is right or wrong
Remains the same and absolute
What is Divine law?
Gods revelation to humans in the Bible teaching them how to live
What is Natural law?
Morality created in humans by God
Discoverable by reason to find our telos
What is human law?
Laws humans make which should be based on natural and divine law
Devised by governments and societies
Who did Aquinas get some of his ideas from?
Aristotle
What did Aristotle believe everyone in the world had?
A telos
What is a Telos?
The end or purpose of something
What does Aristotle say the telos of a human is?
Eudaimonia
What is Eudaimonia?
Flourishing and living well
How did Aristotle believe you could achieve your Eudaimonia?
Live a full life
Experience pleasure
Participate in society
Develop academically as a philosopher
Who else provided a source of NL thinking?
The Stoics
What is Stoicism?
They viewed the world as an ordered place arranged by nature or Gods in the best way possible
They thought we had a divine spark that enabled us to reason and understand the universe
Did Stoicism favour rationalism or emotionalism?
Rationalism
Where was NL applied in America?
1960s Martin Luther King argued the laws put in place to prevent peaceful protest for the civil rights movement were ‘unjust laws’
When was NL applied on 20 November 1945?
At the Nuremberg trials
Nazi leaders put on trial for war crimes argued that they were just following orders
Rejected by judges for ‘nature’ shows that such laws were morally wrong
What was the book called that Aquinas wrote?
Summa Theologica
What’s the synderesis rule?
‘This therefore is the principle of law: that good must be done and evil avoided’ - Aquinas
What are the primary precepts?
Worship God
Organised society
Reproduce
Learn
Defend life