Natural Law Flashcards
Who established Natural Law?
•Aquinas
What does Aquinas believe about the world?
•He believes the world was created and is ruled by God
- There are 4 different types of law which govern the world
What are the 4 different types of law?
1.Eternal Law
2.Divine Law
3.Human Law
4.Natural Law
What is the Eternal Law?
•It is the law that exists within God (the perfect order in his mind)
- Aquinas believes God’s own wisdom is “nothing else than the type of Divine Wisdom, as directing all actions & movements” which governs everything he created
- However, we cannot know this law directly as it is beyond anything we understand
- All other laws come from the Eternal Law
What is the Divine Law?
•It includes the the Bible and is used to display how reason alone cannot tell us everything in order to achieve our telos
- It also forbids evil not covered by human laws
- It also helps us gain knowledge on the Eternal Law
What does telos mean for Aquinas?
•It is our eternal happiness with God that is only achievable through God
What is the Human Law?
•It includes all the laws set by humans, which means they are imperfect
- Aquinas also believes these laws only judge actions and not motivations or thoughts
What is the Natural Law?
•It is the moral code God built into our human nature that allows us to gain knowledge on the Eternal Law
- It rules by using reason to examine our natural inclinations which enable us to work out our telos
Who was Aquinas inspired by?
•Aristotle
What do Aquinas and Aristotle both believe about humans?
•They both argue humans have a final cause (a purpose)
What did Aristotle believe our purpose was?
•He believed it was our supreme good (eudaimonia)
What is eudaimonia?
•It is the final purpose that argues humans will be happy, flourish and live well
How does Aristotle argue we achieve our purpose?
•He argues our purpose is reached by “performing its function with excellence”
What does Aquinas believe our purpose is?
•He believes our purpose is to live a life of reason
- This is because he believes reason is the highest and most distinctive of all human activities
What does Aquinas state reason is?
•He states that “reason is the true self of every man, since it is the supreme and better part. Reason is, in the highest sense, a man’s self”
- This means Aquinas believes we will fulfil our ultimate purpose of eudaimonia by following reason excellently
What does Aquinas believe about God?
•He believes that “God is the last end of man and all other things”
- He believes we reach this last end “by knowing and loving God”
- This will lead to to union with God and full development of God’s image within us
What does Aquinas believe about our final cause?
•He believes it is not attained until the afterlife but that we work towards it on earth
What does Aquinas believe our function is?
•He believes our function is living in accordance with reason
- This is because our rational nature allows us to have a unique relationship with God, like nothing else
What does Aquinas believe God gave us our power to reason?
•He believes God gave us the power to reason so we can share in God’s nature
- This means it is possible to see a reflection of the Eternal Law if reason is used correctly
- This also allows us to to examine and reflect upon our natural inclinations
What are our natural inclinations?
•They are given to us by God to draw us towards our ultimate purpose
- This is because using reason excellently allows us to work out the main rules (primary precepts) of natural law from our natural inclinations
What does Aquinas believe our most fundamental inclination is?
•He believes it is to live our lives to achieve what is good and avoid evil
- This means our key precept is to seek good and avoid evil
What are primary precepts?
•Primary Precepts are general principles that apply to everyone and are “altogether unalterable”
What are the 5 primary precepts?
1.Preserve innocent human life
2.Reproduce
3.Educate our offspring
4.Have order in society
5.Worship God
What are the 3 characteristics of Natural Law?
1.Absolute
2.Objective
3.Deontological
What are secondary precepts?
•They are derived from the primary precepts through reason
What are examples of secondary precepts for preserving innocent life?
•The banning of murder and suicide
What are examples of secondary precepts for reproduction?
•The banning of homosexual acts and contraception
What does Aquinas believe about secondary precepts?
•He argues they can be changed “on particular and rare occasions”
- This is displayed by Aquinas justifying killing in war as the “lesser of two evils”
- However, many precepts are are still absolute
What group supports Aquinas’ belief in absolute rules?
•The Stoics
- They argue that a fixed design leads to fixed rules
What supports Aquinas’ secondary precepts?
•The Catechism of the Catholic Church
- They are against abortion and artificial contraception which is absolute
What is an exterior act?
•An action
What is an interior act?
•An intention
What does Aquinas believe about interior and exterior acts?
•He argues both must be good as a good intention cannot justify an evil act
What does Aquinas believe reason prevents people from doing?
•He believes that reason prevents people from deliberately choosing evil
- This is because living rationally is the same as obeying God
What does Aquinas believe about sin?
•He believes it is an error of reason (focusing on a lesser good)
- He believes humans never intentionally choose evil but that our reason becomes enslaved by irrational desires which means we lose sight of our true purpose
How does St. Paul support the Divine Law?
•He believes the law of God is “inscribed on the hearts of men”
What is the “principle of double effect”?
•It is when bad consequences can be justified through a good intention and an act not being bad
- However, the bad consequences must be unwanted and outweighed by good effects
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