natural law Flashcards
who created the theory ?
it was developed by the influential greek philosopher, aristotle and italian philosopher aquinas, aristotle originally formulated the theory and aquinas christianised it and only agreed with it due to it linking to the bible.
natural law introduction
natural law ethics goes back to aristotle and his theory of telos; that everything has a nature which direct it towards a particular end goal. aquinas christianised this idea, adding that it is the christian god who set a being’s telos according to his omni-benevolent (all-loving) plan for the universe.
christian ethics is most associated with the commands and precepts found in the bible. aquinas’ contribution was to argue that telos is also a source of christian moral principles. human nature has the god given ability to reason which comes with the ability both to intuitvely know primary moral precepts and to apply them to moral situations and actions. following this ‘natural law’ is thus also an essential element of living a moral life.
telos
aquinas was influenced by aristotle’s views that there is a natural end to all beings. everything has a purpose (telos) built into it by its nature. the nature of a thing determines the behaviours that are ‘natural’ to it. an acorn naturally grows into an oak tree, because of its inherent nature. whereas aristotle thought the final cause of all things was the prime mover, aquinas claimed that it was the christian god. the telos/end/goal of rational beings is the goodness of god, which for us involves glorifying god by following god’s moral law.
ethics is therefore about using reason to discover the natural law within our nature and conforming our actions to it. god designed the universe to operate according to his divine plan by instilling telos in every being, to direct it towards its good end. human beings are unique in that we have free will and are thus capable of either following or rebelling against the divine plan. following god’s natural law results in flourishing (eudaimonia) both for individuals and society. disobeying what is naturally good for us has the opposite effect.
“the light of reason is placed by nature in every man, to guide him in his acts towards his end” - aquinas.
the four tiers of law
the ultimate source of moral goodness and thus law is god’s omnibenevolent nature, which created and ordered the universe with a divine plan, known as eternal law. however, that is beyond our understanding. we only have access to lesser laws that derive from the eterenal law.
the eternal law - gods plan, built into the nature of everything which exists, according to his omnibenevolent nature.
the divine law - god’s revelation to humans in the bible.
the natural law - the moral law god created in human nature, discoverable by human reason.
the human law - the laws humans make which should be based on the natural and divine law which themselves ultimately derive authority from gods nature.
“participation of the eternal law in the rational creature is called the natural law” - aquinas.
the primary precepts
primary precepts are the articulation of the orientations in our nature toward the good; the natural inclinations of our god-designed human nature, put into the form of ethical principles by human reason. simply having reason allows a being to intuitively know these precepts. we are all born with the ability to know them.
the 5 primary precepts are:
- educate
- reproduce
- worship god
- ordered society
- preserve/defend life
it is said that following these rules allows individuals to, at the end of their life, be united with god.
synderesis rule
the first principle synderesis tells us is called the synderesis rule: that the good is what all things seek as their end/goal (telos). this means that human nature has an innate orientation to the good.
reason is a power of the human soul. synderesis is the habit or ability of reason to discover foundational ‘first principles’ of god’s natural moral law.
“the first practical principles … [belong to] a special natural habit … which we call “synderesis” … is said to incite to good, and to murmur at evil, inasmuch as through first principles we proceed to discover, and judge of what we have discovered.” – aquinas
secondary precepts and conscientia
“there belongs to the natural law, first, certain most general precepts, that are known to all; and secondly, certain secondary and more detailed precepts, which are, as it were, conclusions following closely from first principles.” – aquinas.
conscientia is the ability of reason to apply he primary precepts to situations or types of actions. the judgement we then acquire is a secondary precept. e.g euthanasia: the primary precepts don’t say anything about euthanasia exactly, but we can use our reason to apply the primary precepts to euthanasia, and realise that it goes against the primary precept of protecting and preserving human life. arguably it even disrupts the functioning of society too. therefore, we can conclude the secondary precept that euthanasia is wrong.
real and apparent goods
apparent good - is actually an evil thing but is viewed as “good” under certain aspects. -examples are diseases, sadness, death, worry, crimes and more.
interior and exterior acts
a physical action itself is an exterior act because it occurs outside of our mind. our intention; what we deliberately choose to do, is the interior act because it occurs inside our mind.
the point of natural law ethics is to figure out what fulfils the telos of our nature and act on that. by doing so, we glorify god. this cannot be done without intending to do it. a good exterior act without a good interior act does not glorify god because it is not done with the intention of fulfilling the god-given goal/telos of our nature.
the act of giving money to charity is an example of a good exterior act, but is only morally good when combined with the right kind of intention, which would be an interior act. if the intention was only to be thought of as a good person, which is not the right kind of intention, then the action is not truly morally good.
