Natural Law Flashcards
What is philosopher Aquinas’s view?
- All humans should act in a way to achieve their telos(eschatological perfection in the afterlife)
- All humans should move away from felicitas(earthly happiness)
- All humans should aim to reach God like perfection
- Natural Law
What is Aquinas’ telos?
Our end or purpose
How does Aquinas think people can achieve their telos?
By following natural law which would help you live a moral life
What are the 4 tiers of law?
- Eternal Law
- Divine Law
- Natural Law
- Human law
What is eternal law?
Eternal law is a part of God’s mind which is unknowable to humans
What is divine law?
Divine law is the law of God revealed by God through scripture
- humans need to use their ratio(reason) to understand divine law
What is natural law?
Natural law is the moral law of God within human nature
- as humans are made imago dei, we are able to discover eternal law
- human morality is rooted in reason rather than just scripture
What is human law?
Human law is the rules of nations that humans make
What is the synderesis rule?
The synderesis rule is that humans should do good and avoid evil
What are the primary precepts?
- preserve life
- reproduce
- educate children
- live in an ordered society
- worship God
What are reasons why people do bad/good things according to Aquinas?
real goods and apparent goods
What are real goods?
real goods are things that follow the primary precepts and God’s wishes
What are apparent goods?
apparent goods are things that tempt us because they seem enjoyable but don’t actually contribute to human flourishing
What is the doctrine of double effect?
The doctrine of double effect is the idea that sometimes good actions have negative consequences, but the important thing is you must never desire the negative outcome, only the positive one
What does Aquinas say about the doctrine of double effect?
- He is only concerned about the morality of an action
- He says the intention of our actions is really important as it should be inline with the 5 precepts
What are strengths of natural law?
- Aquinas’ view of telos is positive for humanity as it focuses on society adopting good human characteristics
- synderesis is based on reason, so provides an unbiased approach to decision making
- the primary precepts are common in many cultures and are presented as a reasonable way of life, rather than a set of rules
What are scholarly weaknesses for natural law?
ST AUGUSTINE:
- He rejects Aquinas optimistic view about synderesis as humanity is incapable of acting moral
- “ sin is seminally in the loins of Adam”
What are scholarly weaknesses of natural law?
SARTRE: EXISTENTIALISM
- “existence precedes essence”
- - He rejects Aquinas’ reliance on God given telos as he believes that humans have the freedom to choose their meanings and values
What are scholarly weaknesses of Natural Law?
KARL BATH:
- he believes that natural law has a dangerous reliance on human reasoning
- he believes that knowledge of God can only be obtained through revelation
