natural law Flashcards
who made natural law
thomas aquinas
what is natural law used alongside (four tiers of law)
eternal law and divine law, human law
what is eternal law
principles that God controls the universe, only known to God
what is divine law
law of God revealed in the Bible
what is Natural Law
moral law of god within human nature discovered using reason
what is human law
the laws of nation
what is the point of using the tiers of law
to achieve telos of perfection with God after death
what is synderesis
to do good and avoid evil
what are the primary precepts
preservation of life
reproduction
ordered society
worship god
learn and educate
what are secondary precepts and how do they differ from primary
primary are set in stone, secondary precepts are the application of these Eg. Preservation of life leaves to the secondary precept of do not kill
what is casuistry
application of natural law principles
what are real and apparent goods
apparent like drugs, real will get you closer to the ideal human nature as god intented
what is double effect
-intention is important not consequences
-situations where there is an intended outcome as unintentional (eg. self defence but the other person dies on accident)
criticism of natural law
-Fact Value Gap, Hume= by saying that nature is what is right means that things like vaccines would be unnatural and wrong (leading to the naturalistic fallacy)
-Rachels, just because sex does reproduction doesn’t mean its only for this purpose
-may not be any telos
positives of natural law
John Finnis- it upholds natural rights
Catechism- provides clarity in a world without moral direction
Has some flexibility
Emphasis on human reason
