Natural Law Flashcards
Deontological:
From the Latin for ‘duty’, ethics focuses on the intrinsic rightness wrongness of actions.
Telos:
The end, all-purpose, of something.
Natural law:
A deontological theory based on behaviour that accords with given laws or moral rules (e.g. given by God) that exist independently of human societies and systems.
Synderesis:
To follow the good and avoid the evil. The rule which all precepts follow.
Primary precepts:
The most important roles in life, to protect life, to reproduce, to live in community, to teach the young and, to believe in God.
Secondary Precepts:
The laws which follow from primary precepts
Practical reason:
The tool which makes moral decisions
Eudaimonia:
Living well, as an ultimate and in life which all other actions should lead towards.
Romans 2:14-15
Shows that there must be a universal law as even Gentiles are doing what is right when not given rules… It is written in their hearts.
Paul explored the idea that all people could, within themselves, discern a law. It is deontological, focused on actions.
“indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the (Jewish) law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.”
Introduction:
Greek philosophers explored the idea that morals are based on an eternal dimension., so that justice and law are ultimately universal.
Aquinas:
Right and wrong are fixed things. They do not change according to the situation or what might happen as a result. They are linked to some greater idea of a fixed morality in the eternal law of God.
The telos/ultimate end:
Aquinas regarded moral acts as free acts aimed at achieving an ultimate end. Which brings ultimate happiness and satisfaction.
