Natural Law Flashcards
Intro
Morality + justice are biologically built into human nature - behaving morally allows a person to achieve their telos
Aristotle - founder, justice is part of the form of human beings
Aquinas - summa theologiae - Christianity - key figure in formation of theory
Para 1
Aquinas vs Aristotle
Aquinas vs Aristotle
People must achieve eudaemonia in order to achieve their telos
Disagree on how eudaemonia can be achieved
Aq - God - Adams sin - can’t ever be truly moral without God
Ar - polis
Para 2
Four tiers
Four tiers of law
Eternal - principles by which god created and governs the universe - we have limited understanding so we can decide through reason - this is natural law - using reason to determine right + wrong
Ancient natural law - natural law is directly dependent on God, aquinas - indirectly dependent on god
Differences (fixed changeable) between human and natural law
Para 3
Precepts
Precepts
Key precept - do good avoid evil
Group 1 - basic inclination to go on living
Group 2 - reproduction + mating
Group 3 - human ends, accessible through reason
POWER
Secondary - primary precepts are applied to specific situations - flexible - not as absolute - only apply in certain situations
Para 4
Apparent goods
Apparent goods
A good which satisfies a desire
Merely seems good to us
Can’t allow desire to et in the way of our path to god
Sometimes we seek evil because we think it will have an effect which is good for us
Para 5
Double effects
Doctrine of double effect
Motives are more important that consequences BUT a set of truly awful consequences cannot be excused because the motive was good
St Augustine BUT one of the primary precepts is preservation of life so killing one to save others as a double defect wouldn’t work surely???
Para 6
Strength
Makes sense
Strength
Makes sense for god to program us in a way he would like us to act - template for free will
Atheist - makes sense for certain ‘natural’ things to be programmed into us - things we might call moral come naturally to us
BUT could be due to socia influence
Para 7
Help for others
We can spot unnatural behaviours and assume people are sad and have a reason to help them - other theories would say leave them alone if they are doing no harm
Para 8
Human rights
Human rights - we can intervene using these ideas in other less developed counties to help with human rights e.g. FGM - unnatural
Para 9
What is natural??
What is natural? What is good? Does natural always mean good? What about natural disasters? Rape?
BUT humans are natural so surely anything they do is therefore natural
Para 10
Natural is not consistent
Natural is not consistent - changes over time and cultures - homosexuality- definition changes
Para 11
Evolution
Evolution - natural is always evolving - not gives like aquinas said - god did not create the world
Conclusion
Plausible? Yes
It upsets us when we do something immoral = natural morality
We spend our whole lives looking for happiness
Still applicable today even tho it was founded in Ancient Greece
