Natural Law

Question 1

List the five primary precepts.

Answer 1

• Preserve innocent life
• Orderly living in society
• Worship God
• Educate children
• Reproduce to continue the species

Question 2

What are the secondary precepts?

Answer 2

When humans use their reason to establish rules that will fulfil the requirements of the primary precepts.

Question 3

Name two examples of secondary precepts?

Answer 3

1) Do not murder (fulfils the primary precept of preserving the innocent)
2) Do not abort the unborn (fulfils the primary precepts of preserving the innocent and of continuing the species)

Question 4

What are the advantages of natural law?

Answer 4

• There is a fair set of rules for everyone.
• However, it is not just a large number of rules dictating what we should do.
• All the things that are good for us are celebrated, rather than focusing on negative things.
• Humans are at the centre of this ethical approach, not rules.
• It allows us to use our reason and so feel in control of the secondary precepts.
• It allows people to establish common rules in order to structure communities.

Question 5

What are the disadvantages of natural law?

Answer 5

• In modern forms Natural Law does not allow for negotiation because the Church has made the secondary precepts into absolute rules.
• It is based on very complicated notions and doesn’t ask everyday questions such as ‘should hospitals get more money than schools’?
• It could be argued that we have gained our natural instincts through evolution, not through God and so we do not need a God-based theory.
• We can observe differences between cultures, which rejects the notion of a single natural purpose for all humans.
• Natural Law could even be seen as a relativist theory - because the secondary precepts might change as we use our reason differently, perhaps because of the different circumstances we find ourselves in. This could be seen as an advantage or a disadvantage! Indeed, some say that we should not rely on our reason but on teachings from the Bible, the Church or from God’s revelation.
• Vardy and Grosch in The Puzzle of Ethics said that Aquinas gives too simple a view of human nature. (E.g. is sexuality just about reproduction?)