Natural law Flashcards
1
Q
The telos/ultimate end
A
- Aquinas’ theory is absolutist and deontological.
- Everything has a telos, end or purpose.
- Morality involves working out what our purpose as humans is and acting in a way that fulfils it.
- Aristotle believes that every being capable of choosing how to act, acts for an end of some kind, the human being acts to acquire happiness or Eudaimonia.
- Eudaimonia is not pleasure but activity that perfects the highest faculty of a person. For Aristotle, something is good if it has fulfilled its end.
- Aquinas- properly moral acts are free acts. We are only fully satisfied when we achieve the ultimate end, the universal good.
- Aquinas- believed that the purpose of human life was to be reunited with God.
- Aquinas is not only concerned about the acts, but the reasons for them, intention matters.
2
Q
Real and apparent goods.
A
- An example of an apparent good is a person who has an affair- they seek pleasure, but it diminishes human nature.
- Real good is reached by using reason to determine its true purpose.
- You may act in a good way but for a scurrilous reason.
- The good exterior act is compromised by a bad exterior act.
- We must not do bad for good reasons, an example of this would be stealing money to give to a homeless person.
- Your good intentions could lead you astray.
3
Q
Interior/Exterior acts
A
- People do terrible things with the best intentions, for example euthanasia or abortion.
- Aquinas would say that it is still a bad act as the exterior act is wrong.
- For an action to be right, there needs to be a good intention and the act itself must be right.
- Example of soldiers- if they fight to defend someone else, then their intentions are good, but if they attack with hatred and seeking revenge, their exterior acts are bad even if their exterior acts are good.
4
Q
The four tiers of law
A
Aquinas thinks about morality in terms of law. Aquinas four main kinds of law are:
- The eternal
- The natural
- The divine
- The Human
5
Q
The Eternal law
A
- The absolute and eternal part of natural law.
- It is part of the mind of God - his unchanging reason. This is the reason that God’s law is universal and unchanging, for everyone at all times and in all places.
- Whatever the culture, society political situation, the eternal law remains the same .
- In Aquinas’ view the eternal law is IN God and not a feature of nature apart from God.
- Other thinkers give this role to an absolute natural law, without God.
6
Q
The Divine law
A
- The command and teachings, including The Commandments, The Beatitudes, The Sermon on The Mount, the teachings in the parables, and so on, of divine revelation that are usually found in the Bible.
- This sacred scripture, revealed by God, is teaching human beings how to live.
7
Q
The Natural law
A
- Natural law makes it possible for all human beings to perceive God’s eternal law, even those who have not read the Bible.
- Natural law allows humans to perceive the eternal law through the application of human reason- through reflection on the world.
- This marks human beings apart from animals and makes God’s eternal law accessible to the whole of humanity.
8
Q
The Human law
A
- Human law is our response to these Gods in reason and in revelation, Human laws are the customs and practices of society.
- Aquinas is clear that human law is only a proper law if it is good and accordance with divine and natural law. A practice that is wrong is no law at all and breaking such laws is immoral.
- Human law does not have to cover all moral wrongs, only more serious ones. Not all aspects of morality require legislation
9
Q
The key precept: the synderesis rule
A
- The key precept is to do good and avoid evil. Reason directs us to do good and avoid evil, and all other principles flow from this reason.
- Natural law may appear to be exclusively about following rules but this fails to recognise the role of reason in moral decision-making that Aquinas is concerned about.
- Natural law is ‘ law-like’ because of its rationality.
- The moral life is one that is lived by and through reason. Reasoning about the common good leads to certain acts being promoted and other acts being prohibited. If we permit theft, then the common good is undermined - we cannot go to bed without fearing we will wake to our fridges emptied.
- Because it is act-based, natural law is deontological, although there is an ultimate end to which all acts are focused.
10
Q
Primary precepts
A
To worship God: God is the source of eternal law, and God has sent this law to humanity through divine law and natural law.
To live harmoniously in society: a lawful one where it is possible to follow all of the primary precepts.
To reproduce: to ensure that life continues as is God’s intention and as is necessary for the continuation of society.
To be educated: to teach people about God, his eternal law, natural law, divine law and primary precepts,
To defend the innocent: life is most precious.
11
Q
Secondary precepts
A
Humans are then to use their reason to establish rules that will fulfil the requirements of the primary precepts. These rules are known as secondary precepts.
It is possible for secondary precepts to vary as they are based on the application of primary precepts into circumstances that may differ.
12
Q
The doctrine of double effect
A
- This doctrine says that if doing something morally good has a morally bad side-effect, it’s ethically okay to do it providing the bad side-effect wasn’t intended.
- The principle is used to address the case where a doctor gives medication to a patient to relive distressing symptoms even though he knows doing this may shorten the patients life. The bad result of the patient’s death is a side-effect of the good result of reducing the patient’s pain.
- Thomas Aquinas was a deontologist, someone interested in actions, who believed that ethical acts are what is important in making moral decisions but he distinguished the difference between interior and exterior acts.- An action may have two effects or ends. If it is good and the intention in self defense is to achieve the aim, then self defense is permissible, however, the force should be proportionate.
- The action itself cannot be bad but good or neutral (saving life is good) the bad effect should not be the means by which the good effect is achieved ( it is the saving of life that saves life, not the taking of life). The motive should be focused on the good effect ( hoping to save life). The good effect should be at least as important as the bad effect ( life is in the balance here).
13
Q
Advantages of natural law
A
- 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.
- The secondary precepts can be changed to fit different circumstances, situations and precepts.
14
Q
Disadvantages of natural law
A
- In modern forms natural law does not allow for negotiation because the Church has made the secondary rules 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 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 in different circumstances depending on the situation and people, therefore natural law is a weak ethical theory because it contradicts itself.
