Natural Law - AO2

Question 1

What would John Calvin say about natural law?

Answer 1

• Looked to scripture as the Word of God and primary source of morality
• Would argue natural law is un-Christian
• However non-Catholic thinkers such as Martin Luther and Richard Hooker would use natural law

Question 2

What would be Bernice Hamiltons objection? (Quote)

Answer 2

• ‘right reason in accordance with human nature’ would mean it is accessible to all, but not all accept it
• ambiguity of understanding of law leads to doubt
• “not a law in any known sense of the word… thus inaccessible save through (dubious) interpreters”

Question 3

What is the most significant argument against natural law?

Answer 3

• suffers from vagueness about what should be done just like other theories of virtue ethics
• disallows us from knowing what exactly to do, knowing a general principle does not help
• to preserve life becomes hard during wartime, may have to kill innocents, e.g bomb on Japan
• If an infant in the womb is a person as much as the mother who is privileged if the pregnancy would kill the mother?

Question 4

What other issue does Pope Paul VI’s arise? (Quote)

Answer 4

• the idea of unclear conclusions which would allow construction of natural law arguments that point in opposing directions
• Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, obeying natural law would insist on preserving and encouraging life, would mean its wrong to use artificial birth control
• “marital act must of necessity retain… procreation of human life”

Question 5

What would opponents of Pope Paul argue?

Answer 5

• part of human nature is using our intellect to determine what is best for human flourishing
• e.g Over-population may damage preservation of life, primary precept of natural law needs to justify artificial birth control using reason
• they did not reject natural law but pointed it another direction
• German Grisez would argue that these opponents had misunderstood natural law theory, the problem still remains.

Question 6

Why can Aquinas be criticised on Aristotles principle?

Answer 6

• reliance on belief that everything has purpose, so human nature has a purpose
• so is natural law doomed if the metaphysic upon which it rests is mistaken?
• Finnis would deal with this by arguing in terms of the nature of human as she is, rather than their purpose
• Bertrand Russel’s fallacy of composition

Question 7

Can natural law said to be rational, why and why not?

Answer 7

• Use of practical reasoning and common-sense deems it rational
• However, humans have a complex nature, not a single ‘fixed’ human nature

Question 8

Is natural law ‘flexible’, why and why not?

Answer 8

• Can be deemed flexible due to secondary precepts allowing adaptation to cultures
• Neilsen questions the unchanging nature of the primary precepts using cultural relativism
• Gareth Moore would say our nature differs and is a product of culture and society, e.g Nazi Germany

Question 9

is the principle of double effect a strength or a weakness, why?

Answer 9

• Can be good as it allows the solving of the problem of conflicting secondary precepts
• However, brings in consequentialism through the back door, you can do terrible things because of double effect

Question 10

How can Natural Law be linked with Agape?

Answer 10

• Jesus broke opposed legalism and broke rules to do the most loving thing
• The primary precepts do not allow direct bending of the rules
• manuals would fall to this weakness

Question 11

Does natural law contain conflict?

Answer 11

• Natural law can be said to have conflicting rules, as with any absolutist theory
• What do we do if two universal rules come into conflict with each other?

Question 12

What does Pope Benedict think?

Answer 12

• Natural Law provides a lost post-modern secular society with objective values and truth
• this loss in post-modern society is described as ‘dictatorship of relativism’

Question 13

Is Natural Law autonomous?

Answer 13

• allows the individual to work out what is right and wrong through reason
• No reliance on religious authority, scripture or tradition
• Primary precept of worship of god contradicts this

Question 14

Is Natural Law considered outdated?

Answer 14

• Can be said to be out of touch with 21st Century society

- Leads to homophobia, intolerance of other culture

Question 15

What is Naturalistic Fallacy?

Answer 15

• how we are is not the same as how we ought to be
• if something is natural it is good
• Sex produces babies, does not mean every act of sex ought to be open to procreation

Question 16

What would St Augustine have to say about Natural Law?

Answer 16

• Oppose with the idea of the original sin

- A doctrine that states everyone is born sinful, opposes the idea of natural law

Question 17

What could be said to counter the supposed biggest weakness of Natural Law

Answer 17

• Most ethical theories suffer from this problem.
• At least NL takes a logical approach to a dilemma by asking one to apply their practical reason (involving understanding, judgement and good deliberation)
• rather than relying on scripture or a notion of happiness or love as seen in other theories.

Question 18

What would counter Bernice Hamiltons objection?

Answer 18

• Whilst there may be ambiguity about the finer details, the primary precepts are common across many countries
• so it’s reasonable to apply the theory because they seem to be important goals for many people.

Question 19

What is the problem with intention?

Answer 19

• DofDE doesn’t account for whether we can truly know of someones intentions
• However it justifies the fact that humans cannot judge perfectly every outcome and still allows a good to be done