NATURAL LAW- EXPLAINED Flashcards
WHAT IS TELOS?
The nature of a thing determines the behaviours that are ‘natural’ to it. An acorn naturally grows into an oak tree, because of its inherent nature. Whereas Aristotle thought the final cause of all things was the prime mover, Aquinas claimed that it was the Christian God. The telos/end/goal of rational beings is the goodness of God, which for us involves glorifying God by following God’s moral law.
Ethics is therefore about using reason to discover the natural law within our nature and conforming our actions to it.
“the light of reason is placed by nature in every man, to guide him in his acts towards his end”. – Aquinas.
FOUR TIERS OF LAW
The eternal Law. God’s plan, built into the nature of everything which exists, according to his omnibenevolent nature.
The divine law – God’s revelation to humans in the Bible.
The natural law – The moral law God created in human nature, discoverable by human reason.
Human law – The laws humans make which should be based on the natural and divine law. Human law gains its authority by deriving from the natural and divine law which themselves ultimately derive authority from God’s nature.
synderesis
that the good is what all things seek as their end/goal (telos). This means that human nature has an innate orientation to the good.
“This therefore is the principle of law: that good must be done and evil avoided.” – Aquinas
primary precepts
worship God, live in an orderly society, reproduce, educate, protect and preserve human life and defend the innocent.
=the articulation of the orientations in our nature toward the good; the natural inclinations of our God-designed human nature, put into the form of ethical principles by human reason.
secondary precepts
“there belongs to the natural law, first, certain most general precepts, that are known to all; and secondly, certain secondary and more detailed precepts, which are, as it were, conclusions following closely from first principles.” – Aquinas.
derive from PP by a process of practical reasoning and consider what ought to be done
primary= descriptive, secondary=prescriptibe . these can vary widely based on time and place
conscientia
Conscientia is the ability of reason to apply the primary precepts to situations or types of actions. The judgement we then acquire is a secondary precept. E.g euthanasia: the primary precepts don’t say anything about euthanasia exactly, but we can use our reason to apply the primary precepts to euthanasia, and realise that it goes against the primary precept of protecting and preserving human life.
interior vs exterior acts/ vincible vs incincible ignorance
A good exterior act without a good interior act does not glorify God because it is not done with the intention of fulfilling the God-given goal/telos of our nature.
vincible- known, invincibe- couldnt have known any better
