Natural moral law

Question 1

What is the ethical characterization of natural law?

Answer 1

Deontological, absolutist and legalistic.

Question 2

What is the Christian ethical view?

Answer 2

Motives and duty are the source of morality, not consequences. We have a duty to ourselves and to god, morality stems from him and his commands are absolute and can never be broken.

Question 3

Upon whose thinking is natural law based?

Answer 3

Aristotle, he thought that humans were given the unique faculty of reason, we must fulfill our purpose/telos and flourish by using reason well. Everything in the universe has a telos and fulfilling this will lead us to eudaimonia, the highest good.

Question 4

What did aquinas argue about the world?

Answer 4

It is ordered and rational and all things in it have purpose. It was created by god for a reason and the character of the world reveals his goodness, the universe follows rational rules which aquinas called natural laws.

Question 5

What is the primary function of humans, according to aquinas?

Answer 5

We have free will, choice and reason. We have to use our reason well and to know god. We must find the truth and lead a virtuous life.

Question 6

What are the four tiers of law?

Answer 6

Eternal law- god’s binding commands that cannot be broken. Natural law- god’s laws revealed within nature. Divine law- god’s law revealed via the Bible. Human law- laws put in place by humans inspired by the other tiers of law.

Question 7

What are efficient and final causes?

Answer 7

An efficient cause is the cause of something, the agent of change that brings about its effect. A final cause is the goal or purpose toward which a thing is oriented.

Question 8

What is the purpose of natural law?

Answer 8

To work out how humans can be moral, an action is good if it contributes to our telos, which (for aquinas) is to understand god and to be closer to him.

Question 9

What is the synderisis rule?

Answer 9

Good must be done and evil avoided, all precepts of natural law are based upon this.

Question 10

What are the primary precepts and what are the secondary precepts?

Answer 10

1. Education of children. 2. Worship of god. 3. An ordered society. 4. Preservation of life. 5. Reproduction. From these stem more specific rules called secondary precepts, for example, abortion is banned by natural law as it goes against precepts 4 and 5.

Question 11

What is the difference between exterior and interior acts?

Answer 11

An exterior act is the act itself, an interior act is the motivation for the act. In order for an act to be good, the intention behind it must be good as well as the act itself.

Question 12

What is an apparent good?

Answer 12

Something which may seem good, but is in fact not as it goes against natural law. For example, adultery may seem pleasurable, but it is not a good thing as it goes against the primary precept of an ordered society.

Question 13

What are the four cardinal virtues?

Answer 13

Justice, prudence, fortitude and temperance. We can work out what these are using our reason.

Question 14

What virtues are reveled by the Bible?

Answer 14

The theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.

Question 15

What are the seven vices?

Answer 15

Pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth. They lead people away from natural law, we should aim to maximize the virtues and eliminate the vices.

Question 16

What is the doctrine of double effect?

Answer 16

When a good action is done, which has an unintended bad outcome, as long as the intention was good, the unintended consequence can be disregarded, for example, killing in self defense.

Question 17

Give an example of the doctrine of double effect in action

Answer 17

In an ectopic pregnancy (where the embryo grows in the fallopian tube and has no chance of survival, but could kill the woman) if the doctors operate to remove the tube, thus saving the woman and the ‘baby’ dies as an unintended consequence, the action would be considered good as the aim was not to kill the embryo.

Question 18

What is casuistry?

Answer 18

The idea of applying principles to individual cases. For example, it could be argued that killing is always wrong, but what of in the case of the bombing of Hiroshima where it was argued that in the long run it would save more lives.

Question 19

Give two strengths of natural law

Answer 19

1. It focuses on the moral charecter of the person, not just the act and encourages us to become better people through using our reason. 2. It allows societies to become more harmonious through helping people achieve health and happiness. The secondary precepts can vary according to culture.

Question 20

Give two more positives of natural law

Answer 20

1. It takes into account that we all have a purpose and there is a goal of human life, we want to flourish and get closer to the truth. 2. It is universal and can be applied to any situation, it gives us clear guidelines and works to unite faith and reason, whilst not presupposing belief in god.

Question 21

What are three issues with natural law?

Answer 21

1. The doctrine of double effect can be used to justify terrible things as long as they have good consequences. 2. It can lead to a conflict of duties. 3. It is outdated and enforces rules which are out of touch.

Question 22

Give three more weaknesses of natural law

Answer 22

1. It is overly simplistic and ignores motivations and emotions. 2. It only really makes sense if you believe in god. 3. It can lead to immoral outcomes such as the spread of STDs because of rules against contraception.

Question 23

What is proportionalism?

Answer 23

Hoose’s method of making natural law more applicable to everyday life, we need a moral compass as opposed to absolute laws to guide us.

Question 24

What does Hoose argue about absolute rules?

Answer 24

He argues that some acts are inherently wrong, but in some circumstances, we should be able to break rules if there is a proportional reason to do so.

Question 25

What is the problem with proportionalism?

Answer 25

It disregards absolutism and puts an emphasis on consequences, which abandons the spirt of natural law.