Natural Moral Law Flashcards
What 4 laws did Aquinas write about
Eternal Law – God’s omnibenevolent nature.
Divine law – God’s revelation to humans in the Bible.
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
What is human telos according to Aquinas
The Beatific vision- union with God through eudaimonia
synderesis rule
Humans seek good and refute wrong
What is conscientia
The primary precepts are applied to situations or types of actions – a process called conscientia. ( How to get to 2ndry precepts)
Real vs apparent goods
To criticismss that said, if our reason was a God-given faculty and humans seek good naturally, why do immiral things like sex before marriage seem good?
Aquinas says: We might reason that something is in accord with our nature’s goal and is thus good, when really is not. A common cause of our reasoning being faulty is that we can be misled by the temptation of short-term pleasures into being blind to an actions’ long-term negative consequences for achieving our telos
NML Inspiration from Aristoltle
Aquinas also believed in a hierarchy of souls and eudiamonia , taking Aristotles Virtue ethics and catering it to be more religious.
The doctrine of the double effect
That an act can have unintended consequences if the initial intent is good, eg, allowing for you to fight a man in self-defense. Your intention is to preserve your life. The unintended consequence is that mans death. BUT if you knew you would kill the man, even to save your own life, this is intent.
What are the 5 main primary precepts
Worship God
Orderly society
Reproduce
Learn- educate offspring
Dont die
What did Aquinas say about lying?
Never allowed unless “ evaisive truth “ or non malicious lie
Proportionalism
Proportionalism asserts that one can determine the right course of action by weighing up the good and the necessary evil caused by the action. As a result, proportionalism aims to choose the lesser of evils. And to use this when deciding between conflicting precepts.
How might proportionalism change NML
Makes it more teleological
What does Hoose say about NML?
It is never right to go against a precept unless there is a proportionate reason which would justify it.
What does the Catholic church say about proportionalism
They reject it, Pope John paul 11 said that the Catholic Church condemns anything saying actions cant be intrinsically good, or anything that would make it more teleological
