NML

Question 1

what is aquinass natrual law

Answer 1

Natural law is the theory that God has designed a moral law into human nature such that we are naturally inclined to certain moral behaviours. Ethics is therefore about using reason to discover the natural law within our nature so that we can conform our actions to it in order to fulfil our purpose (telos) of glorifying God, by following his law.

Question 2

natrual law quote

Answer 2

the light of reason is placed by nature in every man, to guide him in his acts towards his end”.

Question 3

What are the four tiers of law

Answer 3

The four tiers of Law. The ultimate source of moral goodness and thus law is God’s nature, which is the eternal law. However, that is beyond our understanding, so we have access to lesser laws that derive from the eternal law.

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.

The purpose of the four tiers is to show how Aquinas thinks that human law can gain its authority by deriving from the natural and divine law which themselves ultimately derive authority from God’s nature.

Question 4

what was aristotles influence on aquinas

Answer 4

Aquinas was influenced by Aristotle’s views that there is a natural end to things – everything has a purpose (telos) built into it by its nature – the final cause. Whereas Aristotle thought the final cause of all things was the prime mover, Aquinas Christianised the concept and claimed that it was God. The telos/end/goal of rational beings is the good, which is God’s eternal law. God created us and our nature to have the telos of glorifying God. We can use our God given reason to figure out the inclinations of our God-designed nature

Question 5

modern science rejection of telos / final causation francis

Answer 5

ncis Bacon, called the father of empiricism, argued that formal and final causation (telos) have no place in empirical science but are instead matters for metaphysics. He thought purpose was a divine matter. Regarding form, he gave the illustration of the ‘whiteness’ of snow and explained how science could investigate how snow results from air and water, but this only tells us about its efficient cause, not the form of ‘whiteness’, which is thus not a scientific matter.

Question 6

modern physics rejection of telos

Answer 6

Modern physics goes even further than Bacon in its rejection of final causation. A deterministic universe operating by the laws of physics seems to be completely without purpose. All supposed telos of an object can be reduced to non-teleological concepts regarding the material structure of an object. This suggests there is no basis for grounding telos in God like Aquinas did, or in grounding it as a required explanation of change in objects like Aristotle did. Modern science can explain the change and apparent purpose in the world without telos.

Question 7

science reposponse to modern physics

Answer 7

Science cannot rule out something like a prime mover or God which could provide telos, however.

Nonetheless, at the very least the current scientific understanding of the universe works without the need for any kind of telos. A century after Bacon, Laplace wrote a book on the workings of the universe, claiming to have ‘no need’ of the hypothesis that there is a God. More recently, Stephen Hawking made the same claim.

Question 8

how does synderisis relate to reason

Answer 8

Aquinas claims that reason is a power of the human soul and synderesis is the habit or ability of reason to discover foundational ‘first principles’ of God’s natural moral law which gives us insight into God’s intentions for human life and thus our telos.

Question 9

quote about synderisis

Answer 9

he first practical principles … [belong to] a special natural habit … which we call “synderesis” …

Question 10

what does the first principle synderisis say

Answer 10

The first principle synderesis tells us is called the synderesis rule: 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.

Question 11

link synderisis to primary precepts

Answer 11

In addition to this, synderesis tells us the primary precepts: worship God, live in an orderly society, reproduce, educate, protect and preserve human life and defend the innocent. These primary precepts are 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.

Question 12

weakness of the first principle synderisis rule

Answer 12

Arguably Aquinas is too optimistic about human nature. If you consider the terrible things that humans have done and that entire cultures have embraced, e.g. slavery and Nazism, it starts to look like human nature is not as positive as Aquinas thought. If we really had an orientation towards the good and the primary precepts accurately described our nature’s orientation, then we should not expect to find the extent of human evil we do.

Question 13

reponse from aquinas towards the critic on first synderisis principle

Answer 13

However, Aquinas’ claim is merely that human nature contains an orientation towards the good, it doesn’t involve a commitment to humans actually doing more good than evil, nor to incredibly evil acts or cultures occurring infrequently. Aquinas acknowledges that there are many reasons we might fail to do good despite having an orientation towards it. These include original sin, mistakes in conscientia, lacking virtue and a corrupt culture.

Question 14

what are secondary precepts quote

Answer 14

“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

Question 15

what are secondary precepts

Answer 15

The primary precepts are applied to situations or types of actions – a process called conscientia. 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. Arguably it even disrupts the functioning of society too. Therefore, we can conclude the secondary precept that euthanasia is wrong.

Question 16

Interior and exterior acts

Answer 16

Aquinas draws a distinction between the action itself, which is an exterior act because it occurs outside of our mind, and our intention which is the interior act because it occurs inside our mind.

The point of natural law ethics is for us to figure out what fulfils the telos of our human nature and then act on it. By doing so, we glorify God. This cannot be done without intending to do it.

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.

The act of giving money to charity is an example of a good exterior act, but is only morally good when combined with the right kind of intention, which would be an interior act. If the intention was only to be thought of as a good person, which is not the right kind of intention, then the action was not truly morally good.

Question 17

what is the importance of virtues

Answer 17

Aquinas thought it was important to be a virtuous person as that will secure a firmer foundation for ethical action. He was influenced by Aristotle’s account of virtue, which envisaged humans are creatures of habit such that being virtuous involves having a character which cultivates virtuous habits.

The cardinal virtues are the virtues humans have the ability to cultivate.

Question 18

what are the cardinal virtues

Answer 18

Prudence involves the practical wisdom to understand how to fit general moral principles to particular situations so as to achieve our proper end/telos. Without this virtue we will be liable to make cognitive errors when reasoning through our moral judgements.
Temperance involves having a moderating and controlled attitude towards bodily pleasures and other emotional desires like anger, vanity and vengeance.
Fortitude/Courage involves having the strength of mind required to overcome our fears when they stand in the way of achieving our good.
Justice involves the willingness to give people what they deserve.

Question 19

what are the theological virtues

Answer 19

The Christian theological virtues are granted to humans by God’s grace.

Faith is the virtue of belief in God and his revelation.
Hope is the virtue of the hope of heaven.
Charity/Love is the virtue of agape; selfless Christian love of your neighbour.

Question 20

what is the The issue of the virtue and salvation of non-Christians.

Answer 20

Augustine’s view of original sin and grace commits him to the view that non-Christian philosophers cannot be truly virtuous since their actions are not directed towards the goodness of the Christian God. God is the ultimate goal of all good human action and the source of all good in human life. Ultimately, all non-Christian action, no matter how seemingly good, fails to have this essential motive, only possible through the love and faith that is gifted to some people by grace.

Question 21

pelaguis on non christians who display good virtues

Answer 21

However, it is difficult to believe that non-Christian philosophers never displayed true virtue. For example, when Socrates chose to die for his beliefs rather than be exiled, it’s difficult to argue that he wasn’t displaying the virtue of courage. Pelagius makes this argument. He points out that there were good people that did good actions in the old testament, such as Noah and Lot, who existed before Jesus came and dispensed God’s grace. Pelagius also points to the example of ancient ‘pagan philosophers’ who were:

Question 22

pelaguis quote

Answer 22

It is not believing in Christ that matters; it is becoming like him.”

Question 23

aquinas and augustine on non Christians cultivating virtuess

Answer 23

Aristotle’s works on ethics were not fully available until Aquinas’ time, long after Augustine. They contained undeniably exceptional analysis of how virtue can be learned through education and cultivated through habit. Augustine claimed that humans can only be virtuous if they are infused by God. Aquinas claims that Augustine is correct – but only about the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love. The cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and courage can be acquired by developing our natural capabilities without intervening help from God. These cardinal virtues are not sufficient for salvation, however. So, Aquinas does not go as Pelagius seemed to – that non-Christians who were virtuous could merit salvation.

Question 24

real vs apparent goods

Answer 24

Aquinas’ natural law ethics relies on human reason to understand and apply the natural law. Yet, human reason is fallible. It is unavoidable that sometimes our reasoning about what is morally right will err.

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. For example, adultery might seem like a good idea at first if one is focused only on the short-term pleasure, yet the consequences for raising children which is our real goal might be put at risk. Such actions are called apparent goods because they only appear good to someone engaged in faulty reasoning. They are not real goods.

Question 25

karl barth critique of aquinas

Answer 25

Barth argued that Aquinas’ natural law theory was a false natural theology which placed a dangerous overreliance on human reason. If humans were able to know God, including his moral commands, through their own efforts, then revelation would be unnecessary. Since God clearly thought revelation necessary as he sent Jesus, it follows for Barth that fallen humanity must be unable to reach God through their own efforts. Furthermore, “the finite has no capacity for the infinite”. Our finite minds cannot apprehend God’s infinite mind. Whatever humans discover through reason is not divine, so to think it is must then be idolatry. Barth argued idolatry leads to worship of nations and then even to movements like the Nazis. Human reason is too limited to figure out right and wrong by itself and so God’s revelation in the bible is required.

Question 26

aquinas defence karl barth

Answer 26

Aquinas argues however that reason is God-given and that it does have this ability to understand human nature and apply it to moral situations. Aquinas is not suggesting our finite minds can understand God’s infinite goodness – that would be the eternal law – he is only suggesting reason can understand the natural law God created within our nature. Tillich defends Aquinas to a degree by pointing out that we clearly have a conscience and that “even a weak or misled conscience is still a conscience”. This means that although humans did become corrupted by the fall, nonetheless the way we currently are (existential nature) still retains something (reason and conscience) of our original pre-fall (essential) nature by we might know something of God, such as his natural law.

Question 27

fletchers critique

Answer 27

Aquinas was not as aware of different cultures as we are today. As we now know thanks to modern anthropology, there are vastly different moral beliefs across cultures; this is called descriptive moral relativism. Fletcher made the argument that this could be taken as evidence that there is not an innate God-given ability of reason to discover the natural law, since then we should expect more moral agreement. Freud would argue that it is society which conditions our moral views. There either is no natural moral law or human reason is unable to discover it. So, what Aquinas thought was human nature was really just his culture.

Question 28

aquinas response to fletcher

Answer 28

However, there do seem to be some core similarities between the moralities of different cultures such as not killing for no reason and rules about stealing. Reproduction and education are also universal. Moral thinkers from different cultures came up with similar moral prescriptions such as the golden rule; to treat others as you would like to be treated, which can be found in ancient Chinese Philosophy, Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity. This could be taken to show that moral views are determined by a universal human moral nature.

Question 29

weakness of aquinas response to fletcher

Answer 29

Alternative explanation: These cross-cultural similarities in moral codes might have resulted from a biologically evolved morality rather than one designed by a God, however, which would mean it is not related to a telos designed by God.

Alternatively, cross-cultural morality might result merely from the basic requirement of a society to function. If anyone could kill or steal from anyone else for no reason whenever they wanted, it’s hard to see how a society could exist. That might create an existential pressure which influences the moral thinkers of a society, yielding prescriptions such as the golden rule. Cross-cultural ethics therefore has a practical reality as its basis, not God and not or not only evolution.