Natural law

a theory in ethics and philosophy that says that human beings possess intrinsic values that
govern our reasoning and behavior.

these rules of right and wrong are inherent in people and are not created by society

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) died on March 7, 1274.

Italian Dominican theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas was one of the most influential medieval
thinkers of Scholasticism and the father of the Thomistic school of theology.

An authority of the Roman Catholic Church and a prolific writer

THE CONTEXT OF THE CHRISTIAN STORY

fundamental truth maintained and elaborated by Aquinas in all his works is the promise right
at the center of the Christian faith: that we are created by God in order to ultimately return to
Him.

three parts to this voluminous work.

first part, Aquinas speaks of God, and although we acknowledge that our limited human
intellect cannot fully grasp Him, We nevertheless are able to say something concerning His
goodness.

Second part, which deals with man or the dynamic of human life. This is characterized by
our pursuit of happiness.

Salvation is only possible through the presence of God’s grace and that grace has become
perfectly incarnate in the person of Jesus.

third part focuses on Jesus as our Savior.

CONTEXT OF AQUINAS’S ETHICS

We might explore how emotions – “the passions” – are involved in this process, and
therefore require a proper order if they are to properly contribute to a good life.

We might explore how our actions are related to certain dispositions (often referred to as
“habits”) in a dynamic way since our actions both arise from our habits and at the same time
reinforce them
We might explore his discussion of how we develop either good or bad habits with a good
disposition leading us toward making moral choices, thereby contributing to our moral
virtue, and a bad disposition inclining us toward making immoral choices, bringing us to
vice.

Aquinas also puts forward that there is within us a conscience that directs our moral
thinking.

a ground that will more concretely direct our sense of what is right and wrong. For
Aquinas, this would be the natural law.

The divine command theory urges a person toward unthinking obedience to religious
precepts.

THE GREEK HERITAGE

NEOPLATONIC GOOD

• Plato which had been put forward a thousand years before Aquinas. He is
credited for giving the subsequent history of Philosophy in one of its most
compelling and enduring ideas: the notion of a supreme and absolutely
transcendent good.

• The Republic, it is often supposed that Plato is trying to envision the ideal society.
But that plan is only a part of a more fundamental concern.

• Socrates, is that the good is real and not something that one can pretend to make
up or ignore.

• Socrates, in discussing this, elevates the notion of the good to unprecedented

• Neoplatonists, Plato’s idea of the good, which is the source of all beings, becomes
identified with the One and the Beautiful. This is the ultimately reality, which is the
oneness that will give rise to the multiplicity of everything else in the cosmos.
 have a single goal, which is to return to that unity.

• God is that which essentially is and is essentially good.

• Emanation of light, the creation of beings.

• Creation therefore is the activity of the outpouring or overflowing of God’s goodness.

• Aquinas, only God in the fullness of his being and goodness is perfect.

• motion of divine providence refers to how being are properly ordered and even
guided toward their proper end.

• divine goodness is the end of all actions.

• The unique way that we have been created can be called our nature.

• A capacity for reason, our way of reaching God is by knowing and loving him.

• The presence of capacity for reason is the prime characteristic of the kind we are.

Essence and Varieties of Law

• rational being- free will.

• Our actions are directed toward attaining ends and goods that we desire.

• Acts are rightly directed toward their ends by reason.

• Through reason we can figure out how to pursue something that we already had
thoughtlessly supposed to be good for us.

• What is necessary is to think carefully of what is really is in fact good for us.

• we have to consider what is good for the community as well as our own good.
This can be called the common good.

• determination of the proper measure of our acts can be reffered to as law.

• Aquinas puts it, the law must regard properly the relationship to universal
happiness.

• A law concerned with the common good

• necessary for rules or laws to be communicated to the people involved in order to

Varieties

• God is the creator of all beings.

Aquinas writes: “He governs all the acts and movements that are to be found in
each single creature, so the type of Divine wisdom, as moving all things to their
due end, bears the character of law

• line involves the assertion that the divine wisdom that directs each being towards its
proper end can be called ETERNAL LAW

• ETERNAL LAW what God wills for creation

• first, we are part of the eternal law second, we participate

• ETERNAL REASON, has a natural inclination to its proper act and end: and this
participation of eternal law in the rational creature is called the NATURAL LAW

• HUMAN LAW human beings construct and enforce laws

• not properly speaking a law- in the deal sense of directing us the common good- but
instead is unjust – MATTER OF VIOLENCE.

• Happiness surpasses human’s nature, supernatural happiness can be obtained

• To direct us toward our supernatural end, we had been given further

• term often confused with eternal law, refers specifically to the instances where we
have precepts or instructions that come from divine revelation

• Natural law theory of Aquinas clearly rooted in a Christian vision. grounds a sense
of morality not on that faith but on human nature.

SEX

MAKAHIYA LEAF- makahiya leaf folds inward and protects It self when touched. We
can say it would be a violation of the natural law unethical to take life of another. Ex
MURDER. Confidently posit acts that promotes continuation of life are to be lauded as
ethical because they re in line with natural law.
Aquinas then goes on to say that there is in our human nature, common with other animals,
a desire that has to do with sexual intercourse and the care of one’s offspring.

specific time of “heat”.

intrinsic connection between the sexual act and fecundity gives rise to a number of
notions.

also seems to justify the claim that any form of the sexual act that could not lead to offspring
must be considered deviant. One of these is the homosexual act.

natural to all animals, is unisexual lust

SEX is natural

Deception is the act of misleading or wrongly informing someone about the true nature of a
situation

 SEXUAL INCLINATION direction of a person's sexual interest, as towards people of the

Procreation Ethics It is widely assumed that people have a moral right to procreate. ...
procreation despite the risks to the children created and third parties. The best argument
for procreation is based on the significant interest people have in forming the parent–child
relationship