CHAPTER 3

NATURAL LAW
RHEA MAE CASERIA, RPm
INSTRUCTOR I
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

• Recognize how Thomas Aquinas made use of ancient Greek concepts to

provide a rational grounding to an ethical theory based on the Christian faith;

• Identify the natural law in distinction from, but also in relation to, the other
types of law mentioned by Aquinas eternal law, and divine law; and

• Apply the precepts of the natural law to contemporary moral concerns.

LESSON 1: THOMAS AQUINAS

➢Dominican friar who was the preeminent

intellectual figure of the scholastic period of
Middle Ages, contributing to the doctrine of
the faith more than any other figure of his
time
➢elaborated and maintained in all his works
that we are created by God in order to
ultimately return to Him.

❑ Summa Theologiae- is a voluminous work that

comprehensively discusses many significant
points in Christian theology
3 Parts of Summa Theologiae

1. 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, His might, and His
creative power
2. It deals with man or the dynamic of human
life. Salvation in only possible through the
presence of God’s grace
3. It focuses on Jesus as our Savior
 THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS’ ETHICS
➢In our pursuit of happiness, we direct our actions toward specific
ends.
➢Our emotions— “the passions”—are involved in this process and
therefore require the proper order if they are to properly contribute
to a good life
➢Actions are related to certain dispositions (“habits”) in a dynamic
way since our actions both arise from our habits and at the same
time reinforce them
➢Develop either good or bad habits with a good disposition leading
us toward making immoral choices.
 THE CONTEXT OF AQUINAS’ ETHICS
➢ Christian life, therefore, is about developing the capacities given to us by God, into a
disposition of virtue inclined toward the good
➢ Aquinas also puts forward that there is within us a conscience that directs our moral thinking.
For Aquinas there is a sense of right and wrong in us that we are obliged to obey. However,
he also adds that this must be informed, guided and ultimately grounded in an objective
bass of morality
➢ So we are called to heed the voice of conscience and enjoined to develop and maintain a
life of virtue. However, these both require content, so we need something more
➢ Being told that one should heed conscience or that one should try to be virtuous, does very
little to guide people as to what specifically should be done in a given situation. There is a
need for clearer basis of ethics, a ground that will more concretely direct us sense of what is
right and wrong, this would be the natural law
➢ We can recall how the ethical approach called divine command theory urges a person
toward unthinking obedience to religious precepts. Given the problems of his simplistic
approach to ethics, we can contrast how the moral theory of Aquinas requires judicious use
of reason. In doing so, one’s sense of right and wrong would be grounded on something
stable: human nature itself
LESSON 2: THE GREEK HERITAGE
➢ The central belief of Christian faith—God creates does not only means the He brings about
beings, but also means that He cares for, thus governs, the activity of the universe and of
every creature.

➢ Plato a Greek philosopher who was credited the notion of the idea of a supreme and
absolutely transcendent good has shaped and defined the Christian Doctrine of Aquinas
while inspired by divine revelation.

➢ It is the idea of the good—a good which is prior to all being and is even the cause of all
being
 ➢ In his work The Republic, it is often supposed
that Plato is trying to envision the ideal society

➢ Neoplatonists are scholars who decipher the

wealth of ideas of Plato.

ARISTOTELIAN BEING AND BECOMING

Aristotle proposes four concepts which
provide a way of understanding any
particular being under consideration or
can be said to have four causes.
 4 Concepts of Aristotelian Being
1. Material cause- We recognize that any
being we can see around is corporeal,
possessed of a certain materiality or physical
“stuff”

A being is individuated- it becomes unique,

individual being hat it is- because it is made up of
the particular stuff

2. Formal cause- The “shape” that

makes a being a particular kind
 4 Concepts of Aristotelian Being
3. Efficient cause- Something which brings
about the presence of
another being.

-One can also realize that this being

does not simply pop up from
nothing, but comes from another
being which is prior to it.

4. Final cause- It has an apparent end

or goal
 Synthesis
Being ❑ The idea of transcendent good prior to all
▪ Aristotle also discussed the being resurfaces in Aquinas in the form of
process of becoming or the good and loving God, who Himself is the
possibility of change that takes fullness of being good and of goodness
place in a being
❑ In so far as God is that from which all beings
POTENCY AND ACT - A being may carry come, it is possible for us to speak of Him as
within itself certain potentials, but the first efficient cause
these requires the being to
actualized ❑ It is God’s will and love that are the cause of
all things; to every existing thing, God wills
• Understanding beings, how they some good
are and how they become or
what they could be, ❑ However, while beings are good because
they are created by God, the goodness
possessed by beings are imperfect
 Synthesis
❑ God communicates to each being his
perfection and goodness. Every creature
then strives to its own perfection; thus the ❑ While all beings are created by God in order
divine goodness is the end of all actions. All to return to Him, the way the human being is
things come from God and are created by directed toward God is unique
Him in order to return to Him.
❑ This applies not only to an individual human
❑ It is not accidental how beings emerge into being, but also to all humankind. But we
existence; each being is created as a should not forget how the whole community
determinate substance, as a particular of being, which is the universe itself, is
combination of form and matter directed towards its return to God

❑ This nature as participation in God’s

goodness, is both good and imperfect at
the same time.
LESSON 3: THE ESSENCE AND VARIETIES OF LAW
ESSENCE
✓ As a rational being we have free will
✓ There are many possible desirable ends or goods, and
we act such ways as to pursue them
✓ However, just because we think that a certain end is
good and is therefore desirable does not necessarily
mean it is indeed good
✓ That is why reason is an important part of the process.
Acts are rightly directed toward their ends by reason.

COMMON GOOD
✓ Considering what is good for the community as well as our own good.

LAW
✓ The determination of the proper measure of our acts.
LESSON 3: THE ESSENCE AND VARIETIES OF LAW
VARIETIES OF LAW
• Eternal Law- refers to what God wills for creation, how each
participant in it is intended to return to Him.

• Natural Law- refers to the natural inclination to its proper act

and end.

• Human Law- refers to all instances wherein human beings

construct and enforce laws in the communities.

• Divine Law-refers specifically to the instances where we have

precepts or instructions that come from divine revelation.
NATURAL LAW

In Common With Other Beings

➢ human beings are both unique and at the same time participating in the community of the rest of
creation.
In Common With Other Animals
➢ human beings are both unique and at the same time participating in the community of the rest of creation.

Uniquely Human
➢ We have a natural inclination to know the truth about God and to live in the society.

Presented three inclinations as bases for moral valuation;

• Preserving the self is good
• Sexual inclination and the sexual act is part of human nature
• Being rational is what proper to man

Aquinas tells us that there is priority among the powers of the soul, with the intellectual directing and
commanding our sensitive and nutritive capacities.