Christian Ethics

Natural Law
1. St Thomas Aquinas
  1. Believed the perfect fulfilment was God
  2. 1225-1274
  3. Put forward the Cosmological Arguement
  4. Absolutist and Deontological
    1. Interior/Exterior acts: Both must be good.
  5. Four cardinal virtues (necessary for moral life)
    1. 4) Temperance: temperance is the restraint of our desires or passions
    2. 3) Fortitude: Courage to carry out Prudence and Justice, a gift of the Holy Spirit
    3. 1) Prudence: allows us to judge correctly what is right and what is wrong in any given situation
    4. 2) Justice: concerned with the will, justice is blind.
2. Aristotle
  1. Stoics
  2. Believed Eudaimonia was the Teleos of Man
    1. Meaning happiness and content were mans goal.
      1. All Humans have a purpose
  3. We all have a purpose and supreme goodness is found when you fulfil it.
  4. There was a law written in nature for humans to know how to act morally
    1. Saw reason as the highest form of human activities
3. "Natural Law is the sharing in the eternal law by intelligent beings" - St Aquinas
4. There is a natural order determined my a supernatural power.
  1. Rooted in our human nature (not a "duty" or imposed law) and out search for happiness and fulfilment
  2. Must use reason to understand these laws
5. Human Law: What we create
  1. Natural Law: What we observe
    1. Divine Law: A manual sent to us (The Bibile
      1. Precepts
        Secondary
        Doctrine of the Double Effect
        Primary
        Preservation of Life
        Worship God
        Live peacefully in society
        Educate the young
        Reproduction
        Synderesis: "Do good and avoid evil"
        Real Goods: Using reason to correctly choose the right thing to do
        Apparent Goods: Is perceived as good but does not fit the perfect human ideal
      2. Eternal Law: The Designer's Plan
6. Literal - Catholics - Orthodox
7. Standard of morality independant from Gods will
8. Strengths And Weaknesses.
  1. Strengths
    1. Clear Cut + Common Rules
    2. Made flexible by Secondary precepts
    3. Basic principles are reasonable
    4. Focuses on human character- not right or wrong
  2. Weaknesses
    1. Based on assumptions of the world
    2. Too Simplistic
    3. Cultural Relativism - morals are different around the world
    4. Too Optimistic
Situation Ethics
1. Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991)
2. 6 Fundamental Principles
  1. Love is the only absolute
  2. Love is Self-giving
  3. Justice will follow from love, justice is love distributed
  4. Love has no faviourites
  5. Love must be the final end
  6. The loving thing to do will always depend on the situation.
3. Four Working principles
  1. Relativism - Words like 'always' are banned
  2. Positivism - Make sure the outcome is positive
  3. Pragmatism - What you propose must work in practice
  4. Personalism - People are put first
4. Strengths
  1. Easy to uderstand
  2. Easy to update to new science and situations
  3. Flexible and takes into consideration the situation
  4. Focuses on humans and concerns for others
  5. Allows people to take responsibility for their actions
5. Weaknesses
  1. Wrong to make decisions that could potentially go against the teachings of the church and bible
  2. We can never fully determine outcomes
Divine Command Theory
1. Meta-ethical theory
2. And action is moral only if
3. St Augustine (354-430)
4. St Thomas Aquinas (1224-1275)
5. Robert Adam (1905-1991)
  1. Modified Divine Command
    1. "It is wrong to do X" is the same as "It is contrary to God's command to do X"
6. The Euthyphro Dilema
  1. Dialogue between Scorates and Euuthyphro
  2. 1. Is it good because God ordained it?
  3. 2. Or does Go ordain it because it is good?
  4. Peter Singers objection
    1. "If God happened to approve torture and disapproved of helping others, torture would be good and helping others bad."
7. Fits into Natural Law
8. Strengths
  1. Absolutist as the commands are given and can't be changed
9. Weaknesses
  1. Because of Epistemic Distance we can never know what his commands are
    1. Conscience breaks this distance
  2. As society has progressed, the Bible hasn't
  3. If there is no standard of moral behaviour independant of God, how can we judge his actions?
The Bible
1. Old Testament
  1. 10 Commandments
    1. Exodus 20
  2. Deontological
  3. Absolutist
2. The Church
  1. Catholics
    1. Pope
    2. Bishops
    3. Priests
  2. Protestants
    1. Vicars
3. New Testament
  1. WWJD?
  2. St Paul
    1. Love - Agape
  3. Two Greatest Commandments Matthew 22:36-40
    1. "Love your Lord God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind"
    2. "Love your neighbour as yourself"
  4. Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5-7
Strenghts
1. Easy to follow - clear guidelines in certain sections
2. Takes into account emotion
3. Focused on doing Good, not duty
Weaknesses
1. Not everyone can access it.
2. May not progress with society
3. It's very subjective
4. Conscience can be used to justify anything
5. Epistemic Distance
6. Contradictions
7. Focused on good - subjective

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