Natural Law

Aquinas' Four Tiers of Law
1. 1. Eternal Law
  1. God made and controls the universe and which only God knows completely. We only know these as 'reflections'; only we have a partialand approx understanding of laws which govern the universe
2. 2. Devine Law
  1. The Bible - this reflects eternal law. Only be seen by those who believe in God
3. 3. Natural Law
  1. The theory that an eternal, absolute moral law can be discovered by reason
4. 4. Human Law
  1. Human laws are the customs and practices of society
Aquinas' Natural Law
1. Aristotle
  1. Aristotle said that morality should be based on reason not emotions
2. The telos
  1. Aquinas though that moral acts were free acts aimed at achiveing an immediate and ultimate end
Primary and Secondary Precepts
1. Five Primary Precepts
  1. 2. To live in an ordered society: a lawful one where it is possible to follow all the PP
  2. 3. To reproduce: to ensure that life continues as is God's intention and as necessary for the continuation of society
  3. 4. To learn: to teach people about God and his laws and PP
  4. 5. To defend the innocent
  5. 1. To worship God: God is the source of eternal law, and God has sent this law to humanity through divine and human law
2. Secondary Precepts
  1. Reason what would be essential to get to the PP
3. 'Do good, avoid evil'
Precepts and Reason
1. Casuistry
  1. Name given to the process of applying natural law principles to specific situations. Done in a logical way to have logical consequences
2. Double Effect
  1. Refers to situations where there are intended out comes and another significant but unintentional outcome.
    1. According to NL our intentions are improtant not the consequences.
3. Four conditions we must meet:
  1. 1. We do not wish evil effects and make all reasonable efforst to avoid them
  2. 2. The immediate effect in itself should be good
  3. 3. The evil is not made a means to obtain the good
  4. 4. The good effect should be as important, proportionsly at least, as the evil effect
Strengths and Weaknesses
1. Strengths
  1. Having secondary precepts allows flexibility
  2. Most cultures follow the PP
  3. PP make NL more objective
  4. Gives us a telos
  5. DE allows a more liberal view
  6. Focuses on human potential for flourishing
  7. Absolutist view of morality
  8. Combines faith and reason
  9. Appeals to human instinct
2. Weaknesses
  1. Challengeable
  2. Modernity
  3. Individuals within a culture may not follow the view
  4. Complex situations
  5. Money as a limiting factor
  6. Some cultures believe that women shouldn't be educated
  7. Commits naturalistic fallacy
  8. Everything in nature is good - cancer?
  9. Faiths wihtout a God

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