natural law

what is aquinas’ idea of natural law

Like Aristotle, Aquinas believes in a natural law that things have an inherent nature and an inherent purpose/telos/final end. According to this natural law, good means something achieves its telos, whereas bad means something doesn’t achieve its telos.

in summary: God created an orderly world with natural laws where everything has a telos.

• According to this natural law, what’s good is for things to fulfil their telos. What’s bad is for things not to fulfil their telos.

• God gave humans reason (ratio) so that they could understand this divine plan.

  • (This is what conscience is for Aquinas)

• By using this capacity for reason, we can choose our actions in accordance with natural law and achieve our telos of eudaimonia (i.e. we’ll have a good life).

• If humans disobey natural law and God’s plan, they won’t achieve their telos of eudaimonia (i.e. they’ll have a bad life).

what is ‘telos’

The word telos roughly translates to purpose. And according to natural law, what is good is for something to act in accordance with its nature to achieve its telos. A good chair, for example, achieves its telos of providing a comfortable place to sit. A good tennis player achieves the telos of winning tennis matches.

what is ‘eduaimonia’

For Aristotle, eudaimonia means a good life achieved by acting virtuously - for aquinas eudaimonia means glorifying God by acting virtuously and, ultimately, achieving union with God.

what is aquinas’ 4 tiers of law

• Eternal law: God’s divine plan – i.e. God’s ultimate understanding of good and bad as decided by His omnipotence and omnibenevolence.

• Divine law: God’s laws as directly communicated to people – i.e. instances where God has explicitly revealed His laws to humanity. For example, in the Bible.

• Natural law: What is good and bad for human beings as can be worked out using reason regardless of whether a person has knowledge of the Bible/divine law.

• Human law: The laws of societies created by humans/governments. These laws should be derived from natural laws.

Each tier of law is determined by the tier above it

why does aquinas believe governments should derive the laws of society from natural laws

because of the hierarchy - where if a human law goes against a natural law, we shouldn’t follow the human law because the natural law is higher up in the hierarchy. In other words, it may be illegal to break such a natural law, but it would not be immoral.

what is the ‘main precept’

A precept is like a moral rule. According to Aquinas, the main precept is simply: To do good and avoid evil. - which he wrote about in Summa Theologica

what are primary precepts

the general principles for good -

Preservation of life

1. Ordering of society

2. Worship of God

3. Education of children

4. Reproduction

there are 5

what are secondary precepts and list examples

more specific rules for behaviour - derived from the primary precepts

some examples: It follows from the primary precept of preservation of life that you shouldn’t kill someone if you find them irritating (a secondary precept).

• The Catholic prohibition of contraception (a secondary precept) is derived from the primary precept of reproduction.

what is the doctrine of double effect and give an example

Aquinas also talks about double effect, where a single action causes multiple effects. In such cases, what matters is that the intended effect is in line with the precepts.

Example: Killing in self-defence. Killing someone obviously violates the primary precept of preservation of life. But if a person kills someone in self-defence of their own life, there are two effects: 1. Killing the would-be murder, and 2. Saving your own life. As long as the person’s intention is 2 – to save their own life – then killing in self-defence is morally acceptable.

what is one counter to aquinas theory of telos

Aquinas’ natural law assumes humans have an objective purpose (telos) – to glorify God by following natural law. But if God doesn’t exist and humans are just products of evolution, then humans lack an objective telos. Existentialists argue “existence precedes essence,” meaning humans create their own subjective purpose in a meaningless universe. Without an objective telos, natural law loses its foundation, as it relies on the idea of purpose to define what is ‘good.’ If humans have no purpose, natural law’s concept of ‘good’ doesn’t make sense.

what is another counter to aquinas’ views and how to counter counter

Aquinas’ natural law conflicts with modern views on issues like homosexuality and contraception, which it deems morally wrong because they oppose reproduction. Modern society, however, doesn’t see these as immoral.
Reply: Aquinas would argue that human judgment shouldn’t override God’s. God’s law is superior to societal beliefs, and human law is the lowest tier of the four tiers of law.

what is the naturalastic fallacy

Philosopher G.E. Moore argues it’s a fallacy to equate moral properties (like ‘good’ or ‘bad’) with natural properties (like purpose/telos). Moral properties are fundamentally different, so we cannot conclude what is good/bad based solely on what is natural.