ethics: natural law

what is natural law?

the moral law which God has built into human nature. It is about working out what is good for human flourishing. God has willed that man has a natural inclination to do good but also have rational capacity to work out what is right and proper to do.

what is Cicero’s definition of NL?

‘(natural) law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application’

‘it is a sin to try and alter this law, nor is it allowable to attempt to repeal any part of it’

Cicero says that this understanding is true everywhere and made known by God. Natural law appeals to the idea that everyone recognizes that certain ideas are wrong as we are rational creatures. E.g. incest – we can know by using our reason that this is bad for human happiness and flourishing.

what is syndresis?

Synderesis: a key precept to do good and avoid evil – reason directs us to do good and avoid evil and all other principles flow from this reason.

Even though divine reason exists, it is impossible for us to fully perceive it but if we use human reason we can find out the laws.

Synderesis is the key precept from which all other principles flow, means we should do what is proper to our end

what is telos?

A foundational principle that God created all living things to have a purpose. Since humans have rational thought we can work out our goals in life and our purpose.

Aquinas argued that we are only able to be what God meant us to be in the next life and to achieve this goal we need to live this life in faithful service of God.

what does Aquinas think is the purpose of human life?

Aquinas believed that the purpose of life was to life a life of faithful service to God and light of reason.

what are the four tiers of law?

eternal law, divine law, natural law and human law

what is eternal law?

-          God’s will for how the universe is to be made. God could have made the universe differently but willed that it and it occupants are of this type

the principles by which God made and controls the universe and which only God knows completely. We only understand reflections of these.

We cannot know God’s ways so Eternal Law is best interpreted as the principles by which God created and controls the universe

what is divine law?

that which is revealed by God, such as the Ten commandments – for Aquinas, Divine Law teaches what our natural reason is capable of knowing. God helps us by codifying that which we could know through reason.

Aquinas believes that moral requirements are knowable by human reason and Divine Law makes clear and confirms that which we can know by reason and it is a help to people attempting to work out what reason teaches.

Affirmations of what can be known by reason

what is natural law?

Right reason in accordance with right nature’. This can be worked out by considering what is good for human flourishing.

God has willed that man has a natural inclination to do good, but also that he has a rational capacity to work out what is right and proper to do.

The moral law which God has built into human nature - working out what is needed for human flourishing.

what is human law?

As humans are social animals, they need to make regulations for society to be orderly so that people may flourish but Human Laws cannot dictate anything contrary to Natural Law.

We need regulations in order to function co-operatively – why societies should establish governing authorities who set our rules on how their citizens should behave.

Human Laws validity is based on its accordance to Natural Law – if a regulation is contrary to Natural Law, then it looses its validity

what are some of the distinct characteristics of Aquinas’s natural law?

- He rejected divine command theory (something is right because God commands it) and argued that anyone who studies nature should be able to tell right from wrong

-Christian humanism: morality is rooted in reason as opposed to scripture, however it is justified and developed in scripture

what is natural inclination?

God has installed a natural inclination to do good in human beings so they know what is proper to do.

what are the two words for law in Latin?

Lus and Lex

what does Lus mean?

the principle of the law  - the general principle of law

what does lex mean?

the letter of the law – specific rules/legislation

what is the significance of lus and lex to natural law?

Hobbs argued that Natural Law should always be seen as an Ius as it is not a legalistic system of precise regulations.

However, throughout history Natural Law has been treated as a set of regulations in which some actions are illicit – derived from lex.

what are the primary precepts?

the articulation of the orientations in our nature toward the good; the natural inclinations of human nature, put into the form of ethical principles by human reason - having reason allows a being to intuitively know these precepts.

• principles discovered by observing universal natural inclinations

what are all the primary precepts?

• Preservation of life

• Ordering of society

• Worship of God

• Education of children

• Reproduction

what are the secondary precepts?

derived from primary precepts, the judgement we acquire when we use our reason to apply primary precepts to situations

how is wisdom/prudence needed in natural law?

There is no intuition telling us what we should do, humans are intrinsically rational creatures and we are capable of directing our behavior through thinking.

• using reason does not end at formulating precepts but we also need to use our reason to apply these precepts in a rational way

what is the difference between a real good and an apparent good?

real good: correctly reasoned goods that help the moral agent achieve their telos

apparent good: wrongly reasoned goods that don't help the moral agent achieve their God given purpose

how can we prevent thinking apparent goods are real goods?

Aquinas thought that habits of unnatural activity can overwhelm us as we need discipline and practice to develop virtues (behavioural traits that we become if we follow natural law - go to heaven) to keep the natural law.

how does John Finnis develop natural law?

• contemporary legal thinker who argues natural law is contemporary

theory is based on ‘basic forms of human flourishing’

These forms are used by everyone who considers what to do and in order to flourish these areas need to be supported by ‘basic methodological requirements’

From these we can derive an unchanging natural law – objective morality is possible and we can define justice in terms of the concrete requirement to promote the common good.

what is the common good?

people realizing their own basic values as well as other personal objectives.

what is the principle of double effect?

an act that may have more than one effect, and be known to have more than one. What matters is intention – if the aim of the act was meant to lead to a moral consequence.

how can double effect be avoided?

Any judgement about an action should be a judgement on intention and the use of right reason in reaching that decision. The intent and results of an action should be considered.

‘Moral acts take their character from what is intended, not from what is outside the intention, as this is accidental…’

what did Kenny say about double effect?

‘ a principle of double effect must form part of any rational system of morality, and it has many everyday applications’ – the test of a theory is to see if it works in practice

what is an issue with natural law (vagueness + unclear conclusions)?

it doesn’t enable us to be precisely certain about what to do in significant case e.g. if we say life should be preserved – whose life should be preserved? Sometimes knowing the general principle is not enough.

e.g. controversy around Humane Vitae which argued that obedience to natural law means that artificial forms of birth control cannot be used. However, it can also be argued that part of human nature is using our reason to determine what is best for human flourishing and if over-population is harming communities then the most rational thing to do is to use artificial birth control.

what is an issue with natural law (judgement of actions based on achieving telos)?

Natural law is a central teaching of Catholic modern theology – Catholic teaching prohibits artificial contraception → cannot result in new life. Ethicists may argue that this leaves no place for rationality to bring order and that natural law provides a distorted view of ethical human actions as it views ethicality purely based on the physicality of the act.

Natural law can therefore be seen as outdated as it is not compatible with the developing societal norms as opposed to a more static view of nature.

what is an issue with natural law (inclination towards the good)?

Aquinas has a positive view of human nature and thinks that there is a natural response to do good. While we do need rules and regulations to ensure that there is an ordered society - real societies do not have this positive equilibrium.

There are many examples of evil in society e.g. evidence of human nature damaging the environment  through pollution, over-population and using natural resources – where is evidence of natural response to do good?

Humans may actually have an inclination for self-preservation and pursuing our own pleasures rather than behaving rationally - the selfish gene

• Augustine

why does Russel disagree with natural law?

Natural Law relies on certain presuppositions e.g. that the world is the product of a purposeful, creator God and that therefore there is a final cause. Perhaps our universe isn’t working towards a telos at all and we are in chaos?

why does Kai Nelson disagree with natural law?

argues against Aquinas’ belief in a basic human nature that is present across all societies and cultures: “The concept of human nature is a rather vague cultural concept; it is not a scientific one.” 

why do Hume and Moore disagree with natural law?

Natural Moral Law commits a naturalistic fallacy. Moral statements cannot be established by the observation of facts; you cannot argue from what “is” to what “ought” to be the case. We cannot determine our purpose or the universe’s purpose by simply considering that we have an innate human nature implanted in us by God

why does Barth not agree with natural law?

influenced by Augustine, who claimed that after the Fall our ability to reason become corrupted by original sin.  

therefore dangerous to rely on human reason to know anything of God, including God’s morality.

Whatever humans discover through reason is not divine, so to think it is divine is idolatry – believing earthly things are God. Idolatry can lead to worship of nations and even to movements like the Nazis.

After the corruption of the fall, human reason cannot reach God or God’s morality. That is not our telos. Only faith in God’s revelation in the bible is valid.

what is a strength of telos-based ethics?

they are empirical, i.e., based on evidence. Aristotle observed that everything has a nature which inclines it towards a certain goal which he and Aquinas called its telos.

It is a biological fact that certain behaviours cause an organism to flourish. Telos thus seems an empirically valid concept.

what is a weakness of telos-based ethics?

Francis Bacon, called the father of empiricism, argued that only material and efficient causation were valid scientific concepts, not formal and final causation. The idea of telos is unscientific.

modern science tells us that things are merely atoms moving in fields of force – i.e., material and efficient causation. The idea that entities have an ‘essence’ and thus a telos is unscientific. Physicist Sean Carroll concludes that purpose is not built into the “architecture” of the universe.

Similarly, if there is anything in human nature which orients us towards certain behaviours, it is only because evolution programmed them into us because they happened to enable survival in our environment, not because of telos.

what is a strength of natural law (universal human nature)?

The primary precepts are found in the morality of all societies. e.g. not killing for no reason and rules about stealing are universal.

Moral thinkers from different cultures came up with similar moral prescriptions such as the golden rule; to treat others as you would like to be treated, which can be found in ancient Chinese Philosophy, Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity.

This suggests that moral views are influenced by a universal human moral nature. This is good evidence that we are all born with a moral orientation towards the good (telos), which is the foundation of Aquinas’ theory.

what is a weakness of natural law (universal human nature)?

Freud: if all humans were really born with the ability to know the primary precepts, we should expect to find more moral agreement than we do. In fact, we find vastly different moral beliefs. Furthermore, the disagreement is not random but tends to fall along cultural lines - suggests that it is actually social conditioning which causes our moral views, not a supposed natural law in human nature.

why do we need reason?

work out the primary precepts + derive secondary precepts

what is the purpose of life for Aquinas?

to achieve the beatific vision - to be united with God

• achieve a flourishing life - a eudaimonistic life in a flourishing society

• Aquinas argues that we cannot achieve this without developing virtues like prudence

• Aquinas adapts Aristotle for a Christian ethic: so the eternal law in God’s mind is revealed in divine law which agrees with natural law and human law (if we’re wise and pass moral laws).  So the ultimate end is conforming to God.

what is the link with natural law to Aristotle?

• Aquinas was influenced by Aristotle

  Importance of eudaimonia

  • Secondary precepts are rules that are rational applications of five primary precepts observed as the good ends that people pursue.

  • Ultimate end or telos is to be with God and like God.

  • “The natural law is a sharing, by rational creatures, in the eternal law of God”.  Anthony Kenny

what is phronesis?

practical wisdom learnt by experience

how does Moore criticise natural law due to the naturalistic fallacy?

Closely related to Hume’s is-ought problem. Moore argues that naturalist ethics rest on a conceptual mistake. It argues that just because nature follows a particular path, it doesn’t mean that humans have to follow the same path.

why does Hobbes disagree with natural law?

Humanity is selfish & brutish, the only thing that separates us from animals is reason, which made us realise life is more tolerable if we cooperate. Our purpose is to conquer the animalistic, brutish side, creating just & fair societies.

why do Protestants and Luther reject natural law?

Protestants rejected it because they felt it is out of touch with the modern world.

Luther, a Protestant reformer, had with issues with the theory, including Aquinas’ use of reason. Human reason is sinful because of the Fall. He also felt that doing good & following Nat. Law wouldn’t save you, only God’s grace can save you.