Natural Moral Law: Aquinas's Summa Theologica

Vocabulary flashcards focusing on Thomas Aquinas's concepts of natural moral law from Summa Theologica, including first and secondary principles, real and apparent goods, interior and exterior acts, and virtues.

First Principles of Natural Law

The primary principles of natural moral law that Thomas Aquinas describes as absolute and altogether unchangeable.

Secondary Principles of Natural Law

Detailed proximate conclusions drawn from the first principles that apply to the majority of cases but may fail or change in rare, particular circumstances.

Aquinas' Debt Repayment Example

An illustration demonstrating that restoring goods held in trust is right in most cases, but unreasonable and injurious if the owner claims them to fight against their own country.

Apparent Goods

Actions or desires that seem good because of short-term pleasures (such as adultery) but are mistaken for true good and involve underlying wrong, such as betrayal, injustice, and lies.

Real Goods

Actions that preserve and improve the self, guiding humans toward the ideal human nature that exists in the mind of God.

Exterior Act

The outward physical act performed, such as giving money to charity, which is not truly moral unless accompanied by the correct interior motive.

Interior Act

The underlying intention or motive behind an action, which must be right for an exterior act to be properly good and moral.

Virtues

Moral qualities that aid in the process of following the real good, preserving and improving the self, and bringing a person closer to God's ideal human nature.