'Natural law

What were Aquinas’s four types of law

Eternal law, divine law, natural law and human law

Explain eternal law?

It is the mind or reason of God. This could be seen only in terms of its effects in Natural Law and in ‘moving all things to their due end’. The wisdom of God was reflected in his creation and sustaining of nature but could not be known directly by man

Explain divine law?

Revealed in the laws and moral precepts of scripture; providing a corrective to the fallennes of man. Aquinas believed that human reason was not so impaired by the fall as to be unable to think rightly about ethics. The revelation of scripture and the worship of the Church supplemented our understanding of the divine purposes and motivated our moral life with inspiring vision of divine perfection and holiness. Yet it was not exhaustive in directing our moral conduct or applying to all circumstances, and here, natural and human law both express and supplement divine law

What does aquinas say about divine law?

“The theological considers sin principally as an offence against God, whereas the moral philosopher considers it as being contrary to reason” summa theologica

Explain Natural law?

Is innate to all of nature which is ordered by the divine lawmaker. Morality is reason thinking rightly in humans, who, by their innate knowledge and natural inclination, can discern primary goods which are worth pursuing for their own end. God has ordered nature with essences/ inclinations suited towards their purpose or end goals. Innate to human minds is the syneresis rule (that good is to be done and evil avoided)

Explain Human law?

He sought to underpin respect for proper human law and authority that sought the common good. What begins in nature is, through custom and usefulness, established in human laws through practical reasoning and experienced judgement (phronesis). There can be unjust laws that are not rooted in natural law.

What does aquinas say about human law?

‘If in any point it deflects from the law of nature, it is no longer a law but a perversion of law’

What does aquinas say natural law is?

Nothing else than the rational creatures participation in the eternal law.

What are telos?

The goal or end purpose of anything. All of nature is seen in Aristotle’s though as directed towards a final end- as goal oriented.

What does Aquinas say about Aristotles observations on nature?

Aquinas believed the gods eternal law had so devised the natural world and its creatures that they possessed a natural tendency to pursue the behaviour and goals appropriate to the natures he had given them

What are Aristotles thoughts of the soul?

Within the soul was potentiality for growth. The essence of man was his rational soul which was able to intuit the Natural Law.

What does Augustine say about the fall and human morality?

Very aware of the fallenness of human nature which, without divine grace is incapable of living up to its own standards let alone God’s and earning salvation. He said evil is a privation of good. The problem is that our will is not only moved by reason but also by desires- we can see his influence in Aquinas’s highlighting of the seven deadly sins which corrupt the capacity of our reason to know natural law.

Explain the Synderesis principle?

Good should be done and evil should be avoided- innately known by our consciousness. According to Aquinas, this is our inner knowledge and natural disposition which was ordered by God’s eternal law.

How does Aquinas make distinctions between real and apparent goods?

Real goods -direct us to the happiness or flourishing that results from fulfilling our essential natures in accordance with the precepts of the Natural Law)

Apparent goods- where a lack of practical judgement or virtue misdirects actions towards ends that we mistakenly take to be good

Explain Primary precepts?

They concern the goals toward which human action gravitates (preservation of life). These are absolute and universal principles that are self-evident and express natural human inclinations.

What are the primary precepts?

Preserve life and health

Live in ordered society

Worship god

Learn and seek truth and educate offspring

Reproduce

What are secondary precepts?

Derived from primary precepts through practical reasoning and consider what ought to be done in a more specific way. They are descriptive of natural inclinations, whereas secondary ones are prescriptive having the fore of a command. They can vary widely based on circumstances of time or place.

What are examples of secondary precepts?

Do not legalise euthanasia

Education ought not to be denied to people on the grounds of wealth or gender

Obey just laws and authorities

What is phronesis?

Practical judgment or wisdom generally built up through experience and observation, and seen in judgments that find the mean or middle course between deficiency and excess

How does Aquinas think about motives behind actions?

As rational creature we are responsible for both our desires and our motives according to Aquinas. The intention that wills the act determines whether it is good or evil. ‘He who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”. Can be evil within themselves (murder).

What is the difference between exterior and interior acts?

Interior- thought, intentions or motives

Exterior- reactions

What is the doctrine of double effect?

Aquinas addresses the problem of killing in self-defence- a person both upholds and goes against the primary precept of preserving life- this means we must pay attention to the motives involved. There are four criteria to establish this:

The act must be good in itself or at least indifferent

The good effect must not be obtained by the means of a bad effect

The bad effect must not be intended for itself, only permitted

There must be a proportionately grave reason for permitting the bad effect

What is proportionalism?

Middle way between consequentialism and deontological ethics. In unavoidable circumstances where both good and evil will result from an action, the proportion between the two is weighed in choosing the lesser of two evils. Proportionalists may argue that this is the application of natural law in practical reasoning to bring about a proportionate result

• Proportionalists like B. Hoose argued that the double effect didn’t make natural law flexible enough.

• Fletcher’s example, if we do not kill the baby – we would be sacrificing other people (the other family members), including other children, not just yourself, simply to do the ‘right’ thing by all dying. Is it really ok to get your other kids killed, just because you wouldn’t kill one of them?

• This is a terrible moral choice, but it does show the limits of traditional natural law ethics. 

Give some examples of proportionalism in effect?

Ectopic pregnancies, the embryo mostly implants in the fallopian tube. If this rupture the internal bleeding could result in the death of the mother, whilst lasering the embryo would destroy it without threatening her future fertility. Hoose argues for this as the lesser of two evils, a proportionate response.

How does Darwins evolutionary science led to rejection of natural law?

Darwin argued that nature evolved in competition for survival- natural selection is unsighted and uncaring, which makes the idea that we can see in nature the essence of everything is ordered to a purpose or goal by unmoved mover is by no means obvious in modern science

Explain the fact value gap criticism?

Natural law attempts to move from facts about the essential nature of the world to values about how we ought to live in it: from descriptions of the essential nature of things in the world to prescriptions about how we should act or behave. For David Hume, there is a gap between these two types of statement. Facts are one thing and values are another. We cannot ‘see’ moral facts. Is what is natural always good (example homosexuality)

Explain Kai Nielsen’s view on natural law?

Outdated view on human nature. The idea that a single human nature across time and place is to be dismissed- Aquinas saw homosexuality as unnatural, and yet it is observable in animals. Additionally, cultural anthropology shows us how variable human value and goods turn out to be.

Explain how the absolutism of natural law can lead to negative consequences?

Natural laws aversion to making moral decisions based on consequences (except for in double effect) makes decision making hard to calculate. Modern citizens are more likely to ask “what should i do in this dilemma’ instead of ‘how do i pursue a flourishing and worthwhile life’. Absolutist view of primary precepts (reproduction in already over-populated planet and spread of STDs) is problematic

Explain the criticism that natural law theory is too closely allied to the roman catholic church?

The view that abortion, euthanasia, contraception and IVF are all morally wrong as well as the emphasis on marriage as a basic good is rooted in natural law thinking. Peter singer- ‘the semi-official philosophy of the Roman catholic church to this day’.

Theological objection criticism?

Questions faith that Aquinas’ Natural Law placed in the moral reasoning of fallen human beings. Aquinas believed that, despite the fall, man-kind retained an innate tendency to do good and avoid evil. However it could be argued that it is not simply the virtue of love that was corrupted at the fall but also justice and free will. Karl bath saw natural law as man seeking autonomy or independence from God’s command, others arguing that ethics or knowledge of good and evil began at the fall and ethics is an attempt to become our own creators separate from God.

Is natural law outdated?

• J S Mill says the divine law of the bible, especially the old testament, was clearly only relevant in an ancient more barbaric time.

• Mill’s argument can also be applied to Natural law ethics.

• It was created in a mediaeval socio-economic time and its rules reflect that.

• In Aquinas’ time, having sex outside marriage was often a death sentence because sex led to children, and single mothers struggled to survive. There was a great need for reproduction, because so many children died – which was part of why it was against homosexuality, because of the intense need for reproduction. Homosexuality was also seen as against the nuclear family dynamic, which was also needed for reproduction and education.

• There was around 60-70 times the murder rate in Aquinas time, showing the clear need for really strict rules against killing – which is why being against euthanasia made sense then.

• Today, these socio-economic conditions are no longer present. We now have effective contraception and support for single parents. We have overpopulation, and it’s no longer the case that children outside marriage are doomed to lack education. 

• The reasoning behind Aquinas’ views on the primary precepts, including their application to euthanasia and sexual ethics, no longer apply. apply. 

• Aquinas thought that he discovered the primary precepts through human reason, as God designed. However, arguably it’s a simpler explanation that Aquinas was simply figuring out what would have been good for people in his time period & socio-economic condition. His belief that the resulting precepts actually came from God was only in his imagination.

Explain how human nature may be a result of evolution

• Similarly, human nature might behaviourally orient us, but this too can be explained by evolution.

• Evolution in a herd species will generate instincts like empathy. These are not intrinsically ‘moral’ behaviours from a God, they are just what were evolutionarily advantageous to our species.