Natural Moral Law

Telos

• Aristotle believed that the universe has a telos

• Telos means "purpose", everything in this universe has a purpose or aim.

Telos of humans

to achieve Eudamimonia- a state of supreme happiness, flourishing and fuflfilment

Influence of Stoicism on NML (Natural Moral Law)

• Stoicism viewed the world as an ordered place arranged by nature.

• Stoics believe the path to human happiness is to live according to nature's rules

Aquinas Conclusion

Happiness is found in god alone.

• our telos on earth is 'human flourishing'

• following the 5 primary precpets helps our telos

• complete happiness can only be found in God alone and is only fully achieved after death

What is NML centred around

its centred around fulfilment of 'telos'

Aquinas: Four Teris of Law

1. Enternal law- law in the mind of God beyond human comprehension

2. Divine law- law reveled by God through scripture

3. Natural law- law that humans are born with; we naturally know what's right and wrong

4. Human law- law made up by societies

Aquinas Quote on Human law

"Man is bound to obey secular rules…if they command unjust things…..not obliged to obey them"

Whats the 5 Primary Precepts

1. Preservation of life

2. Reproduction

3. Eductation

4. Order

5. Worship God

Presevation of life

Aquinas argued that we are to preserve life, its natural and resonable for everyone to want to preserve there own being. expressed in divine law "Do Not Kill" and human law, killing is against the law

Reproduction

it's rational to ensure that life goes on, main purpose of sex is to reproduce, (catholics are strict with this), this belife of reproductions is consistence with science "survive and reproduce", seen in divine law "be fruitful and multiply"

Eductation

Humans are intellectual creatures, alligns with natural law as its in our nature to learn and human law since its mandatory for children to be educated

Order

we are society beings and its better for us to live in an orded society where its possible to fulfil our teleos

Worshipping God

to recoginse god as the source of life and to live by divine law. however this primary precept is seen as outdated since not everyone worships god and many will say its not in our nature to worship god

Secondary Precepts

rulings about things that we should or shouldn t do because they uphold, or fail to uphold the primary precepts

Examples of secondary precepts

• homosexual acts

• Masterbastion

• abortion

• euthanasia

• adultery

• murder

Strengths

• John waters agrues that NML offers a 'foundational, universal and absolute approach' to ethics

• NML provides an objective foundation for ethics, giving people a clear sense of right and wrong

• It has been the basis for developing our ideas about natural rights.

• its realistic; it acknowledges that people can make mistakes, e.g, people being confused about real and apparent goods

Weaknesses

• its view that we all share a single, common human nature is arguably false

• it doesn’t help atheists

• Many christans reject its legalistic approach

• it can lead to immoral outcomes, e.g homosexuality,