Nature of Man

man-made rules

These rules are changeable

Morality or moral laws

These moral rules are based on human nature and therefore unchangeable

man-made laws

On the other hand, ___________ are those made by humans inform of rules and regulations, bye-laws, legislations, constitutions, etc.

Morality or moral laws

_________________ are principles that we discover.

Natural law

is called ‘natural’, because reason which decrees it properly belongs to human nature (CCC 1955).

It is universal.
Universally Binding

It is Immutable
It is permanent

It provides the necessary basis for the civil law

Characteristics of Natural Law

Universally Binding

means a body of moral values, sensitivities, sensibilities, ideals and virtues that are shared by the majority of culture in our global reality.

It is Immutable

Even when it is rejected in its very principles, it cannot be destroyed or removed from the heart of man. It always rises again in the life of individuals and societies. (CCC 1958)

It is universal

It is present in the heart of each man and established by reason, and its authority extends to all men. (CCC, 1956).

It is universally binding and authoritative-Authority mean, that it is right, not might

It is _________ and ______________ mean, that it is right, not might

It is permanent.

It does not change with time and place

accidental features

Because man’s essence does not change but his do, ___________________ therefore the application of natural law varies greatly.

Adam Smith

Some philosophers said that human nature is good

THOMAS HOBBES

Some philosophers said that human is evil.

John Locke

Some philosophers said that human nature is both good and evil.

Adam Smith: MAN IS GOOD

HUMAN NATURE MEANT TO HAVE LAWS AND ORDER TO FORM A SOCIETY

TO WORK TOGETHER TO BETTER ONE'S CONDITION

WHO
UNICEF

UN

Conventions adn groups are organized to help other:

THOMAS HOBBES: Man is evil

HE BELIEVE THAT HUMAN NATURE HAS AN EVIL SIDE. WE NEED LAWS AND ORDER TO CONTROL THIS TENDENCY OF MAN

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

-“the golden mean between the indolence of the primitive state and the petulant activity of our own pride, must have been the happiest epoch and the most lasting.”

Adam Smith: MAN IS GOOD

PEOPLE ARE SELF-INTERESTED, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, WE ALSO LIKE TO HELP OTHERS

UNICEF, UNITED NATIONS, WHO

CONVENTIONS AND GROUPS ARE ORGANIZED TO HELP OTHERS

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Humans in their most primitive state are selfish and grasping, incapable of affection for others

John Locke: MAN IS BOTH GOOD AND EVIL

He BELIEVED THAT MAN HAS INNATE SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG. MAN IS BY NATURE A SOCIAL ANIMAL, WHICH MEANS MAN ARE BORN CLEAN IN A CLEAN STATE BUT INFLUENCE BY ITS SOCIETY.

THOMAS HOBBES: Man is evil

WHY PEOPLE ROBBED? THEY ARE NEVER SATISFIED OF WHAT THEY HAVE. MAN IS BY NATURE GREEDY, SELFISH.

PLATO SUGGESTED THAT THERE WAS AN INTELLECTUAL SOUL RESIDENT IN THE HUMAN HEAD AND THERE WAS AN APPETITIVE BEAST, RESIDENT IN THE BELLY AND GENITALS. FOR PLATO, IT IS THE DUTY OF THE INTELLECTUAL SOUL TO KEEP THE BEAST TAMED.

PLATO SUGGESTED THAT THERE WAS AN _______________RESIDENT IN THE HUMAN HEAD AND THERE WAS AN __________________, RESIDENT IN THE BELLY AND GENITALS. FOR PLATO, IT IS THE DUTY OF THE INTELLECTUAL SOUL TO KEEP THE BEAST TAMED.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Humans in their “civilized” state are jealous of privilege, greedy for property and power, devoted to luxury

GENES DETERMINE THE PHENOTYPE OF LIVING ORGANISM, INCLUDING HUMAN QUALITIES (IQ

GENES DETERMINE THE_________ OF LIVING ORGANISM, INCLUDING _________

SIGMUND FREUD

HUMANS HAVE BOTH A PLEASURE-SEEKING DRIVE AND A DEATH DRIVE

The Death Drive

is the drive toward death and destruction, often expressed through behaviors such as aggression, repetition compulsion, and self-destructiveness

Pleasure Seeking Drive

referred to as sexual instincts, the lifedrives deal with basic survival,pleasure, and reproduction

BLAISE PASCHAL

“It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him. Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both.”

St. Augustine view on human nature

Human nature is originally good butit was tainted with original sin after Adam and Eve’s fall from Grace. Faith and Baptism are needed to restore the original goodness of human nature

Hope and Joy

Gaudiumet Spes

Man: The Image of God

The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and likeness of God

spiritual and immortal soul

Man is endowed with a

Man

is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake

truth and beauty

Byfree will, man can direct himself towards __________

freedom

By his intellect and will, man is endowed with __________________, an outstanding manifestation of the Divine image.

Man, enticed by evil, abused his freedom. Man commits sin.

Man, enticed by _______ abused his _____. Man commits ______.

It is in Christ, 'the image of an invisible God', that man has been created 'in the image and likeness' of the creator. It is in Christ, that the Divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God.

It is in _________, 'the image of an invisible God', that man has been created 'in the image and likeness' of the creator. It is in Christ, that the Divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God.

CHRIST

Human nature finds its perfection and ultimate meaning in _______, the one perfect man.

St. Paul,

“For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21)

Pope Benedict XVI

When God disappears, men and women do not become greater; indeed, they lose the divine dignity, their faces lose God’s splendor. In the end, they turn out to be merely products of a blind evolution and, as such, can be used and abused. This is precisely what the experience of our epoch has confirmed for us

- Divine revelation as interpreted by the Church

- Human reason

- Human experience

Sources of Moral Theology

Theocentric
Christocentric
Ecclesial-
Biblical
Sacramental
Personalistic
Ecumenical

characteristics of a Catholic morality

Theocentric

- Morality is a response to God’s call out of love

Christocentric

Moral theology explicitly deals with the way of the following from the Christian’s being-in-Christ. The person of Christ and our being-in-Christ is the center and focus of moral theology.

Ecclesial-

Christ is present to us and is setting in us today ion and through the Church. His salvific work is directed towards building up of his mystical body. Moral theology emphasizes the communitarian dimension of Christian life.

Biblical-

The word of God is authoritative in matters of faith and morality. The fundamental orientation and conception of morality should be derived from scriptures

Biblical-

The word of God is authoritative in matters of faith and morality. The fundamental orientation and conception of morality should be derived from scriptures

Personalistic-

Moral theology emphasizes the human person in its totality: body, intellect, will, conscience, relationship, family, church, and society.

Ecumenical-

The universality of the Gospel of Christ

How Catholics think—Catholic theology--- Creed---Words---Mind

b. How Catholics live----- Catholic Morality--- Code---Works-- Will

c. How Catholics pray---- Catholic Worship--- Cult----Worship-Heart

Our life as catholic has three parts

The more prayer, the more virtue; the more virtue, the more faith.

The more_________the more __________; the more __________, the more _____________.

St. Ireneaus

Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts

True or False

Freedom is not 
“the power to do whatever we like”

Only God has “omnipotence”, i.e. the power to do what he wants: divine freedom is infinitely greater than created free

How can we think of freedom as the power to do what we like, when we know that this is not possible? 

freedom

Nevertheless, despite his limitations, it is true that man is free in his choices.

St. Thomas

That property of the human will whereby man determines himself in his acts towards the end”.

Inner Freedom

Outer Freedom

Two kinds of Freedom

St. Thomas

This means that creatures with will, i.e. spiritual creatures, order themselves towards the end,  unlike other creatures, which are already ordered to their end by the fact that they exist.

Freedom of exercise

the freedom to want or not to want

freedom of specification

freedom to want this or that

1. Political Freedom

2. Professional Freedom

3. Academic Freedom

Give me 3 examples of exterior freedom

Freedom means the power to act and not to act

1. Ignorance

• example accidents arise due to ignorance of the traffic laws

2. Passion

responsibility can be diminished or even nullified

Positive

Negative

Two types of Passion

Positive

if it is toward desirable objects

Negative

if it is away from undesirable things

freedom in exercise

___________ is in relationship between human being

• Mans’s freedom is limited and fallible

• The exercise of freedom does not imply a right to say or do everything

• Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom.

• The more docile we are to the prompting of grace, the more we grow in inner freedom and confidence in living trials.

freedom of man in the plan of Salvation

determinism

It has been said that man has no freedom of choice that he chooses as necessarily as anything else. This is called _________, and there are many types of it, depending on what they think determines the will, e.g.:

1. Physiological determinism

2. Sociological determinism

What are the two types of determinism?

Physiological determinism

the will is determined by the biochemistry of the body, by the so-called gut feeling.

Sociological determinism

man is determined by the cultural values he has inherited.

Economic determinism

man’s choice is determined by the economic infrastructure.(Marxism)

fatalistic determinism

the choice is determined by fate (good or bad luck).

theological determinism

God determines the choice of man. (Calvinism)

Psycho-analytical determinism

choices are determined by the basic “complexes” of man, a combination of “libido” (Freud) and all the accumulated experiences of the past (Jung).

The evidence of self-consciousness

whereby any man can verify within himself that when he chooses, he could perfectly well have chosen the opposite if he only wanted to.

The evident fact of a universal acceptance of a moral code and of legal responsibility,

which would be unwarranted if man were not responsible for his actions. What would be the point of a legal system, judges and courts? If man is determined in his choices, no one can attribute any responsibility to his acts: he would always be like an irresponsible minor, who cannot be tried by any court.

The root of freedom of man

• Man can never be confronted with the fullness of the good, (i) because no created good is the fullness of the good, and (ii) because even God, in this life, is only known by man imperfectly, and therefore this knowledge is not the fullness of good either.

• The human will is free, and not necessitated: no outside force can overcome it or coerce it, as long as man is in possession of his faculties.

Freedom and the good

• What is the relationship between freedom and the good?. The freedom of choice with regard to created things is pointless if it is separated from the love of God, who is the total good. 

• Nevertheless, in every concrete situation man can and should love God and give glory to Him by relating all his choices to the last end, and thus increasing his freedom.