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Here are the answers to the quiz questions:
1. Natural Law refers to a system of right and justice that is derived from nature, not from human rules and conventions. It holds that there are certain universal principles of morality and ethics that can be discovered by human reason and are binding for all people.
2. The two main features of natural law according to St. Thomas Aquinas are:
1) God is the giver of natural law, so natural law is part of divine providence.
2) Man is the recipient of natural law, and it constitutes the basic principles of practical rationality - the principles by which human actions are judged as reasonable or unreasonable.
3. According to St. Thomas
Here are the answers to the quiz questions:
1. Natural Law refers to a system of right and justice that is derived from nature, not from human rules and conventions. It holds that there are certain universal principles of morality and ethics that can be discovered by human reason and are binding for all people.
2. The two main features of natural law according to St. Thomas Aquinas are:
1) God is the giver of natural law, so natural law is part of divine providence.
2) Man is the recipient of natural law, and it constitutes the basic principles of practical rationality - the principles by which human actions are judged as reasonable or unreasonable.
3. According to St. Thomas
Here are the answers to the quiz questions:
1. Natural Law refers to a system of right and justice that is derived from nature, not from human rules and conventions. It holds that there are certain universal principles of morality and ethics that can be discovered by human reason and are binding for all people.
2. The two main features of natural law according to St. Thomas Aquinas are:
1) God is the giver of natural law, so natural law is part of divine providence.
2) Man is the recipient of natural law, and it constitutes the basic principles of practical rationality - the principles by which human actions are judged as reasonable or unreasonable.
3. According to St. Thomas
of right or justice held to be common to all humans and derived from nature rather than from rules of society. • Natural Law holds that the law is based on what is “correct.”
• Natural Law is discovered by humans
through the use of reason and choosing between good and evil. THEREFORE • Natural Law finds its power in discovering certain universal standards in morality and ethics. HISTORY OF NATURAL LAW 1. The Greeks
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle emphasized
the distinction between nature (physis) and “law”, “custom” or “convention” (nomos). • Aristotle (Father of Natural Law)
In Rhetoric, he argues that aside from
“particular laws” that each people sets up for itself, there is a “common law” or “higher law” that is according to nature. 2. Stoics
- Believed in the existence of a rational and
purposeful order to the universe. THE MEANS by which a rational being lived in accordance with this cosmic order was considered “Natural Law”. 3. The Christians
- St. Augustine equates natural law with
man’s Pre-Fall state. Life according to nature is no longer possible and mankind must instead seek salvation through the divine law and Christ’s grace. St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) • Italian Dominican friar • Catholic priest • Doctor of the Church • Philospher, theologian, jurist • Known as “Doctor Angelicus” • Greatest work: Summa Theologica, Summa Contra Gentiles St. Thomas Aquinas’ Natural Law Theory TWO MAIN FEATURES:
1. God is the giver of natural law, therefore,
natural law is just one aspect of divine providence. 2. Man is the recipient of natural law, and the latter constitutes the principles of practical rationality – which becomes the principles upon which human actions are to judged as reasonable or unreasonable. 1. Natural Law and Divine Providence • Aquinas’ affirms that the natural law is a participation in the eternal law.
• The eternal law is that rational plan by
which all creation is ordered; the natural law is the way that the human being “participates” in the eternal law. • Nonrational beings share in the eternal law only by being determined by it – their action nonfreely results from their determinate natures, natures the existence of which results from God’s will in accordance with God’s eternal plan. • Rational beings like man is able to grasp its share in the eternal law and freely act on it. It is this feature of natural law that Aquinas called natural law as “law”. • Aquinas defined “law” as a RULE OF ACTION PUT INTO PLACE BY ONE WHO HAS CARE OF THE COMMUNITY, hence, God, who has care of the community, chooses to bring into existence beings who can freely act and in accordance with principles of reason is reason enough to say that those principles of reason is law. Natural Law and Practical Rationality • Man is the recipient of natural law.
• Natural Law constitutes the basic
principles of practical rationality for human beings, and has this status by nature. • The notion that natural law constitutes the basic principles of practical rationality implies that both the precepts of the natural law are universally binding by nature and that the precepts of the natural law are universally knowable by nature. • Precepts of natural law are binding by nature: NO BEINGS COULD SHARE OUR HUMAN NATURE YET FAIL TO BE BOUND BY THE PRECEPTS OF THE NATURAL LAW. • This is so because… • … these precepts direct us toward the good as such and various particular goods.
• The good and goods provide reasons for
us rational beings to act, to pursue the good and these particular goods. • As good is what is perfective of us given the natures that we have, the good and these various goods have their status as such naturally. • It is sufficient for certain things to be good that we have the natures that we have; it is in virtue of our common human nature that the good for us is what it is. • Precepts of natural law are knowable by nature.
• All humans possess a basic knowledge of
the principles of natural law. This is exhibited in our intrinsic directedness toward the various goods that the natural law enjoins us to pursue, and we can make this implicit awareness explicit and propositional through reflection. • Aquinas believes that there is a core of practical knowledge that all humans have, although the implications of that knowledge can be hard to work out or the efficacy of that knowledge can be thwarted by strong emotion or evil dispositions. Substance of Natural Law 1. Fundamental principle of natural law is that good is to be done and evil avoided. The good for Aquinas man knows immediately by INCLINATION – that view that there are a variety of things that count as good and thus to be pursued: life, procreation, knowledge, society and reasonable conduct. 2. For Aquinas, good is what is fundamental: whether an action, or type of action, is right is logically posterior to whether that action brings about or realizes or is in some GOOD. The good is prior to the right. 3. Guidelines on how these goods are to be pursued: FIRST, there are certain ways of acting in response to the basic human goods that are intrinsically flawed; SECOND, for an act to be right, or reasonable, is for it to be an act that is in no way intrinsically flawed. 4. The important task then is to identify ways in which an act can be intrinsically flawed. HOW? Look at the features that individuate acts, such as their: OBJECTS, ENDS, CIRCUMSTANCES, etc. • Aquinas however do not believe that there are principles of conduct that can exhaustively determine right conduct – he allows for the Aristotelian insight that the particulars of the situation always outstrips one’s rules, so that one will always need the moral and intellectual virtues in order to act well. • HOWEVER, Aquinas denies that there are no principles of right conduct that hold everywhere and always, and even sometimes absolutely, for him killing of innocents is always WRONG, as is lying, adultery, sodomy and blasphemy. Aquinas and Utilitarians • Aquinas sides with utilitarians in that he believes that principles of right are grounded in principles of good. Aquinas and Kantians • Aquinas denies that the principles of right enjoin us to maximize the good – although considerations of the greater good have a role in practical reasoning, an action can be irremediably bad through badness of intention for example. And so flawed that no good consequences flow from the action that would justify it. In this he sides with Kantians. Summary of Natural Law Concepts 1. Natural law is given by God;
2. It is naturally authoritative over all human
beings; and
3. It is naturally knowable by all human
beings. 4. The good is prior to the right,
5. Right action is action that responds
nondefectively to the good, that
6. There are a variety of ways in which
action can be defective with respect to the good and that 7. Some of these ways can be captured and formulated as general rules. QUIZ QUIZ 1. What is Natural Law? Explain. (10 points) 2. What are the two main features of natural law? Explain. (10 points) 3. How is natural law known by man according to St. Thomas? (10 points) 4. According to St. Thomas, is there a principle that can determine absolutely the goodness of actions? Explain. (10 points)