Aquinas -Natural Law

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  • Aquinas - Natural Law
    • Types of LAW
      • Eternal Law: The mind of God, which humans cannot know. It is the law which governs the universe.
        • Will not lead us to perfection in this life, as it can only be achieved after death,
      • Divine Law: Law of God revealed to us by the Bible. Christians call is "Word of God".
      • NATURAL LAW: This is what directs are conscience, and if applied with reason, will lead to the right outcome.
      • Human Law: Everyday rules which govern our society e.g. the legal system
    • Ideas form Aristotle
      • Efficient cause: Aquinas show God as the efficient cause, The power that brought everything into existence
      • Final Cause: explains the nature of the will itself, to achieve Essence. 'Telos' fulfilled when does what God wants.
    • ' good is to be done and pursued and evil is to be avoided'
    • Precepts
      • Worship God
        • Set one day aside to pray for God (Sabbath)
      • Ordered Society:
        • The reason for police and government. Reason for Human LAW
      • Repoduce
        • Do not masterbate, it is a misuse of genatilia
        • Do not have an abortion
      • Learn
        • Education is free
        • Fahrenheit 9/11 - young men going to war instead of going into higher education
      • Defend the innocent
        • Do not commit sucide
        • Do not allow ethanasia
    • Goods
      • Apparent Good
        • Good which merely seems good; it satisfies a desire sufficiently to become an object of choice.
        • It is not morally right, since it does not conform to the purpose of man as a whole.
      • Real Good
        • Real goods are in line with our telos, and help towards the Primary Precepts.
        • Arrived through the use of reason by Natural Law
    • Acts
      • Interior: Concerned with the intention
        • Good intentions do not always result in good actions.
          • E,g if you help a friend with an abortion, Intentions may be good, but action is bad.
      • Exterior: the act itself
        • Deontological
    • Doctrine of Double Effect:
      • This doctrine says that if doing something morally good has a morally bad side-effect it's ethically OK to do it providing the bad side-effect wasn't intended.
      • If the victim's intent is to save his or her own life and not to kill his or her attacker  then self-defense, he reasoned, is justified and allowable
    • REASON
      • Aquinas championed the use of reason
        • Allows us to reach the ultimate goal - a union with God.

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davahna

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This is really useful, thank you!

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