Natural Moral Law
- Created by: TheAwesomeOne
- Created on: 09-04-15 01:14
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- Natural Moral Law
- Primary Purposes
- Key features
- The Universe was created by God - this means everything has a purpose ('telos')
- This purpose can be understood through an examination of the natural world and from the Bible
- God gave humans reason and freedom - God's purpose for humans was for them to choose to follow good
- This is called natural law - the rational understanding and following of God's purpose
- God gave humans reason and freedom - God's purpose for humans was for them to choose to follow good
- This purpose can be understood through an examination of the natural world and from the Bible
- The Universe was created by God - this means everything has a purpose ('telos')
- Purposes of Life (Aquinas)
- to live (self preservation)
- to reproduce
- to learn (be educated)
- to worship God
- to live in an ordered society
- Aquinas thought humans were naturally inclined to do these things
- Key features
- Seconds Precepts
- rules about things we should/ shouldn't do because they follow/ do not follow the primary purposes
- eg: Purpose = to reproduce
- precept = do not abort
- precept = do not use contraception
- precept = homosexuality is wrong
- Real and Apparent Goods
- human nature is essentially good as natural law is within everyone
- humans are orientated around perfection and so, never knowingly pursue evil
- to correctly distinguish been real and apparent goods is to use to use reason to choose the right thing to do
- you develop your virtues through practise
- "theological" virtues = faith, hope, charity.
- '"natural"/ "cardinal" virtues = prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice
- Reason and Human Purpose
- Reason (divine reason) - perceived thing revelation from scriptures and through human reason
- ultimate purpose is fellowship with God
- Human should do good and avoid evil
- to become an ultimately good person, you need religion and reason
- Exterior and Interior Motives
- intention and act are both important
- act is more important
- performing a goo act for the wrong reasons = good exterior act but bad interior act
- Aquinas only values God as the "only end"
- act are intrinsically good or bad, otherwise God s glorified when humans act accriding to their ultimate purpoe
- intention and act are both important
- Alternatives to NML
- Proporionalism
- advocated by Richard McCormick and Bernard Hoose
- recognises the importance of reflecting human nature to reveal general moral law
- does not believe that natural law is always absolute binding
- sometimes, a situation will demand putting NML aside for the sake of the greater proportionate good
- even if this may unavoidably entail committing ontic evil
- ontic evil = an act that is wrong but not immoral. (eg: eating a rotten apple)
- even if this may unavoidably entail committing ontic evil
- ontic evil = an act that is wrong but not immoral. (eg: eating a rotten apple)
- in a proportionate situation, the morals goes out of the window and the greater good goes against the immorality
- eg: Kosovo women who were ***** by Serbian soldiers during 1999 were given the morning-after pill by the United Nations peace keeping forces
- NML - morning after pill is wrong as the contraception hinders the primary purpose of procreation
- Proportionalism - give the pill as it is better to prevent the pregnancy from the ****, it is a better god
- Proporionalism
- Critiques of NML
- Naturalistic Fallacy
- GE Moore
- Aquinas' "goodness" =will of God as seen through nature
- According to Moore, "good" is a simple, non-natural, indefinable quality - it cannot be defined or understood, unless it has been experienced (like the colour yellow)
- There is the naturalistic fallacy (a natural mistake) by thinking that "good" be analysed in terms of some other property
- Is-Ought Gap
- David Hume
- Is statements = descriptive = statements about the way things are
- Ought statements = prescriptive = statements about the way things should be
- Hume states that we cannot jump fro a factual statement to a morally prescriptive statement
- Natural Law is therefore problematic for Hume as it depends on a close relationship between what actually exists (the purpose of nature)and what ought to be done to achieve that purpose
- Hugo Grotius
- provided a secular theory of human rights
- emphasises individual rights and a potentially secular nature of NML
- shifted the emphasis of NML away from the idea of collective responsibility for human purpose
- emphasises the role of the individual as an independent moral agent
- Naturalistic Fallacy
- deontological = focuses on whether acts are intrinsically right or wrong
- teleological = focuses on the end goal (telos)
- Four types of law (Aquinas)
- Eternal - God's will and wisdom, and rational ordering of the universe
- divine - given in scripture and through church. guides humans to happiness
- natural - the source of fulfilment on earth
- human positive law is derived
- Primary Purposes
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