Aquinas' Four Tiers of Law - Natural Law

Just the key points about Aquinas' Four Tiers of Law (in relation to the natural moral law).

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Eternal Law

  • Represents the absolute and eternal aspects of natural moral law. 
  • Represents how natural law will be the same regardless of society/change over time. 
  • Means that natural law is absolute and unchanging. It is a fixed set of rules and that's that. 
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Divine Law

  • God is an influence of natural law. 
  • Although we do not follow the commands of God. 
  • God superficially reveals to us the natural law, e.g the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. 
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Natural Law

  • Where humans becomes distinct from animals. 
  • We have the ability to reason (which God gave us). 
  • Whether we follow natural law or not is all a part of our reasoning. 
  • Even if we don't have Holy Scripture to be able to follow, we can use our reason to still act in a morally good manner. 
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Human Law

  • A bit like the precept ''live in society''. 
  • Manifestation of natural law in our day to day lives. 
  • Social rules which we must abide by. 
  • Natural law is timeless since it can apply to any society. 
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Additional Ideas

  • While Aquinas argued we have a pre determined purpose, many other existentialists such as Jean Paul Sartre argue for ''existence precedes essence''. In other words, your existence is already determined but whether you achieve your telos or not is subject to experience and living in the world. 
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Additional Ideas

  • While Aquinas argued we have a pre determined purpose, many other existentialists such as Jean Paul Sartre argue for ''existence precedes essence''. In other words, your existence is already determined but whether you achieve your telos or not is subject to experience and living in the world. 
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