Aquinas’ natural law and precepts

Absolutist 

• this means actions are morally good or bad in themselves, NL is absolutist as god ordained all actions either good or bad in themselves 

deontological 

• the 'action' only should be judged righ or wrong when deciding the morality of an action, Nl is deontological as it mostly judges actions and will have rules 

teleological 

• right and wrong should be judged by the 'end purpose' of our action, NL has elements that are teleological 

1. Eternal law = god created, set and governs all laws that control the whole universe but only god can fully know these eternal laws because human brains do not have the capacity to hold all his knowledge 

2. Divine law = Law revealed through the bible 

3. Natural law = we have innate (born with)  human reason

4. Human law = human law is the law we live by in our daily lives 

EVEN DOGS NEED HUGS

• God created, set and governed all moral laws and only god can fully know these laws
• "natural law is the law written on all our hearts"
• using our innate reason we can reason out gods ultimate end-purpose for humanity, the reason for being 

• Aquinas belived that the ultimate end purpose for all humanity was to gain post-Mortem eternal life in heaven with god and re-establish the right relationship with god 
• atonement - being at one with god - get to heaven 

• Humanity can achieve the end purpose by achieveing the highest good which is a moral agents ultimate end purpose 
• humanities highest good was to 'become more like god" as "natural law is the law written on all our hearts"
• he are all born with the ability to become more like god 
• therefore NL acts as a guide to become more like god

• Key precept = "do good and avoid evil', to follow gods character we should follow gods rules on morality 
• primary precepts = the universe and humans were designed with purpose such as natural inclinations , the five primary precepts are: preservation, orderly living, worship god, education, reproduction 
• Secondary precepts = these work on the reasoned idea that any action that breaks a primary precept is wrong and any action that upholds a primary precept is good