Natural Moral Law

Deontological - this means ‘duty’ in Greek, it is to fulfil moral obligations. The belief that consequences and circumstances are irrelevant and all acts are either intrinsically right or wrong.

Absolutist – this means there are universal moral norms that apply to all situations regardless. The same rules for all of humanity.

Legalistic – this is law based with no flexibility, it must be followed to obtain eternal life. It is not subjective, only the objective goods that are known and trusted.

1. Eternal Law: established by god at the universes creation and it the most authoritative and absolute law that cannot be violated. They are only known fully by God, for example the laws of nature.

2. Divine Law: in the Bible and Scripture, from God, it is his literal truth. It I also authoritative and absolute and cannot violate law 1. It is subject to the laws of creation and revealed by God e.g. Decalogue.

3. Natural Law: derived from rational thought, by the God given gift of right reason (recta ratio). Is used to achieve the highest good which is rational understanding of Gods final purpose. Our reason is not superior to God.

4. Human Law: established by human reason in society and is relative to society. It is subject to all above laws.

• Aquinas believed it possible to go out into the world, look for physical, sensory evidence of God and reason from this towards religious conclusions.

• Aquinas claimed we were designed by God to be rational creatures and that we should use this nature to discover truths about god.

• Through reason all men can know their God given purpose and determine the right way to live. This is ‘right reason’ or recta ratio.  

• It is the highest good to use our reason to understand and follow God’s purpose.

• Everything can be sought and found directly from the world of senses. Also everything that exists has a purpose and if it performs according to its natural intended purpose it is good.

•  Everything has 4 causes: The material cause, the efficient cause, formal cause and the final cause, e.g. ingredients, the chef, the idea, goal to be eaten.

Everything a person does is directed to an aim:

Subordinate Aims = lesser aims that all lead us to a greater aim

Superior Aim = one final aim toward which all else is aimed.

For example, sex. The subordinate aims of this are for pleasure and partnership. The superior aim is to reproduce.

• The efficient and final causes are God and the purpose of creation

• The purpose of creation according to Aquinas us to achieve eternal fellowship with God by doing good and avoiding evil.

• All created things serve God. Humans will only find true fulfilment in life when they choose to serve God because by doing so they will be doing what they were created for.

• True happiness for Aquinas lies in serving God.

These are derived from rational thought, based on the premise of doing good and avoiding evil.

Primary

Are an outline of the purpose of human life, via reason and they demonstrate how to achieve our telos. They are absolute and binding it is our duty to obey. They run in accordance to scripture and are available to our reasoning faculties.

Secondary

These are examples to illustrate the primary and help us fulfil them by demonstrating them. They’re more relative, like rulings that uphold or fail to uphold the primary. They’re deduced from the primary precepts and are formulated in accordance to situation or culture.

Protect the Innocent           >                           Do not abort/ do not murder

Order society                        >                           Marry

Worship God                         >                          Obey the Decalogue

Educate                                  >                           School for all

Reproduce                             >                           Never use contraception

• Identified in Divine Law as given to us by God

• Vital to keep the primary’s always
• They are absolute and inviolable

• Secondary’s are more relativist and relatable to specific situations, if they uphold the primary, the act is justified

• They all aim to produce the telos of eternal fellowship with God

• This is the highest good and is established via reason

Via reason and are available to all and facilitate good decision making. Give skills and strength needed to make the rationally correct decision.

1. Prudence – wisdom, making use of reason correctly

2. Temperance – moderation, resisting excesses. Sobriety and restraint. The ability to purify and refine physical pleasures

3. Fortitude/ courage – discipline, patience, endurance and perseverance in face of difficult circumstances, including physical moral and spiritual. It encourages nobility of character

4. Justice – our actions to others. This is not equality for all, but recognising individual needs, relative to circumstance and need. E.g. a person in poverty requires more justice that a rich man

• These are articles of faith, made known to us by God. They are superlative and define and direct all others, they’re absolute and perfect. They are aspirational and cannot be fully achieved in this world. The final and absolute end, our telos, is supernatural union with God, a state of perfect happiness.

Faith – this is more than intellectual acknowledgment, it is an act of will and trust in God

Hope – constant and consistent trust is achieving the beatific vision. Like an inspired positive state of being, a spiritual energy. A pure form of desire focused on the highest aim alone.

Love or agape – greatest love. Love for God is reflected in love for the neighbour. It actively directs all other virtues towards God, 1 Corinthians 13, without love all other virtues are meaningless. It incorporates the gift of wisdom.

For Aquinas, it is important in our moral activity that both the intention, our motive, for acting is a good one. For example, giving to charity is a good act, but if our intention is to make ourselves look good, that intention is wrong and not drawing us toward our final purpose

To do a bad act, even for a good motive or intention also draws us away from our purpose and therefore is bad.

E.g. to help an old lady across the road (good exterior act) to impress someone (bad interior act) is wrong.

True goodness for a human being lies in achieving both interior and exterior acts that are good.

Aquinas suggests that humans never knowingly choose evil and when they do they are choosing apparent goods and simply deviating from the right path.

Real good - known by recta ration, they are absolute and always in accordance with the precepts and are deontological. The virtues aid in identifying them. They are objective and will help us achieve our highest good.

Apparent good – seemingly good but are bad. They are mistakes in reasoning, subjective and appeal to emotion. They are not in accordance with divine law and stop our telos.

E.g. the adulterer believes what they are doing is good as it gives them pleasure (apparent good) when in fact, they are breaking precepts of worshipping God and order in society. They should remain in their marriage and reproduce, their purpose (real good).

Aquinas understood that any moral action could produce more than one effect. A good act with good intention may sometimes result in a bad consequence. But it is still right to do that act. The intention is the key aspect, so long that it is good, the bad consequence does not make it morally wrong.

E.g. a pregnant woman undergoing cancer treatment to save her life subsequently destroys the unborn foetus. The death was not the intention of the act, but a side effect of saving her life. This act is good and morally right.