Natural Moral Law
- Created by: Je33annie
- Created on: 28-01-18 15:47
The Five Primary Precepts
- Worship God - Build a relationship with God
- Ordered Society - Live in an ordered society
- Reproduce - Continue your bloodline in your offspring
- Learn - learn about the world and God
- Defend the Innocent (and protect life) -Protect and preserve life
Aristotle's Theory of Causation
- Material - Made of?
- Formal - Shared qualities
- Efficient - Caused by?
- Final - Purpose/goal
Main Guiding Principle
''Do good and avoid evil''
How:
1) 5 Primary Precepts
2) Secondary Precepts
3) Laws
4)Double Effect and Proportionalism
Laws
Eternal: From God and applies to all
Divine: Revealed in scripture like the Bible
NML: Discovered through human reason
Human: Our legal systems
Double Effect
What: Doing something morally good with a bad side effect is ethically allowed providing the side effect was not intended-Aquinas
Rules:
1- The good result is achieved independantly of the bad.
2- The action must be proportional to the cause
3- The nature of the act itself is good or morally neutral
4-It must try to minimise harm
e.g// A doctor giving drugs to a patient even though the drugs may shorten life. The doctor is not intentionally killing the patient, this is a side effect of the pain relief.
Proportionalism
What: You choose the lesser of two evils by weighing up the good and the necessary evils caused by the action chosen.
e.g// The inquiring murderer(Kant)
e.g//The pope allowing the use of condoms in Africa in order to stop the spread of AIDS despite the action going against catholicism as condoms prohibit reproduction
Strengths and Weaknesses of Double Effect
Strengths:
-Some flexibility
-Interested in intention, makes people explore intention before acting
-Valid way to promote good end
Weaknesses:
-Logic can be flawed
-Ignores numbers, cant sacrifice 1 to save 1000- against common sense
-If we need it, NML must be flawed in flexibility
-Not practical to go through all the rules before making a decision
-Subjective
Strengths and Weaknesses of Proportionalism
Strengths:
-Existed a long time, fairly robust
-Part of 'just war' theory
-Based on common sense such as lieing to save a life
-Widely used
Weaknesses:
-Condemned by Catholic Church on the grounds itdenies any act can be intrinsically evil
-Acts such as **** can be commited, this is intrinsically evil
-Principle VS Practice- good in theory but hard to put into practice
Real and Apparent Goods
Real good: Glorifies God, is good in action and good in reason
e.g// Man giving to charity to help the charity.
Apparent good: Pulls you away from God, good in action, wrong in reason
e.g// Man giving to charity for glorification.
Interior Act: Thought (reason)
Exterior Act: Action
Cardinal and Theological Virtues
Cardinal :
Prudence
Temperance
Fortitude
Justice
Theological:
Love
Hope
Faith
Secondary Precepts
What: Secondary Precepts are derived from the primary precepts and are usually found within our laws, for example ''Do not kill''
Strengths: Add Flexibility to NML
Weaknesses: Are Culturally Relative, what may be a secindary precept in one culture is not the same in another e.g// Gun laws in America VS Gun laws in the UK
Strengths of NML
- Flexible
- Fair to all, all treated the same in every situation
- Objective
- Doesnt allow emotion to be mixed into decisions
- Gives the individual autonomy
- Values life very highly
Weaknesses of NML
- Simplistic- Vardy and Grosch (Purpose of sex)
- Need to believe in God
- Science could give us purpose
- Secondary Precepts are culturally relative
- Jesus opposes the legalistic set up
- Proportionalism and double effect are not always helpful
- Doesnt change with the times - isnt modern
- Kant- Lying is always wrong
- Kai Neilson: there is no common human nature e,g// Eskimos kill the vulnerable. This rebutes the strength that NML is fair to all and everyone is treated the same.
Attitude to Lying
- Violates Primary Preceot of living in an ordered society: cant be ordered if everyone lies ot eachother
- Breaks Aquinas' emphasis on virtues of Courage and Justice
- Aquinas said it is not lawful to lie to save a life
- HOWEVER: You can withhold the truth, for eample with the inquiring murderer, Aquinas may respond with''I saw him at the shop two hours ago'' This states the exact truth without revealing the truth the murderer wants to hear.
Attitude to Theft
- Breaks the Primary Precept of living in an ordered society and the Secondary Precept ''Do not steal'', which can also be called a divine law as it is a commandement given to Moses.
- HOWEVER: Aquinas said it would be lawful for a man to steal in order to save his life as it is in accordance with the Primary Precept to preserve life and protect the innocent.
Casuistry
- General principles of natural law are applied to specific cases and are used for any sytem that start with fixed principles and then applies them logically to situations
Type of Theory
- NML was put forward by Aquinas, it is a deontological and teleological system as the five primary princples are teleological goals and the secondary precepts are deontological rules. It is an absoloute system meaning it applies to everyone at all times with no exceptions.
- Aquinas determined that the ultimate purpose for human life is fellowship with God, NML exists to help humans direct their actions in such a way that we may reach eternal destiny with God
Related discussions on The Student Room
- OCR A-Level Religious Studies Paper 2 (H573/02) 19th June 2023 [Exam Chat] »
- OCR A Level Religious Studies Religion and ethics H573/02 - 14 Jun 2022 [Exam Chat] »
- Aqa a level philosophy and ethics (rs) paper 2 christianity and dialogues 2023 »
- Edexcel A-level Religious Studies Paper 1 (9RS0 01) - 12th June 2023 [Exam Chat] »
- OCR A-level Religious Studies Paper 2 (H573/02) - 17th June 2024 [Exam Chat] »
- Eduqas A-level Religious Studies 1 (A120UA0-1-A120UF0-1) & 2 (A120U20-1) [Exam Chat] »
- OCR A Level Law Paper 3 »
- Would you end all human life instantly if you could? »
- AQA A Level Philosophy Paper 1 7172/1 - 19 May 2022 [Exam Chat] »
- Religious studies eduqas A-level A02 30 marker structure help »
Comments
No comments have yet been made