AS Ethics - theories

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  • Created by: Grace
  • Created on: 12-05-12 15:07

AS ETHICS - Natural Law - Aristotle said that all things have a pupose, we know our pupose through reason  -  Aquinas developed on this, he said that our purpose is to do good and avoid evil, as this is going by the moral code given by God - if we follow the moral code then will will reach our goal.

- by using reason we can discover the 5 primary precepts ( self preservation and preservation and protection of the innocent; continuation of the species through reproduction; educate children; live in society; worship good ) these are absolute moral laws, they do not change, this makes natural law objecive as emotions do not count and deontolgical as the goodness or badness is in the action.

- from the 5 precpets we can divise the seconday precepts which expand from the first 5, for example protect and preserve the innocent can give the maxim do not switch off life support machines, and reproduce means do not have an abortion. So there are fixed rules that do not ulter.

- aquinas established the difference between real and apparant goods; real good = the right thing to do - it fits to human pupose. apparant good = something which seems like the best thing to do, but isnt.

- an interior act = why we do the action. an exterior act = the action we do. Aquinas said that both must be right.

- strenghts; easy to know what is right and wrong; the basic principles are common in…

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