Natural Moral Law Summary

v  Pre-Christian roots, found in the writings of Aristotle and Cicero

v  Most distinctive version is Aquinas’, which marries Aristotle’s virtue ethics with Christian theology.

v  Assumes reality is governed by the eternal law, where the natural and moral order exist as ‘blueprints’ in the mind of God. These principles of eternal law are revealed to humans through scripture and the Church’s teachings, but the detail of NML is worked out independently of scripture, through human reason, by which we then formulate human laws e.g., legal system.

v  Guiding principle is “good is to be done and pursued and evil is to be avoided.”

v  Reason leads us to primary precepts (to which we have a natural inclination)

Primary precepts

Ø  The preservation of life/preservation of the self

Ø  Reproduction

Ø  Education of children

Ø  Worship of God

Ø  Living in an ordered society

v  Purpose on Earth is to lead humans to happiness/complete well-being.

v  Have an ultimate focus – humanity, beatific vision of God, and for individuals in particular to fulfil their individual telos (based on their natural abilities).

v  From primary precepts we derive secondary precepts – rules that govern how we should act in specific situations.

Secondary precepts

v  Aquinas follows Aristotle’s distinction between efficient and final causes to explain the secondary precepts.

Ø  EXAMPLE: The efficient cause of sex is pleasure, whereas its final end is procreation, and any act that doesn’t lead directly to the possibility of procreation violates the nature and purpose of sex.

v  Secondary precepts are exceptionless in most cases, are the same for everyone and so aren’t relative to the culture you live in (not cultural relativism).

v  However, Aquinas does allow some flexibility in the secondary precepts, because his interpretation of ‘law’ in NML is ‘justice’ or ‘principle’ as opposed to ‘rule’ or ‘law’.

v  Aquinas argues that although primary principles are absolute, in rare cases the secondary principles can vary in relation to particular situations.

Ø   EXAMPLE: Sometimes it may not be right to repay a debt where that could lead to injury to oneself or one’s country.

v  Still ways in which we can make mistakes.

Ø  EXAMPLE: We can avoid becoming confused about the difference between real and apparent goods. We can also be careful about the difference between interior and exterior acts:

§  Someone who gives money to charity in order to be admired by others only performs a good exterior act, and not a morally good act.

v  The process of following the real good can be aided by the following virtues (particularly the cardinal virtues):

Ø  Prudence, justice, fortitude (courage)and temperance (self-control)

Ø  Combined with the theological virtues of faith, hope and love

Double Effect

v  Can use double effect to avoid making mistakes in difficult moral situations.

…