natural law

?
who was the theory of natural law put forward by and then who developed it ?
aristotle
thomas aquinas
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what type of theory is it?
Absolutist and deontalogical (looking at the intent behind the action and the nature of the act itself ot the outcomes)
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accordig to aquinas how do human reach happiness?
by fulfilling their telos in "summa theologica" he said 'whatever mna desires, he disires it under the aspect of god'.
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the catholic churc bases its teaching and beliefes arond who?
aquinas' natural law theory
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definition of telos
end, purpose or goal
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natural law is based on Aristotles idea that every has a what?
purpose revelaed in its design or (natuarl form)and that fulfilment of telos is the supreme good to be sought.
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natural law does not argue that morality should be based on reason alone but that human reason was a strating point for morality. SO....
moraloty should be know primarily through reason refelcting on human nature
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what did arisotole belive our purpose in nature was? how do you reach it?
happiness and the ideal life known as eudamonia and to reach it you must flourish as a human and to know how to do this you must use our REASON
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how can we use or reason to reach our telos?
if we use our reason to worl backwards form our goals to the situation we are in the momonet w ecan achieve thse goal by folowing the path our reason has helped us to make.
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what is the only good for humans?
fulfilling our purpose
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the key idea in aristotles natural law is that there is an __________ order to the changing physical world and by understanding this we can learn what is normal or ______ for someone to do or be or become(its telos). aristotle distinguished between ______
unchaning
natural
efficient
final
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what is the effiecent cause?
(the means to an end) these are the things we do to achieve soemtjing. e.g. if we wanta seed to grown we lant it water and feed it.
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what is the final cause?
(the end itslef) the telos this is what shoudl happen i we do the right thinnsg e.g. the plant should grow. accoring to natuarl law it states thta the plant should grown becuse there is something in its nature that responds to these conditions.
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with humans its the what that equates to good?
the end product and that for aristotle was flourishing and happiness (eudamonia).
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for arisiotle what is the inner principle of human nature?
REASON
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what seperates us from animals?
the human ability to reason and reflect on our own behaviour and surroundings change them in instance of our thoughts about them animals cant.
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what is 'goodness as the fulfilment of purpose'?
idea that everyting ahs some final meaning an dpurposee and this is hat determines its good.
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aquinas used arisitoles idea to argue whta?
that the world was created by god and that everything should therefore have gods ultimate 'end' or 'good'
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for aquinas what was humans proper end ?
it has been ordered by god and that is seeking union with god.
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how do humans achieve union with god?
if they follow gods will which is reflected in the natural order and purpsoe in the world they will achieve this is the afterlife
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natural law in a nutshell
the rational understanding and following of gods fianl purpose.
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what did aquinad think was the purpose ot goal of human life?
human were created in the iamge of god so they must strive ot develop this image to reach perfection which isnt possible in this life but continues ot the next. we attain this perfcetion by living a moral life then we will reach union with god.
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how did aquinas believ we could know how to live a moral lofe and so be united with god?
we use our reason excellently to reflect on what we see in human nature and thsi will give us a morla guide to live by NATURAL LAW
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the four tiers of law what are they
eternal law- gods laws created by him but are only fully known to him.
divine law- law of god reveled in god 10 commandments. Bible is the word of god so they partially reflect eternal lawbut only seen by those who believe.
natural law- the moral law of
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explain what the four teirs of law are and how they came about?
they were formaulted by aquinas and they were created to show humans the differnt types of laws in the world and give a outline by following the laws how we can achieve our telos.
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aquinas belived that god had given all humans t_________ to behave in a certian way and lead us to the h______ g___.
tendencies
highest good
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what is the first key precepts or tendency eveident in human nature?
syderesis rule- follow good aviod evil - aquinas belived that human nature is inherently good
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what can we use to discover our god given tendencies?
REASON
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what is the purpose in these god given tendencies?
to point us ot the purpose of life
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what can we further disocover from our tendencies?
PRIMARY PRECEPTS
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what do the primary precepts express?
gods natural law built into us and so we knwo how to live and how to achieve our purpose union with god/ eudamonia
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what are primary precepts?
-Preservation of life (do what ever you can to save lives )
-Reproduction (only have s*x to reproduce)
-Orederd society (everyone should live in a nice society)
-Worship God (praise and believe in god)
-Learn / educate the young (teach people and take in
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these priamry precepts are always true and are necessary for human sot flourish and reach their ?
quote
telos
"" the first principles of natural law are altogether unalterable"
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what did aquinas derive form the primary precepts?
the secondary precepts
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primary precepts are always right but seconday precepts are what ?
dependent on your own judgement of what to actually do in the given situation and so are open to faulty reasoning and can lead to teh compelety wrog choices?
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what do the secondary prectepts require from humans?
experience, reason and wisdom. you need ot apply practicle wisdom (phronesis) to work out what is good and what will lead to human perfection.
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give an exple of the primary precept and the secondary precept derived from it.
1- preservation of life
2- do not murder. do not commit euthanasia, do not abort the unborn.
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what is the most fundamental inclination of human nature?
synderesis rule - follow good aviod evil
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therefore.....
humans would not knowingly persure evil
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but sometimes humans do not seen to act in this way we get things wrong because we follow what ?
apparent good- something we think is good but we have got it wrong. we reasoned incorrcetly
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we need to reason c________ and choose the right thing to do the r___ g___. otherwise we diminish the true nature of human beings, we move away from human p_________, we fall short of our p________.
correctly
real good
perfection
potential
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how do we know what the real good is ?
using REASON excellently to reflect on humna nature that will help us know " real good" Natural Law
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what is the intention of an action know as ? and what is the act itslef known as?
interior act
exterior act
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what does aquinas say about both exterior and interior?
that both are important and need to be correct if we are to act in accordance with our true nature and to fulfill our final purpose (perfection)
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however what did aquinas about acts themselves?
that some acts are good and bad in themselves and we need ot use our reason correctly to work out what to do
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why did aquinas come up with the doctrine of double effects.
because aquinas recognised that there are times when we cannot do good without a bad consequence.
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what does the doctrine of double eefcets say?
that its always wrong to do a bad act intentionally in order to bring about a good consequence (the act itself matters) BUT sometime sits necessary to do a good act sepite knowing that it will bring about an unintended bad consequence- a second unintended
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however the unintedened bad consequence must only be the u_________ side effects.
unintended
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an example
to save a womens life ectopic pregnancy operation/ hysterectomy ona pregnant women with cancer- unntended outcome would be the death of the foetus.
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euthanasia example
a doctor treats a terminally ill patinet by giving a dose of pain killer with the intention of relieving the pain. ultimatly the pain killer cause sthe death of the patient- this was an unintended consequence of th action (even though it may have been kno
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what dosnet the DODE accept within a situation?
if it has devestating outcomes- the unintended effect has to be PROPORTIONATE. so NL then becomes like UTILATERIANISM
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in NL approaches, four condidtions are normally required in the principle of double effect what are they?
theact itslef must not be evil.
the evil and good that come from the act must be at least equal, preferably the goodd outweigh the evil.
the intention of the agent must be good. the agent must not want to bring about evil as a result.
a proportionately
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why is teh alst point so important ?
aquinas insits on proportion- as a general rule, people should not perform acts which are in any way harmful. circumstances have to be serious before we do something with bad side effects.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

what type of theory is it?

Back

Absolutist and deontalogical (looking at the intent behind the action and the nature of the act itself ot the outcomes)

Card 3

Front

accordig to aquinas how do human reach happiness?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

the catholic churc bases its teaching and beliefes arond who?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

definition of telos

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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