Natural moral law

    Cards (44)

    • Absolutism
      -moral rules are absolute and cannot change regardless of the situation
    • legalism
      -rules and laws must be followed regardless of the consequences for the development of society
    • five primary precepts
      -used the bible:
      1.self preservation
      2.reproduction
      3.educate children
      4.live in society
      5.worship god
    • secondary precepts
      1.no suicide or euthanasia or abortion
      2.do not use contraceptives
      3.faith schools
      4.establish churches
      5.do not make idols
    • natrual law
      -humans purpose is to be perfect by acting in the image of God in order to reach eternal life with him
      -Aquinas completed that God gave us preloaded toes that we were born with to know what was good and achieve our purpose
      -god created his good creation to have an intuitive desire for things that he designed for them which are the primary precepts
    • Biblical foundations
      Aquinas stated that eternal law was perceived through revelation in the form of the word of God and human reason
      -We must use all reason to apply it(secondary precepts)
    • telos
      -Natural law developed in the accordance of the purpose of human life
      -believes that we can never achieve complete or final happiness in life only union of God
      -We also need God to transform our nature so that we might be suited to participate in divine beatitud
      -We inherited a propensity of sin from Adam and Eve
    • why are the secondary precepts important?
      -When humans are faced with a moral choice, they must use reasoning to work out whether or not their action will uphold the primary precept
    • What is the principle of double effect?
      -ethical concept in acquaintances that allows for actions to be both good and bad
      -under four conditions: Act itself must be good,bad effect was not intended,good effect must be direct in outcome and outweigh Harm.
    • divine law
      -law revealed by God through structures that guide humans in achieving their ultimate purpose
    • natural law
      Part of eternal law, moral order inherit in nature
    • human law
      -Specific laws should line with natural law and divine law to ensure justice and common good
    • eternal law
      God’s overall plan for the universe and unchanging foundation of all laws
    • natural law vs voluntary euthanasia
      -It violates the primary precepts intentionally
      -according to natural law, ‘humans beings do not have the right to directly take their own life’
      -The problem of human dignity, expensive, principle of double effect, it may reject someone’s autonomy
    • strengths
      -Gives a naturalistic account of the reality
      -Universal set of laws that can be applied by everyone
      -provides a rational account of morality
      -Clear and informative
      -explanatory power
      -Easily applicable
      -comprehensive because it identified a wide range of purposes that contribute to human flourishing
    • Strength of Doctrine of double effect
      -Provides principal justification in moral Gray areas
      -Provide a straightforward test that can be applied anywhere
      -Acknowledges the moral importance of both intentions and outcomes
      -some dilemmas utilitarianism cannot explain this because consequences are the same so doctrine provides intuitive moral judgements
    • weaknesses
      -It is reductive because it reduces human life to fulfilling a fix set of fixed goals
      -it makes false generalisations about human nature
      -It commits a naturalistic fallacy
      -too idealistic
      -Hetoonormative
      -Product of its time
      -Contrary to Christian Principles
    • weakness of doctrine of double effect
      -Criticise by doctors
      -Un pragmatic
      -Open to abuse
      -counterintuitive
    • quote
      ‘Do good and aviod evil’
    • other support for natrual law
      -Aquinas thinking has had a major influence on catholic teaching
      -many other things support the theory of natural law, including John Locke, Aristotle and William Paley
    • human end goal
      -eudaimonia -Aristotle believe that this end is happiness
      -Believe that this sort of happiness cannot be achieved in the world but only once we are reunited with God
    • Natural human disaster to do good
      Aquinas believe that humans naturally want to do good and through their ability to reason can work out the correct course of action
    • AQUINAS BOOK
      -summa theologica
    • Mill
      -says the divine law of the bible, especially the old testament was clearly only relevant in an ancient time
      • It is outdated. In Aquinas’ time, his reasoning made sense – but that was because of the dire situation society was in.
    • aquinas counteracts mill
      -he would say that the precepts come from god so cant be outdated, if society thinks they are outdated then aquinas would say our society is wrong!
    • modern science rejection
      -There’s no scientific evidence for Photos science can explain everything in the universe without needing the concept of purpose
    • Francis bacon
      -claimed that the concepts were tell us was on unscientific
    • polkinghorne
      -are use at science can explain the what but not the Y
      -He claims when do you need the concept of purpose to explain why the universe exist in the way it does? Science can’t explain that.
    • Russell
      -Russell would counteract purpose as there is no why the universe could be brute fact
    • Richard dawkin
      -argued the moral sense Partly came from evolution
    • aquinas vs karl Barth
      -catholics tend to follow natural law as they argue it’s a foundation in natural theology view that humans can gain knowledge of God for revelation throughout mind
      -Barth rejects natural theology as it has a dangerous over reliance on human reason
      -reason is corrupt by original sin original sin might not have totally destroyed reason but it does make it unreliable
      -he concluded we should solely rely on faith in the bible
    • Key quote aquinas
      ‘natural law belongs everything to which a man is inclined according to his nature’
      -’man’ showing universal
    • What is natraul law
      -based on belief that the world and human life has a purpose given by god
      -based on belief that the world has a natural order, designed by god
      -based on belief that god is the creator of all things. We do not create morality but discover it
      -god has created a moral law in human nature- which is universal and discoverable through use of human reason
    • synderesis principle
      -we have an innate drive and impulse to ‘do good and avoid evil.’
      we do this by following the 5 primary precepts and by doing so you will full fill our florishing
      -aquinas believed that all humans are by nature disposed to do good (Augustine would disagree)
    • aristotles influence
      -aquinas was hugely influenced by his ideas and he incorporated many
      -telos-(everything having a telos)-god given
      -eudaemonia- (human flourishing-fulfilment of your potential)-primary precepts
      -reason-(he believed taht our human ability to reason is what distinguishes us from animals and plants)- secondary precepts
    • Real goods
      -are those that lead to fulfilling our god-given purpose and ultimately achieving eudaimonia
    • apparent goods
      -humans are flawed and fall short of gods intentions for them. they confuse what seems to be good with what is good.
      • augustine would like this
    • why does aquinas use primary precepts
      so there is no ambiguity with what is good and what isn’t
    • weak
      -human flourishing is subjective, each person has their own idea of this
      -so is he wrong for saying its universal
      -some could be outdated
    • John Finnis
      -modern development of natural law
      -belived that ethics should be about facilitating human flourishing
      -BASIC GOODS- life,knowledge,play,aesthetic experience,socability, practical reason, spirituality
      -more comprehensive and complete, doesn’t depend in god (more attractive)
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