Natural Law

• Definition

  • right reason is accordance with human nature
  • deontological, focuses on the consequence
  • absolutist
  • Thomas Aquinas
  • influenced by the Stoics, Cicero, and Aristotle
  • supported by Temple
• Telos

  purpose or aim, achievable by following the 4 tiers of law and the 5 primary precepts
• Aristotle’s view on telos

  eudemonia (human happiness)
• 4 tiers of law

  1. human
  2. natural
  3. divine
  4. eternal
• Human law

  the customs and practices of society
• Eternal Law

  • most important
  • links to God
  • humans cannot understand it
• Divine Law

  the law revealed by God to humans, eg. 10 commandments
• Natural Law

  the idea that everyone is capable of doing good
• Synderesis Rule

  “to do good and avoid evil”
• 5 primary precepts

  1. Preserve life
  2. Ordered living
  3. Worship God
  4. Educate the young
  5. Reproduce
• Primary precepts

  used to lead humans to their telos
• Secondary Precepts

  more specific rules that can be deduced from primary precepts, eg. don’t have an abortion as you must reproduce and preserve life
• Strengths

  • offered clarity and firm moral principles
  • rigid, straight forward & simple
  • values life and morality, natural law states that life is intrinsically valuable regardless of usefulness
  • flexibility within the secondary precepts
• Weaknesses

  • wrong to assume that there is a universal telos
  • 5 primary precepts are not applicable to all, preventing people from reaching their telos, eg. a homosexual cannot repro naturally
  • commits naturalistic fallacy, observes what commonly happens in nature and then arguing that this must happen
  • there may not be a telos, objects are made for a specific purpose whereas humans should be free to choose their own destinies
• Anthony Kenny

  the doctrine of double effect must be part of any rational system of morality, it can be very significant in some cases
• Cicero

  “true law is right reason in agreement with nature”
• The Stoics

  we favour rationality over emotion, but to gain telos we must accept natural order
• St. Paul

  ‘it is the only law engraved on a man’s heart‘
• deontological

  focuses on the action
• 4 working principles

  1. pragmatism - prioritises success (cons, not all solutions lead to success)
  2. relativism - considers emotion (cons, hard to decide if relativist approach should be used)
  3. positivism - highlights morals (cons, monotheistic - ignores other religions)
  4. personalism - prioritises human value (cons, could lead to breaking laws)
• John Finnis

  believes we should follow our conscience
• Hugo Grotius

  believes it should be an international Governed law, should apply regardless of God
• The Hippocratic Oath

  ’do not play at God’