Natural Moral Law

• Natural law ethics goes back to Aristotle and his theory of telos; that everything has a nature which directs it towards a particular end goal.
• Aquinas Christianised this idea, adding that it is the Christian God who set a thing’s telos according to his omnibenevolent plan for the universe.
• Christian ethics is most associated with the commands and precepts found in the Bible.
• Aquinas’ contribution was to argue that telos is also a source of Christian moral principles.
• Human nature has the God given ability to reason which comes with the ability both to intuitively know primary moral precepts and to apply them to moral situations and actions.
• Following this ‘natural law’ is thus also an essential element of living a moral life.
• Aquinas was influenced by Aristotle’s views that there is a natural end to all beings.
• Everything has a purpose ( telos ) built into it by its nature.
• The nature of a thing determines the behaviours that are ‘natural’ to it.
• An acorn naturally grows into an oak tree, because of its inherent nature.
• Aristotle thought the final cause of all things was the prime mover, Aquinas claimed that it was the Christian God.
• The telos/end/goal of rational beings is the goodness of God, which for us involves glorifying God by following God’s moral law.
• Ethics is therefore about using reason to discover the natural law within our nature and conforming our actions to it.
• God designed the universe to operate according to his divine plan by instilling telos in every being, to direct it towards its good end.
• Human beings are unique in that we have free will and are thus capable of either following or rebelling against the divine plan.
• Following God’s natural law results in flourishing (eudaimonia) both for individuals and society.
• Disobeying what is naturally good for us has the opposite effect.
• The light of reason is placed by nature in every man, to guide him in his acts towards his end.
• The ultimate source of moral goodness and thus law is God’s omnibenevolent nature, which created and ordered the universe with a divine plan, known as the eternal law.
• God’s plan, built into the nature of everything which exists, according to his omnibenevolent nature, is known as the eternal law.
• The divine law – God’s revelation to humans in the Bible, is a lesser law that derives from the eternal law.
• The natural law – The moral law God created in human nature, discoverable by human reason, is a lesser law that derives from the eternal law.
• Human law – The laws humans make which should be based on the natural and divine law, gains its authority by deriving from the natural and divine law which themselves ultimately derive authority from God’s nature.
• The primary precepts & synderesis are foundational ‘first principles’ of God’s natural moral law, discovered by reason.
• Reason is a power of the human soul, synderesis is the habit or ability of reason to discover foundational ‘first principles’ of God’s natural moral law.
• Following God’s natural law is necessary for societal flourishing.
• Atheism can deprive people of “spiritual and human resources” and the atheist worldview is that we are a “lost atom in a random universe”, in which case we can grow and evolve, but not really develop morally.
• Natural law ethics is outdated because Aquinas’ theory was actually a reaction to his socio-economic context and since that has changed, Natural law is no longer relevant.
• Excluding God, religion and virtue from public life leads to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a ‘reductive vision of the person and his destiny’
• Conservative Catholics argue that natural law is not outdated because it serves an important function without which society flourishes less.
• Self-interest and materialistic consumerism is all modern society has to offer by way of meaning and purpose in societies that abandon traditional moral principles like the primary precepts.
• Secular liberal western culture is ethically retrograde because of its abandonment of traditional moral principles like the primary precepts.
• Humanism open to the Absolute can guide us in the promotion and building of forms of social and civic life without exposing us to the risk of becoming ensnared by the fashions of the moment.
• The strength of religion as a form of social organisation is also its greatest weakness as it creates a strong motivation to follow its ethical precepts which become inflexible and painstakingly difficult to progress.
• The good effect must be at least equivalent to the bad effect in the proportionality condition of the double effect.
• Mental illness increases in societies that abandon traditional moral principles like the primary precepts.
• Aquinas claims that such actions can be justified the good effect is intended while the bad effect is “beside the intention”.
• The idea that the resulting principles actually came from God was only in Aquinas’ imagination.
• The good effect must be intended and the bad effect must be ‘besides the intention’ in the double effect.
• Marriages are fewer and less successful in societies that abandon traditional moral principles like the primary precepts.