E2.3 - NML

• apparent good - an action which is done for pleasure and isn't in line with our true function as rational beings
• cardinal virtues - Aquinas: prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice
• casuistry - applying principles to individual cases
• doctrine of double effect - situations where there is an intended outcome and another significant but unintentional outcome
• efficient cause - the agent of change which brings about its effect, ‘the cause’
• eschatological - relating to the afterlife
• final cause - the goal or purpose toward which a thing is oriented (telos)
• interior act - the intention behind an action
• real good - an act done for its own sake, with natural law in mind, to help us achieve our purpose (communion with God)
• secondary precepts - specific moral commands, absolute commands derived from Aquinas’s primary precepts
• theological virtues - virtues derived from the Bible: faith, hope and charity
• deontological ethics: the moral value of an action lies in the action itself, irrespective of the consequences. Based on rules that say which actions are right or wrong – right acts are performed through duty & good will
• divine command theory: an ethical theory which states that whatever God commands is good
• natural law theory: a form of divine command theory, arguing that everything in the universe shows purpose. God creates rational moral laws for us to follow which we work out using reason
• primary precepts - Aquinas' general rules which follow from natural law:

  preserve life, worship God, ordered society, reproduction, education
• synderesis (Aquinas): inclination to do good
• 4 criticisms of Aquinas' NML

  1. Relies on belief in God-given purpose – doesn't apply to atheists
  2. Hume: is-ought gap --> can't go from 'there is telos' to 'ought to follow telos' (need sentiment to bridge gap)
  3. Too rigid - leads to immoral outcomes, e.g. mother die bc no abortion
  4. Plato's Euthyphro dilemma
• give a response to Hume's criticism of NML:

  is-ought gap - can't go from 'there is telos' to 'ought to follow telos' (need sentiment to bridge gap)

  Aquinas: synderesis is the sentiment that bridges the gap - our inclination to do good
• give a response to this criticism of NML:

  Too rigid - leads to immoral outcomes, e.g. mother die bc no abortion

  Hoose proportionalism + DDE
• give a response to Plato's Euthyphro dilemma against divine command theory (NML)

  Augustine, Aquinas: God is self-limiting bc of his omnibenevolence. God can only do logically possible, can't command evil as it's against his nature ("God is love" Matthew)