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
• Telos


  The natural end or purpose of a thing, according to its nature
• Aquinas Christianised the idea of telos, adding that it is the Christian God who set a thing's telos according to his omnibenevolent plan for the universe
• Christian ethics


  Most associated with the commands and precepts found in the Bible
• Aquinas' contribution


  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 natural law


  An essential element of living a moral life
• Eternal law


  God's plan, built into the nature of everything which exists, according to his omnibenevolent nature
• Divine law


  God's revelation to humans in the Bible
• Natural law


  The moral law God created in human nature, discoverable by human reason
• Human law


  The laws humans make which should be based on the natural and divine law
• Synderesis


  The habit or ability of reason to discover foundational 'first principles' of God's natural moral law
• Synderesis rule


  The first principle that the good is what all things seek as their end/goal (telos)
• Primary precepts


  • Worship God
  • Live in an orderly society
  • Reproduce
  • Educate
  • Protect and preserve human life
  • Defend the innocent
• Conscientia


  The ability of reason to apply the primary precepts to situations or types of actions
• Interior act


  Our intention; what we deliberately choose to do
• Exterior act


  The physical action itself, occurring outside of our mind
• A good exterior act without a good interior act does not glorify God because it is not done with the intention of fulfilling the God-given goal/telos of our nature
• Modern science's rejection of final causation

  Undermines the concept of telos
• Strength of natural law

  • It is based on universal human nature, as evidenced by the cross-cultural similarities in moral prescriptions
• Weakness of natural law

  • We find vastly different moral beliefs across cultures, suggesting moral views are influenced by social conditioning rather than a universal natural law
• Aquinas acknowledges that there are many reasons we might fail to do good despite having an orientation towards it, such as original sin, mistakes in conscientia, lacking virtue and a corrupt culture
• Strength of Aquinas' ethics

  • Its basis in a realistic and balanced view of human nature as containing both good (reason & telos) and bad (original sin)
• Strength of Aquinas' natural theology

  • It adds an engagement with autonomy to Christian ethics, arguing that God gave humans reason so that they may use it
• Cross-cultural similarities in moral codes might also have resulted from a biologically evolved moral sense rather than one designed by a God, which would mean they are not related to morality or telos at all.
• Aquinas' Natural theology


  The view that human reason is capable of knowing God, in this case God's moral law
• Strength of Aquinas' ethics

  • Its basis in a realistic and balanced view of human nature as containing both good (reason & telos) but also bad (original sin)
  • Natural law adds an engagement with autonomy to Christian ethics
• Weakness of Aquinas' Natural theology

  • It places a dangerous overreliance on human reason
  • Karl Barth's argument that after the Fall our ability to reason became corrupted by original sin
• Sometimes, with God's grace, our reason can discover knowledge of God's existence and natural moral law. So, natural moral law and natural theology is valid.
• Aquinas has a balanced and realistic view, that our nature contains both good and bad and it is up to us to choose rightly.
• Humanity's belief that it has the ability to know anything of God is the same arrogance that led Adam and Eve to disobey God. Humanity believing that it has the power to figure out right and wrong is what led to the arrogant certainty of the Nazis in their own superiority.
• The arrogance of natural theology is evidence of a human inability to be humble enough to solely rely on faith.
• Strength of Natural law ethics

  • Its availability to everyone because all humans are born with the ability to know and apply the primary precepts
  • Regarding those who do not belong to Abrahamic religion, the Bible says "Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires … God's law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right"
• Secularists often argue that biblical morality (divine law) is primitive and barbarous, showing it comes from ancient human minds, not God.
• Aquinas' Natural law ethics is criticised as outdated for the same reason. Medieval society was more chaotic, so strict absolutist ethical principles were needed to prevent society from falling apart.
• The socio-economic conditions have changed, so the primary precepts are no longer useful. Society can now afford to gradually relax the inflexible rules without social order being threatened.
• Conservative Catholics argue that natural law is not outdated because it serves an important function without which society flourishes less. They argue that secular liberal western culture is ethically retrograde because of its abandonment of traditional moral principles like the primary precepts.
• Excluding God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a 'reductive vision of the person and his destiny'.
• 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.
• An ideological rejection of God and an atheism of indifference, oblivious to the Creator and at risk of becoming equally oblivious to human values, constitute some of the chief obstacles to development today. A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism.