NML

• the four fold division of law

  
  

  eternal law, divine law, natural law, human law
• real and apparent goods

  -aquinas says that all humans have the desire to do good but sometimes we sin due to delight or wrong reason

  -for example adultery may seem good because it feels good but it is actually a morally wrong action as it involves betrayal, lies etc so thats an apparent good

  -a real good would be a truly moral action
• five primary precepts

  -live peacefully in an ordered society
• doctrine of double effect

  an action can have two consequences, one desired and intended and one undesired and unintended

  the principle says that performing an action with a bad outcome may be permissible as long as said outcome is unintended

  -eg, aquinas says that killing in self defense is justified as long as it was the unavoidable result of the force necessary to save your own life
• proportionalism

  -a proportionate reason can justify an action that goes against the primary precepts, although it would have to be sufficiently unusual and of sufficient magnitude to overturn these rules and only on a case to case basis

  -aquinas gives the example of life saving theft, if you're starving its morally permissible to steal food
• primary precept

  -nurture and educate the young
• primary precept

  -preserve innocent human life
• primary precept

  -reproduce
• primary precept

  -worship god
• secondary precepts

  -rules derived from the primaries like gay sex is wrong because it doesn't result in reproduction
• the fourfold division of law

  -eternal law- the moral order from god that existed before the universe
• the four fold division of law

  -divine law- the moral order revealed through revelation like scripture and church
• the four fold division of law

  -natural law- the moral order discovered in nature via human reason-
• the four fold division of law

  human law- the legal system composed from our understanding of natural law
• doctrine of double effect four conditions

  nature of the act must be good or neutral- lying and killing innocents cannot be justified through double effect
• doctrine of double effect four conditions

  -the intention must be to achieve the good effect, the bad effect has to be unintended
• doctrine of double effect four conditions

  -the good effect must be at least equal/proportional to the bad
• doctrine of double effect four conditions

  -the bad effect cant be the means eg you cant torture life saving information about a terrorist attack out of somebody, thats morally wrong
• proportionalism

  -does not apply to lying! although modern proportionalists would generally argue that if stealing can be okay to save a life then lying can too-modern proportionalists also argue that the morality of an act depends on both the proportion of value to disvalue and the intention of the agent, no act is intrinsically evil it needs weighing up
• interior and exterior acts

  interior is the intention behind something, exterior is the actual action.

  you can have one w/out the other, eg charity for clout is good exterior but not interior
• human telos

  humanities purpose is to reach happiness (flourishing) and to achieve this we need the beautific image of god
• strengths

  • clear cut approach to morality w/ rules to follow. appeals to objectivism and allows for quick response during crisis
• weaknesses

  • gives the wrong answers lol
• strengths

  • gives a reason to be moral via the human telos stuff
• strengths

  • worship god precept inst strictly necessary
• strengths

  flexible through secondary precepts / dode / proportionalism
• weaknesses

  • proportionalism's existence suggests that nml is flawed, why have rules that are subject to be broken?
• weaknesses

  • too simplistic, cant deal w/ specifics or modern situations
• weaknesses

  • isnt actually that quick in a crisis, dode and proportionalism take a while to parse out
• weaknesses

  • he says you don't need worship god but you totally do bro is a liar
• deontological


  ethical theory based on duty, obligation, rules
• An ethical theory put forward by Aquinas which is (approximately) deontological and is based on a series of primary precepts.
• weakness

  how do you decide which precept to follow when they contradict, like animals in science preserve innocent human life says yeah but live peacefully says no