Ethics (topic 2 only)

• FOUR TYPES OF LAW ACCORDING TO ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

  • Eternal Law
  • Natural Law
  • Human Law
  • Divine Law
• Eternal Law


  • Laws that govern the nature of the eternal universe
  • Laws that the almighty infused in human beings to direct his actions
  • Laws that direct the events in the universe
  • Identical to the mind of God as seen by God himself
• Natural Law


  • Laws that flow from the eternal law
  • Laws that govern the behavior of human beings for them to achieve eternal salvation
  • Contains the fundamentals of morality using reason
  • Inherent in people and not created by society or court judges
  • Universal moral standards that should form the basis of a just society
• Human Law


  • Laws based on customs which tend to vary from place to place relative to the society which developed them
  • A just law is made by man to exemplify the moral law or the law of God
  • In many instances, human laws are unjust
  • An unjust law is not based on the eternal law and natural law
• Human Law


  • Are human abortions and animals experiments just or unjust?
• Human Law


  • Directed towards the common good
  • Instruments in the promotion of virtue
  • Adapted to the nature of the community and the classes of individuals who make up the society
  • Not obliged to repress all vices, aimed at the more grievous vices
  • Subject to change based on experience in practical matters
• Aristotle saw history as cyclical, while Aquinas has an essentially linear notion of history
• Respect for the law is largely a matter of custom or habit, and essential changes undermine this custom
• Divine Law


  • Laws concerned with standards that must be satisfied by man to achieve eternal salvation
  • Only made known through the revelations in the Holy Scriptures
  • Divided into the Old Law and the New Law
  • Old Law commands conduct externally and promises earthly rewards
  • New Law commands internal conduct and promises heavenly reward
• St. Thomas Aquinas


  An Italian Dominican priest, considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Medieval Era
• St. Thomas Aquinas' philosophy

  • Combines the theological principles of faith and the philosophical principles of reason
  • Believes Revelation could guide reason and reason could clarify faith
• Moral philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas

  Involves a merger of Aristotelian eudaimonism and Christian theology
• Aristotelian eudaimonism


  • An act is good or bad depending on whether it contributes to or deters us from our proper human end-the telos or final goal at which all human actions aim
  • Happiness is understood in terms of completion, perfection, or well-being
  • Achieving happiness requires a range of intellectual and moral virtues
• Christian theology in Aquinas' philosophy

  • We can never achieve complete or final happiness in this life
  • Final happiness consists in beatitude or supernatural union with God
  • We inherited a propensity to sin from our first parent, Adam
  • Our nature is diminished by sin's stain, as evidenced by the fact that our wills are at enmity with God's
  • We need God's grace in the form of divinely instantiated virtues and gifts to restore the good of our nature and bring us into conformity with his will
• Aquinas believes that we need the virtues and also need God to transform our nature-to perfect or "deify" it-so that we might be suited to participate in divine beatitude
• Eternal Law


  Laws that govern the nature of the eternal universe, that the almighty infused in human beings to direct his actions and also the laws that direct the events in the universe
• Eternal law


  Identical to the mind of God as seen by God himself, can be called law because God stands to the universe which he creates as a ruler does to a community which he rules, God's reason considered in its unchanging, eternal nature
• Natural Law


  Laws that flow from the eternal law and govern the behavior of human beings for them to achieve eternal salvation, contains the fundamentals of morality using reasons
• Natural law


  • A theory in ethics and philosophy that says human beings possess intrinsic values that govern our reasoning and behavior, these rules of right and wrong are inherent in people and not created by society or court judges, there are universal moral standards inherent in humankind throughout all time that should form the basis of a just society, human beings "discover" natural law by consistently making choices for good instead of evil, may be passed to humans via a divine presence, used extensively in theoretical economics
• Human Law


  Laws based on custom which tend to vary from place to place relative to the society which developed them
• Just law


  Made by man to exemplify the moral law or the law of God
• In many instances, human laws are unjust
• An unjust law according to St. Thomas, is not based on the eternal law and natural law</b>
• Human laws


  Laws devised by human reason adapted to particular geographical, historical and social circumstances
• Law


  • Directed to the common good
  • Promotion of virtue is necessary for the common good
  • Instruments in the promotion of virtue
• Aristotle pointed out that most people are kept from crime by fear of the law
• Thomas accepts this judgment, suggesting that by coercion even men who are evilly disposed may be led in the direction of virtue
• Lawmakers


  • It is easier to find a few wise persons who can make good laws than to find many who, in the absence of laws, can judge correctly in each instance
  • Can deliberate at length before making laws while many particular cases must be judged quickly, when they arise
  • Judge in the abstract and are less likely to be swayed by emotions evoked by concrete circumstances or by the kinds of things that tend to corruption
  • There is less danger of perversion of law, which is formulated in general, than there would be perversion of judgment in particular cases where no law exists to guide judgment
• Even though laws are general, they are still adapted to the nature of the community, which is not everywhere the same, and to the classes of individuals who make up the society
• There may be different laws for different kinds of citizens, who have different functions in the community
• All human laws worthy of the name laws are directed towards the common good
• Even specific laws, say, for merchants, are general in some way: that they go farther than a single case
• The human law, says Thomas, is not obliged to repress all vices
• The human law is framed for most people, who are far from perfect in virtue
• The human law is aimed at the more grievous vices from which the majority can abstain
• Divine Law


  Laws concerned with standards that must be satisfied by man to achieve eternal salvation and is only made known through the revelations in the Holy Scriptures
• Divine law


  Derived from eternal law as it appears historically to humans, especially through revelation, i.e., when it appears to human beings as divine commands
• Divine law


  • Old Law
  • New Law
• Old Law


  Commands conduct externally, reaches humans through their capacity for fear, promises earthly rewards (social peace and its benefits)
• New Law


  Commands internal conduct, reaches humans by the example of divine love, promises heavenly reward