Natural moral law

• Strengths of natural law theory

  • It is a universal theory of ethics that can be applied to any circumstance
  • It gives us clear guidelines that are universally applicable
  • It can unite cultures and religious traditions because we can all work out moral precepts through the use of reason
  • The values that Aquinas focuses on, such as education and preserving the species, are (with a few exceptions) universal
  • Aquinas wants to unite faith and reason and he sees religious teachings as fundamentally rational because they are derived from an understanding of God's true nature
  • It doesn't presuppose a belief in God: we work out what is moral using reason and through looking at the world, so in that sense it is objective
• What type of moral argument is natural moral law

  - often described as being deontological

  - would not have been particularly appropriate for Aquinas

  - since the use of 'deontological' dates from the twentieth century and Aquinas does pay attention to situations. Moreover, natural moral law can operate equally well in a non-religious context, so it is difficult to attach labels to natural moral law in general
• What did Aristotle believe?

  Our distinctive feature is ability to reason

  This allows us to discover our human purpose.

  
  

  Goodness is something fulfilling its purpose. To be a good person is to have a good chaacter, achieved by habit of practicing the virtues as a way of life

  
• How does Aquinas divide law

  - eternal law

  - divine law

  - natural moral law

  - human law

  
• What is eternal law?

  laws that exist within creation because God put them there from his nature as creator.

  
  

  Humans must live a life based on that order because we all share a "common human nature"
• What is divine law

  revealed principles of morality from God in special revelation and through church teachings e.g. the Bible - 10 commandments, sermon on the mount,
• What is human law

  formulated by humans , based on the above 3 types of law. Should not contradict natural moral law
• What is natural moral law

  it holds that there are rights and moral values that can be understood from human nature, and which can be deduced by human reason alone

  
  

  It is part of eternal law
• What is the guiding principle

  the synderesis rule - that 'good is to be done and pursued and evil is to be avoided'

  
  

  All other precepts of natural moral law are based on the guiding principle in this text.
• What are the primary principles

  1) What we have in common with all substances - every substance seeks the preservation of its own being, according to its nature Natural desire to exist

  
  

  2) What we have in common with animals - belong to natural law "which nature has taught to all animals " like reproduce, - education and care of offspring

  
  

  3) What humans have uniquely as rational beings: To worship, To live in an ordered society

  
• What is the reason for the primary precepts

  Why we do things and why things are the way they are

  1) Our telos on earth - "human flourishing"

  - it is self-evident that an ordered society gives stable basis for children

  
  

  2) Telos of humanity - not created but in "beatific vision"

  
  

  3) our telos after death
• What are Aristotle's 4 causes?

  1. Efficient cause - what gets things done

  About facts/ descriptions

  2. Final cause - the goal or purpose towards which the thing is directed - telos

  About intentions
• What are the secondary precepts linked to aristotle

  - They must promote the final causes (primary precepts)

  - they are like the efficient cause
• How can Secondary precepts be interpreted

  - some believe they are culturally relative, polygamy is culturally relative to some people but to aquinas it fails

  - for Aquinas precept means "principle", more flexible than law. The closer we get to circumstances, the more variation

  - they are teleological
• How do we avoid making mistakes

  - avoid confusion between real & apparent goods

  - avoid confusion between exterior & interior acts

  -follow virtues

  
• Difference between real and apparent goods

  Apparent goods: We think we are choosing a good, but instead it goes against human perfection (not fulfilling the primary precepts)

  
  

  All humans will good but become confused

  e.g. adultery
• Difference between interior and exterior acts

  interior: The good intention or motive behind the act, which must be good and a good act

  
  

  Exterior: to act in a good way but with bad intention

  
  

  e.g. money to charity
• How do we follow real good

  - morally essential to cultivate virtues

  - Aristotle: to be a good person is to have a good character, achieved by habit
• What are the 4 cardinal virtues?

  - Prudence - cautiousness, practical wisdom, ability to understand and act on situation, through experience

  - Temperance - self-restraint

  - Fortitude - courage.

  - Justice
• Who recognises the virtues

  The catechism of the catholic church - the 7 virtues

  "The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity"
• What is the principal of double effect for


  to avoid mistakes in moral reasoning in difficult cases
• What are the 4 conditions for double effect

  The nature of the act conditionThe action must either bemorally good or indifferent/ neutral.Acts such as lying or intentionally killing an innocent are never morally permissible

  The means-endThe bad effect mustnot be the means by which the good effect is achieved

  The right-intention conditionThe intention must only beto achieve the good effectThe bad effect must be only an unintended and unseen side-effectIf the bad effect is a means of bringing about the good effect, then the act is immoralThe bad effect may be foreseen but is not intended

  The proportionalityThe good effect must at least be equivalent in importance to the bad effect
• Double -effect example

  terminally-ill patient morphine death

  
  

  The nature: the act is administering morphine to relieve so is good

  
  

  The means-end: the bad effect (earlier death) is not the means by which the good effect is achieved

  
  

  The right-intention: the doctor's intention is only to relieve the sufferer's pain

  
  

  The proportionality: good effect - relief of pain over a period is equivalent in importance
• Cons of principal of double effect

  - it depends if you "foresee" or not

  - doesn't matter what intentions are: good act has good consequences, bad act has bad consequences

  - stuff should be judged by results: saving a million for 1 life

  - counter-intuitive
• What is the "foresee" example

  - Suicide is forbidden in natural moral law

  - a soldier who saves people by going on grenade

  - by intending death it is bad means to end

  - he must merely foresee that act will bring about consequence

  - would he really think like that or would he think of it as self-sacrficie
• How is double effect counter intuitive

  not lawful to tell a lie to save someone but this goes against intuition to save someone's life

  
  

  It is prudent to withold a truth
• What is the catholic interpretation of nml

  for Aquinas the virtues were as important as obligations and rules

  
  

  the Catholic Church gives greater importance to moral rules which had priority

  
• How did deontological nml evolve

  - in 17th century, preference for a morality of obligation led catholic scholars, especially jesuits, to write manuals of theology

  - for use in seminaries

  - gave examples of cases the clergy could refer to decide what to do in situations

  - books of case law "casuistry"
• What is a cristism of catholic manualism

  - its casuistry is too concerned with rules and not enough with justice

  - forgets principles and virtues

  - forgot Aquinas' virtues

  - narrowing of scope of nml
• How has modern manualism developed

  - more flexible

  - renewal of interest in virtue ethics, reminding catholics root of virtue theory

  - catechism includes cardinal and theological virtues

  - catholic theologians accept proportionalism
• What/ when/ who was the catechism written

  1992 by Pope John Paul ii as summary of beliefs for the catholic faithful, includes reference to both cardinal and theological virtues
• Who worked on proportionalism

  German scholar, peter knauer, whose work was reviewed by McCormick

  
  

  Bernard Hoose surveys it "It is never right to go against a principle unless there is a proportionate reason which would justify it

  
  

  Vardy and Grosch continue it
• What is principle of proportionalism

  "natural law should never be ignored unless it is absolutely clear" that proportionate reasons exist, it would be right to ignore the rule in that situation

  
• When would Aquinas view it permissible to be proportonalist

  - starving man stealing to save his life

  - present remedied by whatever means at hand

  - "lawful for man to succor his own need by mean's" of stealing
• What would Aquinas not allow as a proportionalist

  Telling a lie to save someone from death "it is not allowed to make use of anything inordinate in order to ward off injury or defects from another"

  
  

  However, you can tell a "misleading truth" - not directly lying but just telling them not what they want to hear
• What is an act where you don't consider the intention

  "ontic" "Phyiscal" or " pre-moral" goodness of an act, not its morality

  
  

  act of abortion is pre-moral
• What is proportionalist account of moral law?

  - the intention of moral agent must be considered

  - acts become good or bad when you consider proportion of value to disvalue in act and intention

  - no acts r intrinsically evil
• What is an example of proportionalism

  The physical act of abortion isn't intrinsically evil. We can only find out whether abortion is morally right or wrong by looking at the value / disvalue of the abortion and at the agent's intention in wanting to bring about an abortion in that situation.
• What are strengths of proportionalism

  - been around for long time so if fairly robust

  - it is based on common sense

  - it is a wide one, used outside natural moral law
• What are weaknesses of proportionalism

  - it denies any action can be evil

  - it looks very consequentialist: how can we make accurate predictions about value. It descends to moral guessowrk to calculation of good and evil, authority of nml is lost