natural moral law

• natural moral law is a deontological system
• Aquinas derived NML
• deontological systems are based on duty and obligation
• there are four different types of law: eternal, divine, natural and human
• eternal law is the law of God, which humans cannot fully know. it comes from God's nature as the creator
• divine law refers the law of God revealed to people through special revelation e.g. Bible
• natural law is discovered through human reason. Aquinas sees it as a part of God's eternal law
• human law refers to every day rules that govern our lives e.g. the legal system, a sign that says "wet paint, do not touch". this should not contradict natural law
• the five primary precepts: preservation of life, reproduction, education of the young, worship of God and ordered society
• eudaimonia refers to flourishing and thriving
• the secondary precepts are derived from the primary precepts
• a 'real' good is a characteristic which helps people become closer to God
• an 'apparent' good is a sin that takes people away from God
• we can distinguish between real and apparent good using our reason
• an interior act refers to the intention behind an act
• an exterior act refers to the act that is performed
• there are four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance
• there are three revealed virtues: faith, hope and love
• doctrine of double effect: sometimes it is right to do a good act, knowing it will have unintentional bad consequences
• factors to consider when applying DDE: nature of the act, means-end, right-intention and proportionality
• DDE is important as it avoids problems with conflicting secondary precepts
• manualism is a tradition in the Catholic Church of producing manuals for use in seminaries in order to train the clergy in applying NML to different cases
• Catholic Manualist interpretation of NML focuses obligation + rules, omitting Aquinas' account of virtues - which he saw as equally important to obligation
• proportionalism originated among Catholic scholars in Europe + America
• Richard A. McCormick is credited for reshaping the Catholic moral thinking
• to determine whether an act is permissible through proportionalism: the intention should be considered + the proportion of value to disvalue
• proportionalists believe there are no intrinsically evil acts
• Bernard Hoose's view on NML was that he did not believe it to be absolutely binding; sometimes a situation will demand putting aside NML for the sake of the greater, proportionate good