Ethics – Natural law – St Thomas Aquinas – Precepts

• Natural law

  Aquinas believed that humans naturally want to do good and through their ability to reason can work out the correct course of actions
• Aquinas' five primary precepts

  • Preservation of life - to defend and protect human life
  • Ordered society - to live in a lawful society following the primary precepts
  • Worship God - pray to God who gives the eternal law
  • Education - to learn and teach about God and his law
  • Reproduce - to continue God's creation
• Deciding whether an action is right or wrong

  1. Uphold the primary precepts

  2. Use reasoning to create a secondary precept
• Secondary precept

  Application of natural law to a situation
• Secondary precepts vary depending on the situation, but they will always uphold the primary precepts
• Absolute wrongs in Catholicism

  • Killing of any kind is always wrong because it breaks the primary precept of preservation of life
  • Catholic church teaches that homosexuality is wrong as it cannot lead to the primary precept of reproduction
  • Artificial contraception is wrong as it prevents the primary precept of reproduction