Natural Law

• C.S.Lewis: 'Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil'
• Natural Law


  A man's action, habit or character is good when it is not lacking of what is natural to man, that is, when an act is performed in accordance with man's nature
• Man's endowments


  • Intellect - which makes man capable of thinking, judging, and reasoning
  • Will - gives him the ability to choose
• The Intellect


  Has the power to know, grasp what is good
• The Will


  Has the power to act and tends to it
• Man should behave according to his nature. A nature endowed with intellect and will. He let reason act first before any activity. In other words, "think before acting."
• Behaving otherwise (as in acting out of impulse) would be to run counter of that nature and therefore becoming less of a man and more of an animal
• Principle


  A beginning, a source. A foundational moral principle is therefore a universal norm upon which all other principles on the rightness or wrongness of an action are based. It is the source of morality.
• The moral law is called "natural law" because it is based on our nature as rational beings, not of irrational beings such as animals, plants or other inanimate matter
• Natural Law


  The natural law receives this name not because it refers to the nature of irrational beings, but because the reason that promulgates it is proper to human nature
• Natural Law (according to St. Thomas Aquinas)


  Something appointed by reason, the rational creature's participation in the eternal law
• Eternal Law


  The law that sets out the purpose of all things (final cause) and is issued by the Supreme Being who is the creator of all - God (Efficient Cause)
• When God willed to give existence to creatures, He willed to ordain and direct them to an end. Like all the rest of creation, man is destined by God to an end, and receives from Him a direction towards this end. This ordination is of a character in harmony with his free intelligent nature.
• In virtue of his intelligence and free will, man is a master of his conduct. He can therefore vary his action. He can act, or abstain from action, as he pleases, yet also reflects the law laid down for him of that ordination.
• The rule then, which God has prescribed for our conduct, is found in our nature itself. Those actions which conform with its tendencies, lead to our destined end. Thereby considered right and morally good. Those at variance with our nature are wrong and immoral.
• It is the light of natural reason, whereby we discern what is good and what is evil… an imprint on us of the divine light. … and from that light (of natural reason) comes the FUNDAMENTAL OR FOUNDATIONAL MORAL PRINCIPLE that says: "Do good and avoid evil."
• Writings, customs, and monuments of past and present generations point out to this conclusion: that all peoples on earth, no matter how savage and illiterate, have recognized a supreme law of divine origin commanding good and forbidding evil.
• Natural Law


  • It is universal. It applies to the entire human race, and is in itself the same for all.
  • It is immutable. Since it is founded in the very nature of man and his destination to his end, it follows that, as long as human existence continues, it also cannot cease to exist.
• The immutability of the natural law pertains only to the moral standard as it applies to action in the concrete with all its determinate conditions. For example, in the command THOU SHALL NOT KILL, it doesn't mean that in all circumstances the taking of human life is forbidden. For sometimes it is lawful, and even an obligatory act to take somebody else' life. Herein exists no variation in the law; what the law forbids is not all taking of life, but all "unjust" taking of life.
• Similar observations of other faith

  • Buddhists - do good when they "strive to know the truth; resolve to resist evil; say nothing to hurt others; respect life, morality, and property; engage in a job that does not injure others; strive to free their mind of evil; control their feelings and thoughts; and practice proper forms of concentration."
  • Islamic Koran - "forbids lying, stealing, adultery, and murder." Advocates "honor for parents, kindness to slaves, protection for the orphaned and the widowed, and charity to the poor. It teaches virtues of faith in God, patience, kindness, honesty, industry, honor, courage, and generosity. Condemns mistrust, impatience, and cruelty."
  • Kung-fu-tsu - "Do not do to others what you do not like others to do to you."
• Natural law is the one to which all other man's obligation is attached. Along with its most loyal advocate, namely "conscience," tell us that, we are bound to accept and obey the supernatural precepts.
• The natural law is the foundation of all human law inasmuch as it ordains that man shall live in Society.
• Society on the other hand requires the existence of an authority. Authority then shall possess the moral power necessary to control the members and direct them to the common good.
• Human laws are valid and equitable only in so far as they correspond with, and enforce or supplement the natural law. They are null and void when they conflict with it.
• Human actions are the subjects of laws. They are individual and innumerable. Because of that, it is impossible to establish any law that may not sometimes work out unjustly. In passing laws, legislators attends only to what commonly happens.
• In such cases, it is bad to follow the law. It is good to set aside its letter and follow the dictates of justice and the common good.