FINALS2

• Thomas Aquinas


  • An intellectual and religious revolutionary, living at a time of great philosophical, theological and scientific development
  • An Italian Dominican friar and priest, an influential philosopher and theologian
  • A prominent proponent of natural theology and the father of a school of thought (encompassing both theology and philosophy) known as Thomism
• Aquinas argued that God is the source of the light of natural reason and the light of faith
• Aquinas wrote an incredible amount - in fact one of the miracles accredited to him was the amount he wrote!
• Aquinas's most famous work is Summa Theologica and this runs to some three and half thousand pages and contains many fascinating and profound insights, such as proofs for God's existence
• The Summa Theologica remained a fundamental basis for Catholic thinking right up to the 1960s
• Divine Command Theory (DCT)


  The view that what is right and wrong is determined by what God commands and forbids
• Euthyphro dilemma


  A challenge to the Divine Command Theory, which asks whether something is right because God commands it, or whether God commands it because it is right
• Aquinas's Natural Law Theory

  • Contains four different types of law: Eternal Law, Natural Law, Human Law and Divine Law
• Eternal Law


  God's rational purpose and plan for all things, which has always and will always exist
• Natural Law


  The overarching general rules (primary precepts) that we can discover through reason, which are absolute and binding on all rational agents
• Human Law


  The secondary precepts that are imposed by governments, groups, clubs, societies etc., which may or may not be consistent with Natural Law
• Divine Law


  The rules given by God, which are discovered through revelation, and are found in scripture (e.g. the ten commandments)
• Utilitarianism


  An ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on outcomes, with the most ethical choice being the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number
• Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism
• Utilitarianism starts from the basis that pleasure and happiness are intrinsically valuable, and that pain and suffering are intrinsically invaluable
• Hedonistic Utilitarianism


  A type of Utilitarianism that focuses on happiness or pleasure as the ultimate end of moral decisions
• Origins of Utilitarianism


  • Epicureanism
  • David Hume
  • Edmund Burke
  • Jeremy Bentham
  • Joseph Priestley
  • James Mill
  • John Stuart Mill
• Utilitarianism Advantages


  • It is a universal concept that all of us can understand
  • You don't need to practice a religion to benefit from this process
  • Utilitarianism follows democratic principles
  • It uses an objective process to decide what is right or wrong
  • This process is one that is very easy to use
  • Utilitarianism works with our natural intuition
  • It bases everything on the concept of happiness
• Utilitarianism Disadvantages


  • Society does not solely focus on happiness when making choices
  • The ends never really justify the means when considering happiness
  • Outcomes are unpredictable when dealing with the future
  • Happiness is something that is subjective
  • It forces you to rely on everyone else following the same moral code
  • Utilitarianism doesn't focus on the act itself to form judgments
  • You cannot measure happiness in tangible ways
  • It would allow the majority of society to always dictate outcomes