natural moral law

• aquinas believed all people were created by god and ultimately would be returned to him and people can use reason to achieve perfection.
• the four fold division of law is divine law, eternal law, natural law and human law
• eternal law


  law which come's from god's nature as the creator

  god is the creator, the universe and nature reflect the principles of the natural and moral order which is the blueprint in the mind of god

  humans share a common human nature
• divine law


  principles revealed to humans through divine law found in special revelation and church teachings
• natural law

  human reason, not revelation
• human law

  from natural law we form human laws
• real and apparent goods

  all humans will the good, but we can get confused
• interior and exterior acts

  exterior acts are only good if accompanied by a good interior intention
• human telos

  human flourishing

  happiness is only found in a beatific vision of god that is promised in the next life
• five primary precepts

  1. preserve innocent human life
  2. reproduce
  3. educate and nurture the young
  4. live peacefully in an ordered society
  5. worship god
• secondary precepts are rules developed from the five primary precepts
• doctrine of double effect is a principle which helps to avoid mistakes in moral reasoning in difficult cases
• aquinas argued that killing in self defense is justified so long as the killing is unintentional but an unavoidable result of the amount of force necessary to save your own life
• pojman

  humanity has an essentially rational nature, and reason can discover the right action in every situation by following an appropriate exceptionless principle
• four conditions of double effect

  nature of the act, means end, right intention and proportionality
• nature of the act - action must be morally good or neutral
• means end - bad effect cannot be the means in which the good effect is achieved
• right intention - intention must only be to achieve the good effect and the bad effect must be an unintended side effect.
• proportionality - good effect must be at least equivalent in importance to the bad effect
• proportionalism holds there are certain moral rules that it can never be right to go against unless there's a proportionate reason to justify it
• proportionalism

  where proportionate reasons exist, it would be right to ignore the rule in that situation
• modern proportionalism

  moral agents intention must be considered, if ignored you can only determine the ontic of the act an not its morality, acts become morally good or bad when yo consider the proportion of value to disvalue in the act and the agents intention

  no acts are intrinsically evil
• strengths of natural moral law

  clear cut approach and provides clear guidance

  • does proportionalism ruin this?

  accessible to everyone

  concentrates on human character

  flexible
• weaknesses of natural moral law

  barth argues that is relies too much on reason and not enough revelation

  • shut up silly fideist its okay to be rational

  gives the wrong answers in situations like sexual ethics